Built as a paddlesteamer by Ùstecka Lod Ùsti (Aussiger Schiffwerft Aussig) and designed by Mr. Huss an engineer. Built for Osobini Lodni Doprava v Praze (OSD) at Prague.
01 May 1938 launched under the name ANTONIN SVEHLA.
Dim. 62.0 x 5.6m over paddles 10.5m.
One compound diagonal 2 cyl. engine, 220 hp., manufactured by Ceskomoravska Kolben Danek (CDK) of
Prague.
Passengers 885.
First was it the intention to use her on the Elbe, but when Germany annexed Sudutenland in 1938, she never was used there in the passenger service. Used in the service on the River Vltava and Elbe as far as Dresden.
1942 Renamed KARLSTEIN.
During 1944 used as floating soup kitchen in the bombed German town Dresden.
1945 renamed T.G. MASARYK and in 1952 DEVIN.
1961 Major rebuilt by Ceskoslovenska Plavba Labsko Oderska (CSPLO), shipyard at Boletice.
1971 Converted to oil firing.
Mostly during that time used in the service upstreams from Prague to Slapy. Through a deep gorge section of the Vltava, she has to pass many locks to reach the Slapy dams.
During the summer season she made two voyages daily to Slapy.
Between 1990 and 1992 not in use.
1992 After reconstruction and mostly complete rebuilt, her boiler replaced with a new one. A new wheelhouse. She now is in use as a restaurant-vessel, with place for 199 passengers, maximum 300 during nice summer days, has 3 restaurants, bar, a little salon and a sundeck.
Renamed in VYSEHRAD and owned by Prazska Paroplavebni Spolecnost, a.s., at Prague.
2003 Still in use under the same name.
Gambia 1992 1d25 sg1334, scott1257.
Steam Ships of Europe by Alistair Deayton. http://www.paraplavba.cz/lode2_vysehrad_en.shtml
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/tramways/Vysehrad2.htm
auke palmhof.
The paddle steamer Vyšehrad was built in 1938 under the name Antonín Švehla. It was later renamed Karlstein (1942), T.G. Masaryk (1945), Děvín (1952) and Vyšehrad (1992). She is one of the last two remaining operating large paddle steamers on the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic and belongs to the Prague Steamboat Company. In 2013, the Czech Ministry of Culture placed it on the list of national cultural heritage.
The steamer was built in 1938 by the shipbuilding and woodworking company in Ústí nad Labem. The company’s general manager was the chief designer and the machinery was supplied by ČKD Prague. She was one of the four large steamers commissioned by the Prague Steamboat Company during the modernisation of its fleet in the 1930s, when new boats were being bought and old ones modernised. Type-wise, the first two steamers, the Dr. Edvard Beneš (renamed Labe from 1939) and the Antonín Švehla (today’s Vyšehrad) were inspired by the then a decade old salon steamships Dresden and Leipzig built for the Dresden-based SBDA in 1926 and 1929, respectively. Each of the new Czech steamers cost 2.5 million Czech crowns.
The Vyšehrad was launched during a ceremony attended by the minister of industry, business and trades on 1 May 1938. In 1980, the steam boiler was converted into a liquid fuel (light fuel oil) fired boiler in the Prague-Smíchov works. In 1992, at the same time as the Vltava steamer, the Vyšehrad was completely renovated in the Boletice-based ČSPLO works and converted into a restaurant salon boat. The original steam engine has been preserved but the steam boiler was replaced. At a launching ceremony held on 13 August 1992, the renovated steamer was renamed Vyšehrad. The plating of the boat was replaced during the latest reconstruction in the Dresden-Laubegast shipyard in the winter of 2006-2007.
The Vyšehrad is 62 m long and 6.2 m wide (10.5 m over the paddleboxes). Her installed power is 165 kW (220 hp) at 42 rpm. Originally she could carry 885 passengers; nowadays it is 300 and 199 of them can be seated. The maximum speed boasted in a contemporary advertisement was 20 km/h, but the actual maximum speed in calm water was about 17 km/h.
At first, both salon steamers were used on a route between Prague and Vrané nad Vltavou. During the first 70-day season, they carried an average 150 passengers during one cruise. In 1939, the top covers on the upper deck were removed to ease the passage through some lower profiles, such as under the railway bridges in Skochovice and Štvanice.
During World War II, the steamer was confiscated and served in Dresden as a field kitchen for refugees fleeing the Red Army. After the war, she was returned to Prague. In the 1970, the two salon steamers were used on the route between Prague and Štěchovice as regular boats. Since the 1992 reconstruction, the Vyšehrad has been used mainly as a restaurant boat and a boat for private cruises, but it can also be used by the general public on the routes between Prague and Slapy and Prague and Mělník several times a year.
Czech Republic 2016 kc27 sg?, scott?
https://www.ceskaposta.cz/en/sluzby/fil ... .mode=view