Paddle Steamer Resources by
Tramscape
The Internet's largest database of
Paddle Steamers past and present
EGYPT
The
River Nile, lifeblood of Egyptian civilisations throughout the
millenia, can still count paddle steamers amongst the numerous
vessels plying its waters.
The river has attracted tourists for many years and Nile cruises take
visitors to some of the greatest archaelogical remains on the earth.
British tourists in the 19th
century were the driving force for the construction of paddle steamers. In 1869,
28 years after organising his first escorted outing to nearby Loughborough in
the English midlands, Leicester-based Thomas Cook, had hired two paddlers for
his tours of the Nile. They went on to built their own hotels and had a virtual
monopoly over the tourist trade in the area. After 1885 they really began to
expand their own fleet and for the 1896 season, the Anglo-American Nile Navigation
Company entered competition as tourists from the USA became particularly numerous.
In the winter of 1905/06 Anglo-American was taken over by the German-owned Hamburg-American
Company along with their steamers Puritan and Mayflower and four others, whilst
a new American concern, the Express Nile Navigation Company entered the market
with their new steamers Virginian and America. The Hamburg company also put
two new steamers on order for introduction the following season as competition
really began to heat up - just as it had done, for example, on the Firth of Clyde
only a few years earlier.
There are very few sources of information
which makes it difficult to give precise information about the exact date of
construction or indeed the avtual builders of the paddle steamers still in existence
in Egypt and old records appear to have been lost. The vessels themselves have
been considerable altered over time, although most have their old machinery
virtually untouched. In one case the engineer's plate displayed clearly does
not relate to the original engine and has been a later addition !
Steamers
tend to be run by tour operating companies on long-term charter from their owners,
so sometimes it is unclear who actually owns them and who markets them each
season - and of course travel agents in many cases arrange cruise holidays on
their own account in association with the lead operator.
Thomas Cook really began to develop their fleet after 1885
and two side-wheel paddle steamers from their fleet remain :
SUDAN
Most websites regard this paddle steamer
as built shortly after 1885 as per the history on the SS Sudan website and most
reporters have used this information for their work . However, the Clydebuilt website, a very
authoritative source for all Clyde-built ships, lists SS Sudan as having been
built by Bow, McLachlan at Paisley, Scotland in 1921 and this is more likely
to be the case.
Cook's ships would have been supplied in parts and reassembled
on the Nile, probably at Bulak.
Out of service for
many years, she was chosen by two enterprising entrepreneurs for restoration
and returned to service in 2001. Sailing between Luxor and Aswan, she has 18 cabins on the upper deck and 5 suites on the main deck forward.
Engines
: Triple Expansion (17, 26 and 43 inches x 48 inches stroke). She
has been given auxiliary diesel-driven screw propulsion (Schottel unit at the
stern) especially useful for short movements when idle at Luxor or Aswan.
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Has
been owned by Set First Cruises but no longer appears to be so - and the vessel
now has its own website : Website
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Above : Sudan in January 2008. Photo by Mr
Michael Gwyther-Jones
displayed under the Creative
Commons 2.0 terms for use as approved by the photographer when displayed
on the Flickr photosharing website. Original
source URL. Not to be further copied unless terms on the CC 2.0 are complied
with. Many thanks Mr Gwyther-Jones for making your photo available. |
MEMNON
was possibly built in the first decade of
the 20th century.
Appears to be in the fleet of Seti First Cruises by as
at Jan 2009 their website is showing her as out of service for refurbishment
The British Army, still in Egypt after World War I brought
over some paddlers - one of which became a Royal Yacht, and now a luxury river
cruiser.
KARIM, is a
steam-fired paddler, built in 1917. She is understood to have been built to
a design of the Lytham Shipbuilding & Engineering Co for use
on the Rivers Tigris and Eurphrates in Baghdad for the British Army.
