The ''Jura'' was a wooden,
flush deck
Flush deck is a term in naval architecture. It can refer to any deck of a ship which is continuous from stem to stern.
History
The flush deck design originated with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting ...
,
paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
, originally built for service on
Lake Neuchâtel
Lake Neuchâtel (french: Lac de Neuchâtel ; frp, Lèc de Nôchâtél; german: Neuenburgersee) is a lake primarily in Romandy, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by t ...
, but which was sold after seven years to work on
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...
, and sank in 1864 after a collision with the ''
Stadt Zürich''.
History
The ''Jura'' was built in 1854 by the Maschinen Fabrik
Escher-Wyss
Escher Wyss & Cie., also known as Escher Wyss AG, was a Swiss industrial company with a focus on engineering and turbine construction. Its headquarters were in the Zürich quarter of Escher Wyss, which takes its name from the company.
Histo ...
in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
. On 7 September that same year the ship was placed in service by the Lake Neuchâtel Steamboat Society (''Société des Bateaux à vapeur du lac du Neuchâtel'') on
Lake Neuchâtel
Lake Neuchâtel (french: Lac de Neuchâtel ; frp, Lèc de Nôchâtél; german: Neuenburgersee) is a lake primarily in Romandy, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by t ...
.
In 1861, the ship was put up for sale and purchased by the
Lindau
Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...
Steamship Navigation Inspectorate (''Lindauer Dampfschiffahrtsinspektion'') as a replacement for the ''
Ludwig'' which had sunk after a collision. For its transportation to
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...
, the ship was dismantled and moved on horse-drawn carts. The ship had a total length of 46.30 metres; its length at the waterline being 41.30 metres, and it had a beam of 10.25 metres draught of about 90 centimetres. The ''Jura'' was powered by a 45-horsepower steam engine, which gave it a top speed of 18.5 km/h. It could carry up to 400 passengers.
Sinking
On 12 February 1864, the ''Jura'' set sail on a routine service from
Constance
Constance may refer to:
Places
*Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English
*Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada
* Constance, Kentucky
* Constance, Minnesota
* Constance (Portugal)
* Mount Constance, Washington State
People
* Consta ...
via
Romanshorn
Romanshorn is a municipality in the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
History
Romanshorn was probably settled in the 7th century, and is first mentioned in 779 as ''Rumanishorn'' in a land grant from Waldrata to the Abb ...
to Lindau. Around 11 a.m., and despite having a fog
lookout
A lookout or look-out is a person in charge of the observation of hazards. The term originally comes from a naval background, where lookouts would watch for other ships, land, and various dangers. The term has now passed into wider parlance.
...
, signal horns and an attempt at taking avoiding action, it could not prevent a collision with the ''Stadt Zürich'' off
Münsterlingen
Münsterlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
History
In 1994 the municipality was created from Landschlacht and Scherzingen.[fo'c's'le
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...]
off and the fog lookout of the Bavarian ship was crushed. Another ship’s boy had his arm torn off.
Within just four minutes, the ''Jura'' sank. The rest of the
ship‘s crew and
passenger
A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...
s were rescued by the ''Stadt Zürich''.
Because the ''Stadt Zürich'' had sunk the ''Ludwig'' in a collision less than three years before, and, only a few months after sinking the ''Jura'', had collided with the ''
Stadt Lindau
Stad or Stadlandet is a peninsula in Stad Municipality in the northwestern part of the Nordfjord district in Vestland county in Norway. The peninsula is considered the dividing point between the Norwegian Sea to the north and the North Sea to ...
'' in Lindau Harbour, the ship was especially unpopular in Bavaria.
Discovery of the wreck
In February 1953, Ludwig Hain was looking for a crashed
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
aircraft in the lake off
Bottighofen when he chanced upon the
wreck of the ship at a depth of about 39 metres. After that, the wreck was forgotten until, in 1976, it was rediscovered by Hans Gerber.
The ship, which has since become known by
scuba divers as the “best known freshwater wreck in Europe” lies almost upright on its
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
on the lake bed. The
bow of the ship is covered in
mud
A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...
which was dumped at this spot after
dredging
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
work for the harbour at
Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22,000. ...
.
Objects from the Jura
From the wreck of the Jura were salvaged the 47-kilogramme ship’s bell, bottles, a manometer and the name of the ship.
Recovery plans and industrial monument
A
recovery
Recovery or Recover may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books
* ''Recovery'' (novel), a Star Wars e-book
* Recovery Version, a translation of the Bible with footnotes published by Living Stream Ministry
Film and television
* ''Recovery'' (fil ...
of the ship would be attractive because the ''Jura'' is the oldest surviving steamship in the world. It would make available a ship of the late
Biedermeier period, an era from which there are hardly any surviving technical monuments.
The Lake Constance Historical Navigation
stiftung (''Historische Schifffahrt Bodensee'') with its headquarters in the Swiss village of
Tägerwilen
Tägerwilen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
Geography
Tägerwilen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested. Of the res ...
has plans to recover and restore the ship. The cost is estimated at around 3.5 million euros, because the ship’s wooden hull and folding chimney are in a poor condition. Sports divers are partly to blame, as is the aforementioned dumping of mud on the wreck, damage as a result of regular shipping and fishing, and, of course, the passage of time.
On 7 December 2004, the governing council of the
Canton of Thurgau declared the ''Jura'' as an „Underwater Industrial Monument“, placed it under protection and empowered the Office of
Archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
in
Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld ( Alemannic: ''Frauefäld'') is the capital of the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.
The official language of Frauenfeld is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic ...
to look into the possibility of a recovery operation or an archaeological investigation of the wreck.
The ship was to be protected from further damage through a cooperation of the Office of Archaeology, the sports diving clubs of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and the ''
Wasserschutzpolizei
The ''Wasserschutzpolizei'' (WSP - literally translated "Water Protection Police" in German) is the river police that patrols the waterways, lakes and harbours of Germany around the clock. The WSP are part of the ''Landespolizei'' (State Pol ...
''.
Exhibitions
* 31 August 2016–...: ''Geschichten vom Seegrund. The Dampfschiff Jura.'' In: Kreuzlingen Maritime Museum (''Seemuseum Kreuzlingen).
The Maritime Museum in Kreuzlingen
/ref>
Excursus: Other historical ships on Lake Constance
The restored or even reconstructed ship, together with the ''Hohentwiel
Hohentwiel is an extinct volcano in the Hegau region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany The mountain is west of the city of Singen and 20 miles (30 km) from Lake Constance.
Hohentwiel began forming, along with the chain of vol ...
'' built in 1913 and the steamship '' Gustav Prym'' built in 1916 would be used to show the development of shipping on Lake Constance. This fleet of classic ships will be enhanced by the ''Konstanz
Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...
'', built in 1928 and therefore the oldest European car ferry on an inland waters
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wat ...
.
External links
Die Geschichte der ''Jura'' im Seemuseum Kreuzlingen (at bodenseeschifffahrt.de)
Diving site description and photographs
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jura #1854
Passenger ships of Germany
Ships of Switzerland
Lake Constance
Shipwrecks
Paddle steamers
Steamships
1864 in Europe
Heritage sites in Switzerland
Wreck diving sites
History of Baden-Württemberg
History of Bavaria
History of Thurgau
Shipwrecks of Switzerland
Lake Neuchâtel
1854 ships