Hey dear Hive Community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a great start into the weekend which has been full of positive experiences! Today I would like to discuss an interesting historical topic and hope you can expand your knowledge a little.
In this article, I would like to discuss the history of an important steamship in the Bavarian history, which is also known under the name Maximilian and later Tristan and maybe one or the other has already heard of it. In order to better illustrate the topic, I have some pewter figures of which were made by Wilhelm Schweizer Pewter which already has a long history behind it and has devoted itself to many historical topics and in addition I had the opportunity to photograph some ship lanterns as well as a gondola ship which was also known as the Dolphin. With the introduction of steam power in the middle of the 19th century, it quickly came to a certain demand to combine this technology with shipbuilding but this does not mean that other types of ships were abolished, but they have moved strongly into the background. Already in the 18th century, ships operated with steam power were already in use at that time, but they were only used in small rivers or on private waters and it would still take a while until the topic came to the public. One of the first who devoted himself to the topic and ensured that steam power was integrated into the Bavarian history was King Maximilian II. (1811 - 1864) from the house of Wittelsbach who commissioned in the year 1850 J.A. Maffei to build this ship which should be named Maximilian in his honor. Maffei recognized early on the potential that was in the construction of steam-powered ships and he invested many resources into this topic and built some shipyards on the Danube where he tested his ships and so he could already gain some experience for his upcoming great projects.
At that time, the special architecture was to be provided with a mythological figure as well as numerous ornaments and Maximilian was very artistically designed and had various salons was able to carry several hundred passengers. Later, King Ludwig II. acquired this ship from his father to use it for private purposes and he decided to change the name to Tristan and he decided to rebuild it and a few years later it was sold to the entrepreneur Hugo von Maffei (1836 - 1921). If you are generally more interested in the history of the former King of Bavaria Ludwig II, I can recommend this article here from me where I have gone into this important personality in more detail. Tristan was still in use for a few years and temporarily rebuilt for transport purposes where it served for a few more years and it was also used for military purposes until the ship was subsequently destroyed. Finally, I would like to mention the gondola ship Dolphin which was built by Ludwig I. (1786 - 1868) from the house of Wittelsbach and he had set himself the dolphin as a model and the ship was driven by some rowers and was extremely artistically designed and it was also gladly used by Max II for private purposes. I think these pewter figures express well in an authentic way the ship Maximilian as well as the renamed and rebuilt successor Tristan and the gondola dolphin which can be seen here is by the way the last surviving ships from old Bavaria and as you can see in the picture, the architect has definitely created an really admirable ship!
Thank you very much for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about history! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens and the others with my iPhone 12!