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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
River
Rhein,
Germany
Cecilie (ex- Kronprinzessin Cecilie)
Above : Cecilie in an official photograph from the archive of the Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt AG
Available under CC Licence : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en
Built in 1910 by Gebruder Sachsenberg at Koln-Deutz
Length : 77.8 m
Displacement : 437 tonnes
Engines : Compound diagonal by Sachsenberg at Rosslau
Entered
service in 1910 as "Kronprinzessin Cecilie" - the name she bore until
she re-entered service in 1950 following reconstruction after damage in
World War II. She had been sunk at Mannheim after an air raid on
January 13th 1945 and lay sunken until raised in 1947 and transported
to Dusseldorf. She was moved to the Berninghaus yard at Cologne for
rebuilding.
Cecilie was laid-up and put in reserve after the
1966 season and served as replacement for the damaged Goethe in June
and July of 1967. Her return to regular service came as a result of
the unfortunate loss through fire of the steamer Frieden on February
23rd 1968 at Cologne and she served for seven more summers until laid
up at the harbour in Cologne-Niehl and finally withdrawn from the
fleet in 1975. She was sold to the Dutch shipbreaker Arie Rijsdidijk,
Boss & Zoonen in 1983 and on December 8th of that year began her
last journey under tow to Hendrik-ido-Ambacht. The engine, paddle
wheels and centre section of the ship were sold to a private collector
in Berlin. In 1995 a group purchased the engines and moved them to the
Laubegast shipyard at Dresden with the intention of building a new but
historically accurate "Cecilie". The project did not succeed and the
engines were eventually sold on to Dutch entrpreneur and steam
preservationist Klemens Key in 2000. Key had earlier bought the Rhine
steamer Rudesheim and was operating her out of Rotterdam as "de
Majesteit". The original intention was to use the engines in a new
ship using the old hull of "Hansa" which remained in poor condition in
Cologne but that project never materialised.
Above : As built. Photo dhown with the kind permission of Markus Graf
Above : Early years. Photo shown with the kind permission of Markus Graf
Above : 1930s. Photo swown with the kind permission of Markus Graf
Above : Cecilie at Bonn in a post card view (Kruger 936/12) sent to webmaster Gordon Stewart in 1970
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