DIE WESER paddle steamer 1817

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aukepalmhof
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DIE WESER paddle steamer 1817

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon May 29, 2017 8:22 pm

The paddlesteamer was built under yard No 30 by Johann Lange, Grohn near Vegesack Germany for Friedrich Schröder.
30 December 1816 launched as the DIE WESER.
Dimensions: 23.72 x 4.17 x 0,76m. (maximum draught.)
Steam engine, 14 hp, speed 5.5 kn, (10 km/h)
Passenger accommodation for 60 -80 persons.
Crew 4
06 May 1817 in service.

The paddle steamer DIE WESER was put into operation on May 6, 1817 and is the first steamship built by a German ship builder and operated by a German shipowner. It sailed between the years 1817 and 1833 in a service between Bremen and Brake. From 1827 onwards, the ship was used in the service from Bremen via Brake to Geestemünde .
History
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars of 1814, the abolition of the blockade of the German seaports by the British navy in the framework of the continental blockade and the confirmation of Bremen's independence at the Congress of Vienna , the Hansestadt enjoyed a lively upsurge in business and maritime commerce . This was offset by the poor navigation conditions of the Lower Weser by sand slibbing, and the Lower Weser was difficult to navigate by shipping, and the cargo had to be loaded into slow river barges with shallow draft. As a matter of fact, mail and passengers were only able to get to Bremen via the arduous roads.
In this situation, the Bremen merchant Friedrich Schröder developed the idea of using steam vessels on the river Weser to establish a much faster and more comfortable connection via the river. After the first successful use of steamships on the Hudson River between New York and Albany by Robert Fulton in 1807, the possibilities of steam shipping also began to arouse interest in Europe, especially in England and France. Schröder therefore took the decision to apply for a concession for a corresponding enterprise at the Bremen Senate .
With the support of the later Mayor Johann Smidt , the Bremen Senate awarded Schröder a privilege on 18 June 1816 to the operation of steamboats on the Weser River with a duration of 15 years, which was also given by the Wesers -neighbors Oldenburg (for 10 years) and Hannover (for 15 years).
Construction
At first Schroder wanted to buy an existing ship and went to England and Scotland in 1816, accompanied by shipbuilder Johann Lange , engineer Ludwig Georg Treviranus and captain Zacharias Spilcker. However, the search did not produce a satisfactory result, as the size and quality of the inspected vessels did not meet the requirements of the entrepreneur.
Consequently, the decision was made to build a suitable vessel under the direction of Treviranus at the shipyard of Johann Lange (a predecessor of the Bremer Vulkan-Werft ) in Grohn, Germany The necessary machine was ordered from Boulton & Watt , the company of the steam engine pioneer James Watt, in Soho near Birmingham, through the London-based brother-in-law of Schroder, and installed in the ship according to the technical specifications from England. The launch of the ship took place on 30th December 1816, the first trials at the beginning of February 1817.
In order to calm his fellow citizens, who were skeptical about the new technology due to two steam explosions in the USA and England, Engineer Treviranus published a detailed description of the functioning of the built-in steammachine and its special safety devices in the Bremer Zeitung a few days before the ship's maiden voyage.
" The safety valve located on the boiler and the graduated steam gauge are used to safeguard against all danger. In our local steam boat, the maximum expansive force which the steam can obtain is no higher than that of every square inch of boiler pressure, by a force of about 3.5 pounds the safety valve opens. That this force will never be able to dissipate the boiler made of thick plates of the best forged iron, the plates are connected together by strong rivets. There is as yet no example to my knowledge that the boiler of a steam engine operating according to the instructions of Messrs Boulton and Watt have exploded.
- LUDWIG GEORG TREVIRANUS : in the Bremer Zeitung of 1 May 1817
Operation
The maiden voyage of the ship on 6 May 1817 from Vegesack to Bremen, in which numerous dignitaries from Bremen, Oldenburg and Hanover took part, was a great success and took place with lively interest of the local population. This was followed by another special trip for invited guests, which led to Verden on the Aller .
