Radetzky

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shipstamps
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Radetzky

Post by shipstamps » Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:18 pm


The stamp illustrated shows a Danube river paddle-steamer of 1867, the Austrian-owned Radetzky, which was forced to take part in an abortive Bulgarian revolutionary movement when she was seized by Christo Boteoff on May 16, 1867. In that year Boteoff had been compelled to flee to Rumania because of his attacks on the two classes of oppressors in Bulgaria, the Turks and rich Bulgarians. In Rumania he became the leader of the Bulgarian revolutionaries. When informed by optimistic colleagues in Bulgaria that the nation was ready for an uprising Boteoff planned his return. With companions disguised as gardeners they boarded the Radetzky as passengers, seized the vessel after she had sailed, and forced the master at gun-point to land Boteoff s men at Cosludni. Dispersing various Turkish irregular troops they reached Mount Veslez in the West Balkans, but were there surrounded by regular Turkish troops, and in the ensuing battle, which was desperately fought, Boteoff was killed and his troops dispersed. The stamp showing the Radetzky is one of a set of seven values issued by Bulgaria in January 1948, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the patriot, who is also referred to in some biographies as Christ() Botev. He was also a noted poet.
SG735 Sea Breezes 6/56

aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Radetzky 1851

Post by aukepalmhof » Sun Feb 09, 2014 1:35 am

Built as a side paddle steamer at the Budapest –Althofen shipyard for the Donau_Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft (DDSG), Austria.
Launched as RADETZKY.
Dim. 54.25 x 13.16 over paddleboxen (7.01 m).
Powered by oscillating steam engines manufactured by Escher, Wyss & Co., Zurich, 120hp.
1851 Completed.

The RADETZKY (Bulgarian: „Радецки“, „Radetski“) was an Austro-Hungarian passenger steamship built in 1851 in the shipyard in Óbuda,Hungary, and used for regular services on the Danube, mainly between Orşova, Austria-Hungary and Galaţi, Romania. Named after Bohemian nobleman and Austrian general Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858), it is most notable as part of the history of Bulgaria as the ship which revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev and his band bloodlessly hijacked and used to reach Kozloduy, Bulgaria.
On 29 May 1876, after the ship left the port of Bechet, the Bulgarian revolutionaries, who had boarded her from different ports disguised as gardeners, forced the captain Dagobert Engländer to change course and transport the band to the Bulgarian port of Kozloduy, from where they would attempt to organize an anti-Ottoman uprising as a follow-up to the already crushed April Uprising of the same year. Botev sent the following message to the crew and the passengers.
“ Mr Captain!
Dear passengers!
I have the honour to notify you that Bulgarian rebels, whom I have the honour to be the voivode of, are located on this steamship.
At the price of our livestock and our agricultural instruments, at the expense of great efforts and sacrifice of our goods, finally at the price of everything which is dear in this world (without the knowledge and despite the pursuit of the authorities in the country whose neutrality we respected), we have provided ourselves with what is necessary to us, in order to come to the assistance of our revolting brothers, who are fighting so brave under the Bulgarian lion for the liberty and independence of our dear Fatherland — Bulgaria.
We kindly ask the passengers to not worry at all and remain calm. As for you, Mr. Captain, I have the hard duty to invite you to place the ship at our disposal until our very getting-off, while at the same time I declare that even your smallest resistance will put me in the sorrowful necessity to use force and against my will to revenge for the disgusting incident on board the Germany steamboat in ROUSSE in 1867.
In one case or the other, our battle cry is the following:
Long live Bulgaria!
Long live Franz Joseph!
Long live Count Andrássy!
Long live Christian Europe!

The captain wrote of Botev's "civility, energy, and temperament", and agreed to transport the band to Kozloduy. Upon arriving in Bulgaria, the revolutionaries dropped to their knees and kissed the earth, saying goodbye to the captain and the passengers, who saluted them by waving his peaked cap.
The RADETZKY was decommissioned in 1918 and destroyed in 1924, although most of its relics were preserved, such as the flag with a coat of arms, a seal, the original license, etc., which were handed by Adolf Engländer, a brother of the captain, to Boris III of Bulgaria. Between 1964 and 1966, On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Hristo Botev's death, money was collected by 1,200,000 Bulgarian pupils on the initiative of the journalist Lilyana Lozanova, and the steamship was reconstructed based on the original design and technical data given by the ship's dyer Király József. The reconstructed RADETZKY was officially opened as a museum ship on 30 May 1966 at Kozloduy. It is a composite of a 1953 soviet paddle tug, and pieces of the original RADETZKY saved in 1918.
The steamship RADETZKY is a national relic of Bulgaria. A village in Sliven Province bears its name, Radetski, and national writer Ivan Vazov wrote a poem based on the events of May 1876, which is today a popular patriotic song called Still White Danube Undulates.

Bulgaria 1948 9Lev sg735, scott? 1969 envelope, 1986 envelope, 2001 envelope.
Bulgaria 2016 0.65 Leva sg 5007, scott? (issued that 140 years since the descent of Botev's detachment from the ship RADETZKY at Kozloduy River bank.)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radetzky_(steamship)
Attachments
1969 radetzkiy env..jpg
1986 Radetzkiy.jpg
2001 Radetzky.jpg
2016 radetzky.jpg
1966 radetski.jpg

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