BRATISLAVA YAW FERRY

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

BRATISLAVA YAW FERRY

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Apr 26, 2022 8:43 pm

In 1979 and 1980 Czechoslovakia issued four stamps that show a castle on the Danube River, in Bratislava within the foreground a yaw ferry. So far I can find out these stamps are the only stamps that depict this type of vessel.
Could not find any information on the yaw cable ferry in use on the Danube at Bratislava

The ferry as transport has been in existence for centuries. It served the purpose to make use of waterways by following the old tracks of trade as well as a transport means for locals. In former times the physical power of humans was needed to move the ferries due to the fact that there was no machinery.

'Numaga', a magazine for the history of Nijmegen, recently revealed that, contrary to what people thought, Hendrick Heuck from Nijmegen was not the inventor of the yaw ferry after all. Old archives show that the patent was granted in April 1600 by the States-General of the United Dutch Provinces to Pieter Gabriels Croon from Zegwaard, Netherland. Nijmegen was so proud that a fellow townsman had discovered the principle of moving the ferry from one bank to the other using the power of the flowing water. The invention was of great importance to the Dutch with its large rivers. Heuck was probably the first to provide a daily connection across a river based on the principle of the yaw ferry and therefore took the credit. From 1657 to 1928, i.e. more than 270 years, a yaw ferry near Nijmegen provided the connection across the Waal River.

As early as 1682, Prince Johann Georg II had a yaw cable ferry installed at the Roßlau Elbe crossing on the Elbe. This was built according to the Rhenish model and corresponded in principle to today's yaw cable ferries. Also in the 18th century, the yaw cable ferries prevailed over the pole and rowing ferries at other Elbe crossings

A yaw ferry is attached by a cable to a point in the middle of the river on the bottom. By turning the ship at an angle to the current, the boat will reach the other side through the current. Vulture ferries have switched to a diesel engine for support to get to the other side faster. The length of the cable depends, among other things, on the width of the river. Because the anchor point and the point are some distance from each other, the connecting cable is kept above water with one or more small boats (bends) the size of a rowing boat. These boats are a sign for other shipping traffic that a yaw ferry is being used and also that one should pass the ferry on the other side of the boats.

Still, there are eleven motorized yaw ferries in the Netherlands and one in Belgium.
A yaw ferry uses the current of a river. Upstream, in the middle of the river bottom, is a heavy anchor with a steel cable, which is connected to the yaw ferry. Because the steel cable must have a certain length, part of this cable is carried by so-called "bend tasks" or "cable barges", which keep the cable free from the bottom of the river. The number of turns can be three to five. By slightly shortening this cable, which is connected to the ferry in a triangular connection, on one side, the vessel will bring itself to the other bank. When sailing back, the other side is slightly shortened again and the yaw ferry sails back to the opposite ferry landing.
The speed of a yaw ferry is very low. This, together with the long-term nuisance during the crossing for other shipping, is the reason that there are no more non-motorized yaw ferries in the Netherlands and Belgium anymore

There were little boats and rafts which were moved along the river by using oars or being poled. Only much later in the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch recognized that the current of a river could be used to move a ferry while using the power of the water movement.
In contrast to high - and low-rope ferries this ferry is held on a rope some hundred meters long, which is fastened to a fixed point upstream. From this fixed point to the body of the ferry there is a rope that is held by many buoys. The rope prevents the ferry from drifting away. Before it reaches the body of the ferry it splits into two ropes - in German, they are called "Die Gierenden" These ends of the rope are brought into a special position by an electric or manpower winch so that the ferry stands crossways to the current of the river. The power resulting of this position pushes the ferry across the river. With the ferry in Rathen the crossways position is reached without the two ends of the rope, but by using two big rudders. A means of transport or a plane whose longitudinal axis differs from its direction, which means it is in a crossways position is yawing- in German "giert"- this word is of Dutch origin (Dutch- gierpont). Ferries which cross rivers in this way are called "Gierseilfähren" yaw rope ferries.

The ferries swinging to and fro around their own fixing point are of disadvantage in comparison to the high-rope and low-rope ferries in that way that they have to be at the river bank when there is traffic on the river or they are resting. If the ferry rested at the other side of the bank this would make ship transfer on the river Elbe impossible due to the rope and the buoys stretching across the river then. At the moment there are still 56 ferries of this kind in Germany which is extremely environmentally friendly. 18 of them on the river Elbe, 13 on the river Weser, 6 on the Saale, 6 on the Danube and 4 on each the river Aller and Rhine, as well as 2 on the Mosel and one each on the Neckar, Inn and Alz. Altogether these car ferries total 45 with a rectangular cross-cut, ferries for transporting passengers in the shape of a normal boat and two ferries with a rectangular platform. The load- capacity is between 2.8 and 45 tons, boat ferries can carry between 8 and 30 people and the two big passenger ferries can carry 120 to 322 people.

https://www.kurort-rathen.de/en/faehre.html and Internet sites. Info received from a German collector.
Czechoslovakia 1979 and 1980 2 x 3k sg 2500/01, Scott? and 1980 3/4k sg2545/46, Scott?
Attachments
Bratislava_in_the_Baroque_era,_1735 (2).jpg
Bratislava_in_the_Baroque_era,_1735 (2).jpg (207.67 KiB) Viewed 423 times
Bratislava_1787 (2).jpg
Bratislava_1787 (2).jpg (149.27 KiB) Viewed 423 times
yaw ferry alongside.jpg
yaw ferry alongside.jpg (129.54 KiB) Viewed 423 times
1979 gierpont Bratislava-Castle-on-the-Danube-by-L-Janscha. 3 jpg (2).jpg
1979 gierpont Bratislava-Castle-on-the-Danube-by-L-Janscha. 3 jpg (2).jpg (134.1 KiB) Viewed 423 times
1979 GIERPONT Bratislava-Castle-on-the-Danube-by-L-Janscha.jpg
1979 GIERPONT Bratislava-Castle-on-the-Danube-by-L-Janscha.jpg (154.16 KiB) Viewed 423 times
1979 gierpont Bratislava-Castle-stone-engraving-by-Wolf-1815 (2).jpg
1979 gierpont Bratislava-Castle-stone-engraving-by-Wolf-1815 (2).jpg (156.11 KiB) Viewed 422 times
1980 gierpont 3k.jpg
1980 gierpont 3k.jpg (145.9 KiB) Viewed 422 times
1980 gierpont alongside (2).jpg
1980 gierpont alongside (2).jpg (149.03 KiB) Viewed 418 times

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