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Side-Wheeled Paddle Steamers
Cuxhaven (ex - Willkommen, ex - Plymouth
Belle)
Above
: A public domain post card view of Willkommen. German deep-sea
operators Hamburg-Amerika line clearly thought that a British-built
coastal steamer would be ideal for their more localised sailings to the
German resort islands of Helgoland in the North Sea given that she had
been used in similar circumstances sailing out of Plymouth to the
Scilly Isles and Channel Isles. Only four years old when she moved to
Germany, it was the first paddle stemaer they had bought for
twenty-sever years and also their last (although they inherited two on
taking over the business of Albert Ballin in 1904)
Launched in April 1895 by J
Scott & Co at Kinghorn, Fife
Engines : Compound Diagonal 31 x 60 in x 60 in
Dimensions : 67.2 x 7.9 metres
654 Gross Registered Tons
Large steamer ordered by the
Plymouth Belle Steamship Co for cruising out of Plymouth, South
Devon
Spent her first season on long cruises to the Channel Isles and Isles
of Scilly with little financial success.
On charter to Mr R Collard, sailing from the Sussex piers on
England's South Coast
Purchased by the Hamburg-Amerika line (HAPAG) of Germany in October
1899.
Renamed Willkommen and put on the Hamburg to Helgoland route.
Ferried tourists to the North Sea island beach resorts for HAPAG
until 1924
From October 13th 1924 she sailed for the Hamburg-Stade-Altlander
linie on the lower River Elbe as Cuxhaven
Latterly owned by the Hafen-Dampfschiffahrsts-AG (HADAG), she was
withdrawn in 1929 and returned to the UK for scrapping
Return
to
South Devon /
Plymouth Belle Steamship Co
Richard Collard
German North Sea Coast
HAPAG
British Paddle Steamer
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