ST BENEDIKT inland passenger ship

[aukepalmhof]

Austria issued in 1987 one stamp for the 100th Anniversary of shipping on Lake Achen by Achensee Schiffarth, the vessel depict is the ST BENEDIKT (II).

Built in 1959 for the Achensee Schiffahrt for service on Lake Achen, she was built in Linz Austria.
Dim. 31.4 x 5.5m.
Powered by one Mercedes Motor 250kW.
Capacity 300 passengers.
When the Unterinntalbahn railway was finished in 1859 tourism began to flourish. In order to make the Feight abbey profit, the first steamboat ST JOSEF was acquired on 23 May 1887.
Furthermore, the construction of the seven-kilometer Achenseebahn narrow gauge track railway was initiated. It went in service in 1889 between Jenbach and Seespitz. The same year on 21 July a second steamboat the ST BENEDIKT (I) went into service. In 1890 the two vessels with a capacity of 320 seats, transported about 30,000 passengers. In 1911 a third vessel the STELLA MARIS went into service. It was the first passenger vessel on a lake in the Danubian monarchy originally equipped with a diesel engine. The vessel was designed for 400 passengers and featured a particularly silent engine at low rpm, similar to those that were used in submarines during the Second World War.
However, the STELLA MARIS was difficult to maneuver. When the lake was bought by the city of Innsbruck from Feight Abbey in 1919, the vessel was renamed in STADT INNSBRUCK.(I). In 1925 a motorboat named TIROL (I) was acquired, and in 1927 for the first time, more than 100,000 persons were transported.
The old steamer ST. BENEDIKT was replaced in 1959 by a motor ship built in Linz in sections and transported to the lake for reassembling, she was launched in June and from July was on regular service. This new ST. BENEDIKT (II) could carry 300 people. Till the winter of 1969-70 she had a dinghy on the stern; after the dinghy was removed the space was used for 36 more seats which were installed instead.

In 1971 the TIROL (I) was replaced with a larger TIROL (II) that could carry 40 passengers. In 1994 the MS TIROL (III) went into service replacing the STADT INNSBRUCK (I) and in August 2007 the MS STADT INNSBRUCK (II) replaced the ST BENEDIKT (II) which was no longer licensed for ship operation in 2017 because it did not comply with the new Ship Technology Ordinance and was not equipped with barrier-free access. She was to be scrapped at first, but still, lay idle alongside the dock in the Scholastica. TIWAG then sold the ship at a symbolic price of one euro to the municipality of Buchau. On 2 November 2017, the St. Benedict sailed to Seespitz, where she was lifted out of the water. Then she was taken by land to the leisure center Atoll in Buchau. There it will be used from 02 May 2018 as a play ship.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achenseeschifffahrt Watercraft Philately Vol. 56 page 12.
Austria 1967 4s sg 2133, scott 1402.