" The enjoyment of the first ascension, which his splendor afforded to me and to the hundred others, was unique and resembled a triumph. Today he [Friedrich Schroeder] with his proudly and gently sleek ship steamed under the bridge through to Verden. "
- AF BARKHAUSEN : to Senator Johann Smidt on May 10, 1817
The three captains of Zacharias Spilcker (1817-1821), Friedrich Wiegmeyer (1822-1831) and Tönjes Steffens (1832-1833) came all three from Bremen. The liner service began on May 20, 1817. The ship left the Wichelnburg near St. Stephani church at seven o'clock in the morning and sailed over to Vegesack and Elsfleth (ten minutes each) to Brake. At 2 pm the return trip to Bremen began. According to a public announcement by Schroder in the Bremer Zeitung of May 18, 1817, the prices were as follows:
Route: From Bremen to Vegesack (or back)
1st Class 0 thaler, 48 grote, 2nd Class 0 thaler, 36 Grote
From Bremen to Elsfleth and Brake (or back)
1st Class 1 thaler, 24 Grote, 2nd Class 1 thaler , 0 grote
Children under 12 years of age half price
During her entire lifetime as steamship the adverse river conditions constantly threatened the profitability of the company. A regular postal and passenger transport service was often ensured only at high water, so that Schröder had to cancel in 1817 a round trip in one day from Bremen to Brake. Instead, DIE WESER sailed in one day with the flood from Bremen to Brake and on the following day again with the flood, back to Bremen. From 1818 onwards, the service from Bremen to Vegesack had to be temporarily closed because, between the confluence of the Ochtum and the Lesum, the sand silting made shipping on the river and navigation particularly dangerous, and the traffic of slow Weser barges was blocked.
For the period from 1817 to 1823, Schröder calculated a loss of 1120 thalers for the company, and the use of a second vessel from 1818 onwards, the steamboat HERZOG VON CAMBRIDGE on the Bremen-Vegesack route, could not change this. The attempt to persuade the state of Bremen to take over the company (or the losses) in 1824 was rejected by the Convoid Assembly with reference to the contractual provisions of the privilege:
" (Mr Schröder has known) the shallows, obstructed heavily the navigability of the Weser River, and has nevertheless set up the steamship company. He wanted the profit alone, so it is normal he will carry also the losses."
- OPINION OF THE CONVOID ASSEMBLY OF 15 MARCH 1824
In the spring of 1826, the Senate raised the privilege of Schroder even from an unknown cause, but this had no further consequences, since it was not until 1834, after the end of Schroeder's enterprise, when Johann Lange’s BREMEN a new steamship on the Unterweser was put into operation.
Between 1817 and 1827, DIE WESER and HERZOG VON CAMBRIDGE (the latter in which he had a small share) transported a total of 83,291 passengers, including 10,000 in the year of commissioning. No figures have been received for the following years up to the time when the ship is being taken out of service. From 1827, with the foundation of Bremerhaven, initiated by Mayor Johann Smidt, the ship also was used in the service to Geestemünde . In 1833 Schröder finally stopped the operation of the ship. It was scrapped soon after his last voyage on 14 November from Brake to Bremen.
Structure and equipment
The dark green-painted ship's hull had a length of 24 and a width of 4.2 meters. The main deck was essentially formed by a gallery protruding laterally over the ship's body, which enlarged the usable beam of the ship to seven meters and gave it a bell-like character.
Above the main deck, the two passenger cabins did give accommodation for a total of 80 people. The foreward accommodated was for the second class, the rear a, restaurant, kitchen, the first-class cabin and the ladies' cabin. In between was the engine room of the ship. The first class was equipped with a high-quality mahogany and upholstered furniture, the second with a much simpler of fir .
The end of the cabin was the upper deck with benches for the passengers. The aftdeck was also covered with a sun tent. Immediately behind the mast, on which a sail could be hoisted, stood the nine-meter-high chimney, which was decorated with a crown-shaped decoration. The chimney and mast could be lowered to make the passage under bridges in Bremen possible. The bow of the ship was formed by a snail-shaped Galion , at the rear a Bremen flag, which was completed width on the inner edge around, the coats of arms of Bremen, Oldenburg and Hanover.
