The English founders of shipping on Lake Traunsee

England, nucleus of the industrial revolution

In 1820, a steam engine was installed in a ship for the first time in the English West Midlands.

Inland shipping on the European mainland appeared to be an extremely lucrative opportunity to exploit this new technology. Both salt and passenger transport were envisaged.

John Andrews and Joseph Prichard obtained a concession for a shipping company in the Danube Monarchy in 1829. The Erste k.k. privilegierte Donau-Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft -DDSG was founded. John Andrews left it in 1836 and travelled the Salzkammergut with his master shipbuilder Joseph John Ruston. In 1837 he was granted a concession to operate steamboats on five of the Salzkammergut lakes.

The master shipbuilder Joseph Ruston constructed the first wooden steamer for this purpose. The first trial runs were carried out in April 1839 and regular operations started in May. He named the ship after the daughter of Emperor Franz I, Archduchess Sophie.

Franz I was deeply convinced of his divine right and, like Metternich, rejected everything that even pointed in the direction of rights for the people. He was characterised by what today appears to be stubborn conservatism, to whom every reform or change, no matter how small, appeared suspicious. This was also the case in terms of economic policy, so that Austria had great difficulty keeping up with the economic and technical developments of the first half of the 19th century because of this attitude. It is thus significant that in 1830 Rothschild's first request to Emperor Franz I to obtain a concession for the construction of a railway line to the northern Moravian iron and coal deposits was rejected.

But back to the English on Lake Traunsee: The steamship Sophie was 39 metres long, about four metres wide and weighed 41 tonnes without the engine. The 56 hp engine was made by Boulton & Watt from England and had an output of up to 40 revolutions per minute. The ship needed 48 minutes to cross the lake from Gmunden to Ebensee.

The transport of salt on the Traunsee from Ebensee to Gmunden was carried out, among other things, by the steamships towing the salt pans, which were up to 30 m long.