A number of vessels were sent to Iraq, but possibly six (one of
which which became Karim), went for use in Egypt instead. Soon afterwards
she was used by the then Sultan, later King Fuad
I of Egypt and later by his son and, after the republican revolution, state presidents.
She has been in regular passenger service for public cruises
since refurbishment in 1991. The 45.8
metre long vessel has 15 luxury cabins and is equipped for 30
passengers. Her normal schedule is for 7-night cruises from Luxor to
the Aswan Dam at Lake Nasser and is operated by local company Spring Tours and
marketed worldwide by Voyages Jules Verne.
She has stern-placed side wheels, the so-called "quarter-wheel"
arrangement, which can be operated independently and are driven
by two compound engines.
Photo kindly supplied by Mr Morsi Shehata, General
manager of Spring Tours
Click here for
more photos of PS Karim
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One other former
British army stern-wheel paddle
steamer looked like it may have a good future - but perhaps not ......
IBIS was built
1886 by Fairfirld at Govan, Glasgow for the British Expeditionary force in Egypt
which was sent to relieve Major-General Gordon under siege in Khartoum in the
Sudan. Her engines bear the plate of John Elder, also located at Govan, whose
business ended in 1885 just as Fairfields established theirs on the Govan site.
Spent many years on the
Wadi Haifa to Aswan run after conversion to a passenger steamer. Was understood to be under refit for a future cruising
role (as at 2004) but this appears to have been deferred and she remains laid
up at Cairo.
One paddler is still operational but has been
moved to Cairo and decked out as a Chinese Restaurant
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TIME MACHINE (ex Mahasen and understood
to have been buit in 1906) no longer offers the long run to
Aswan and is now based in Cairo, tied up for much of the time as a
Chinese Restaurant named "Nile Peking", but offering regular dinner
cruises. She appears to be heavily rebuilt, with large ports
replacing her cabin windows and with two Chinese-style buildings
featuring red tiled roofs on her upper deck.
Right : Time Machine in 1996. Photo kindly supplied by Trevor Batchelor
Click here for more
photos by Trevor Batchelor
PS
Nile Peking (ex-Time Machine, ex-Mahasen) website
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The Anglo-American Nile Navigation Comapany were
the first main competitiors to Thomas Cook and two old stern-wheelers survive
from their fleet
NIAGARA and INDIANA
appear to have been built in 1897 and are currently out of use
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Paddle Steamers were particularly useful in wartime as well as
for the peace-time tourist trade on the Nile. They were commandeered
during the First World War as troop ships, general transports
and hospital ships and many were employed on the Sues canal. Niagara
(left) was one such paddler and she is seen here loading wounded
soldiers
Photo kindly supplied by Steve Butler of the New
Zealand Mounted Rifles Association, and also displayed on the NZMRA
website
.
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EXTERNAL WEBSITE LINKS
For more about the Nile's magnificent tourist attractions
and wonderful history, please visit the Luxor
On-Line website where there is also report
about and pictures of Nile paddlers
Other useful internet links
:
Spring Tours : owners of SS Karim
(SS Karim Page) (Company
Homepage)
SS
Karim
: Voyages Jules Verne (International Marketing Agent's Karim Cruises Webpage)
PS
Sudan
Seti
First Cruises (for PS Memnon)
PS
Nile Peking (ex-Time Machine, ex-Mahasen)
Kasr
Ibrim and Eugenie
CAN YOU HELP WITH THIS DATABASE ?
The webmaster would be delighted to receive any updates of relevant information
and photographs (of which you own copyright) which could help to keep this database
as up-to-date as possible and fill in gaps in the historical record.
I
know that many of you will have photographs of paddle steamers on the internet
on photo-sharing websites such as Picasa and Flickr. No photos are used on this
website unless they were taken by the webmaster or someone who has given express
permission for their own photos to be used. However, some photos from Flickr
etc may be used so long a the copyright tag (Creative Commons etc) allocated
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