African paddlesteamers

[mjt60a]

There are several pictures of yarrow boats in 'Paddle Steamers' by Bernard Cox.... always a copy or two on Ebay...

[Roderick Smith]

Yarrow built many vessels for Irrawaddy River, Burma (today Ayerawady, Myanmar).
Follow the clues in the Myanmar thread in Research:
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2862.0
I now have the books mentioned there, but there are not many photos or plans.
The Burma style looks similar to the African and Indian one.
I also have photos of some Indian sternwheelers posted in an India thread.
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2675.0
The sidewheelers PS Yamuna and PS Gomati were built by Yarrow, but not to the typical style.  SWPV Bhadra looks to be related to the Yarrow African ones.
A second thread 'Paddlesteamers on India rivers' also mentions Yarrow.
www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3291.0

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

The Rift Valley lakes comprise three majors (Malawi, Tanganyika & Victoria) and several minors (Albert, Edward, George, Malombe & Kwania), most/all navigable & navigated, and linking to Nile, Congo, Shire and Zambesi rivers.
Most lake vessels were/are medium size and screw.
In most countries, lake-navigation was in the hands of railway companies.
On my recent 5 weeks in the region, I didn't photograph every boat photo in Nairobi railway museum.  Most of them showed screw vessels.  Enclosed are photos a model of SWPS Grant and SWPS Stanley, both built for the relatively-shallow and weed infested Lake Kioga/Kyoga.

See:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Malawi (Lake Malawi / Lake Nyasa): the southernmost lake in the Great Rift Valley system, the third-largest in Africa, eighth-largest in the world, the second-deepest lake in Africa. Water flows out through Shire River, which joins Zambesi River, and flows into Indian Ocean.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tanganyika:  The second-largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest (after Lake Baikal).  Divided among Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. The water flows into Congo River and Atlantic Ocean.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Victoria: Africa’s largest lake by area, and the world's second-largest freshwater lake by surface area (Lake Superior, North America, is larger),  the world's eighth largest lake by volume.  Water flows into Nile River, and also via Katonga River to Lake George.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kyoga: (also Lake Kioga) is in Uganda, between lake Victoria and Lake Albert.

Both vessels in the enclosed photos look very much like Yarrow products, but that is presumption, not proven.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

I notice a disparity between the postcard in the Kenya museum (SWPS Stanley, built for Lake Kiyoga) and an earlier reference in this thread (SWPS Stanley, on Congo River).
Which is right?
The two waterways were not connected.  Since the vessel must have been imported in sections and reassembled, was it split again and relocated?

See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_river_steamers
This mentions several steamers, but is vague re propulsion
Two on the middle Congo from 1879
Peace, 1884 for evangelical work
Roi de Belge, upper Congo, 1889 (photo, with no paddleboxes visible)
A small side-wheel trading steam on the upper Congo (photo, name not visible)
Goodwill
Bernaert
Over 100 steamers on the river by 1900.
Brugesville
Flandres
Milz
Deliverance
Henry Reed
Kigomi
Tadora
General Olsen
Brabant
Kitambo
Fondère (had cabins but slept on the deck)
Most were tiny Victorian relics, half rusted away. Many of the larger riverboats had been towed across the Atlantic after outliving their usefulness on the Mississippi. These were big flat-bottomed sternwheelers.
Large paddle steamers were built by Otraco and worked the river until the civil war, when boats were machine gunned and charges dropped into their boilers.
River steamers ran until the 1980s...diesel pushers were put to work.

Up to 150 people were drowned when ferries collided on the river in 2010.

The north bank of the river being an entirely separate french colony with their own boats.
Bretonnet
Vivi

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

I didn't see any paddleboats on this holiday, so have just a single photo of the two screw ferries which I saw on Lake Victoria.
I travelled on MV Victoria (just over 50 years old), in a first-class two berth cabin, and served in a proper dining room with a separate lounge bar.
MV Clarias may be the relief vessel.
MV Bukoba allowed the service to be nightly, but went down in Tanzania's worst maritime disaster, drowning 800 people.

Apart from passengers, and their voluminous luggage, Victoria was carrying huge quantities of bananas on the overnight journey.  It makes three return trips per week.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Hankwilliams]

In this web adress you will find some interesting historical (mostly in the 1950tis) photos of old Leopoldville, now Kinshasa.
There is one picture of a big sternwheeler on river Kongo. Also the photos of the present city are impressible:  http://www.stiopka.com/Leo/photos_lea.html

Tom

[Roderick Smith]

Lake Malawi has no paddleboats either, but does have five major vessels, and lots of smaller ones.
On the Malawi side:
* Cargo vessel MV Katundu,
* Passenger boat MV Illala, built by Yarrow, and recommissioned in 1972.  This makes a return trip from Monkey Bay to Chilumba every week (3 nights each way), with the vital sector being Nkhata Bay - Likoma.
* Backup passenger boat MV Mtendere.
* Floating clinic MV Chauncy Maples, built as a steamer in 1899, and being revived by an international trust.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ilala
www.guide2malawi.com/illala.asp (which includes a section on fish)
www.malawi-travel.com/lake_malawi_south/mv_ilala_cruises.html (temptation)
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/focus_magazine/news/story/2008/12/081222_malawi_ilala.shtml
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqpYth6N3Ds (Mtendere)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSfjd4B_ZrY&feature=related (Ilala)
www.chauncymaples.org (heartwarming, and a fascinating history)

There is also a Tanzanian operation on Lake Malawi, using MV Songea.
Itunga dep. 17.00 Th; Mbamba Bay arr. 12.00 F, dep. 12.00 F; Itunga arr.
12.00 Sat.
Occasionally it crosses to Malawi, to Nkhata Bay. Some sites state weekly crossing.
From Wikipedia
The Tanzanian ferry MV Songea was built in 1988. Her operator was the
Tanzania Railway Corporation Marine Division until 1997, when it became the
Marine Services Company Limited. Songea plies weekly between Liuli and
Nkhata Bay via Itungi and Mbamba Bay.
Links:
www.travelblog.org/Photos/87459
www.lonelyplanet.com/tanzania/transport/getting-there-away

Roderick B Smith
Rail New Victoria Editor

[Roderick Smith]

Here is a good link
http://www.modernluxor.com/transport-cruise-ships.html

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[greateastern]

here's a stern wheeler for Cameroon.

[greateastern]

here's a paddler for German East Africa

[Bierjunge]

greateastern,

Thank you so much for posting these scans of the Soden and the Ulanga! They are  a real treasure at least for those being interested in colonial river steamboats.
I would therefore love to read the entire article; unfortunately, the begin of the article (before page 98) and page 104 are not included. Were they missing in the document, or did you simply not post them? Unfortunately, I cannot access the hathitrust from outside the USA. So could you please also post the missing pages, or send the to me by email (I`ve also sent a pm to you)?

Thank you so much, Moritz

[Harold H. Duncan]

yes please, if you have the missing pages, or the link.
kiwi

[greateastern]

here are the pages beginning pg 95 start of article and all the way to end, except for the drawings pages which are already here.
dave

[Harold H. Duncan]

thanks for those, very much appreciated
Paddlers of the 1800's are of special interest to me, there was so much variety and things tried

kiwi

[Bierjunge]

Thank you so much!