" I boarded the steamship after arriving in the port ( Bremen] and found the most attractive cabin. The cabin is just like a small bedroom, and is furnished with sofas, footcases, mirrors, and even an excellent, select libary. [...] A steam kitchen is also very economically connected with the whole. The deck [top deck] is very spacious and equipped with padded green benches all around. "
- AUGUST KLINGEMANN : PASSENGER of DIE WESER, 1817
Machine and Drive
The low-pressure steam engine from Boulton & Watt was located in the foreward third of the ship. The wrought-iron steam boiler of the machine took the engine's starboard side of the engine room while the steam cylinder was fitted with a condenser, hot water tank, balancer, linkage, and the crankshaft on the port side of the ship.
The boiler had a length of 4.26, a width of 1.21 and a height of 1.92 meters. He had a safety valve, a mercury tube manometer and (presumably) a water level indicator. On the back of the boiler was the coal firing, which led into a flame tube, which ran twice through the entire length of the boiler, before it led into the chimney of thin iron . This had a height of 9.14 and a diameter of 0.55 meters.
The machine produced a working pressure of 0.24 kg / cm and consumed about 118 kg of coal per hour. With 44 strokes (ie 22 revolutions), it brought a power of 14 hp, which was sufficient for a driving speed of 5.5 knots (about 10 km / h). The machine should have had a total weight of almost 16 tonnes (with water in the boiler).
The two side paddle wheels had a diameter of 2.74 meters and were equipped with six blades each with a length of 1.06 meters and a width of 0.38 meters. By means of a mechanical hoist operated by a winch on deck, the dipping depth of the paddle wheels could be adjusted to suit the changing draft of the ship. This was made possible by the fact that the paddle wheels did not sit directly on the main axle but on their own height-adjustable axle, which was driven by gears from the main axle.
Historical classification
DIE WESER is referred to in some sources as the first German steamship. This is, however, only correct with regard to the history of the construction, since already in 1816 two steamboats built and operated by English or Scottish ship builders and entrepreneurs went into operation:
The LADY OF THE LAKE, a ship built by John Gray in the Scottish Kincardine and operated by Peter Kinraid of Glasgow , which sailed from Hamburg to Cuxhaven on June 18, 1816, but was returned to Great Britain in 1817 due to a lack of employment.
The PRINZESSIN CHARLOTTE VON PREUSEN, a ship built by John B. Humphreys in Pichelsdorf near Berlin, which was on the Havel between Berlin and Potsdam from October 27, 1816, was taken out of service in 1819 and scrapped in 1822.
" If one was to be quite correct, one would have to say, 'DIE WESER' was the first German steamship built by a German shipbuilding engineer, which, of course, had an English machine."
- DR. KARL H. Schwebel: Archive Director of the Staatsarchiv Bremen, 24 March 1971
In December 2016, Deutsche Post issued the 70 cent special stamp mark 200 years of the steamship "DIE WESER" , which it recognizes as "one of the first German steamboats" and "pioneer achievement". Of all steamboats used in Germany before 1820, according to the Ministry of Finance, DIE WESER had by far the longest sailing career" (16 ½ years).

On 20 June 2008 in Vegesack a engineless replica of the steamboat was launched in the water. The vessel was built by Bremer Bootsbau Vegesack GmbH (BBV) on the site of the Bremer Vulkan . The construction lasted eight years and cost 407,000 euros. Due to the insolvency of the BBV in 2006, the concept of the ship, which was originally intended to navigate the river like its historical model, had to be revised in order to be able to continue the project at all. At the suggestion of Katja Barloschky of the Bremer Arbeit GmbH , the German youth hostel was integrated into the planning which the ship chartered for five years. Since 26 June 2008, DIE WESER is moored at Ponton 8 on the Schlachte directly in front of the youth hostel Bremen as a "guest ship" with 30 beds.
In addition to the corresponding adjustments in the interior of the ship, the replica also differs in several respects from the historical model: the ship has no paddle wheels (which can later be "retrofitted"), on the deck a cabin was placed (the mast next to the chimney was omitted, at the stern there is an additional outlet to the cabins (instead of the helm) and at the bow the Galion is missing.

Germany 2016 0.70 Euro sg?, scott?
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Weser
Attachments
Die Weser drawing.png
2016 die weser.jpg

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