The "Ulmer Ordinari", appears on the Austrian stamp issued for the "Day of the Stamp, 1954". This is an annual event in several European countries. On this particular day a limited number of a stamp issue is made, ostensibly to pay tribute to the work of the post office. The ship is featured on the stamp, of course, because of the important part played by the craft in the carrying of mail during the early years of the Austrian Post Office, long before stamps were used for the prepayment of postage.
The "Ulmer Ordinari" was an 18th century passenger raft, whose passengers were divided into classes, some even being allowed to "work their passage". In the stamp design, the craft is seen passing the historic Benedictine monastery, Melk Abbey, which is situated on a bill 200 ft. above the river, just below the Austrian city of Linz. The abbey was founded in 1089, and re-erected between 1701 and 1738.
The Danube has a course of 1,780 miles, flowing from south¬west Germany into the Black Sea. It has been a great highway for centuries and in the days when roads were bad, or even non-existent, traffic on the river was comparatively speedy, safe and cheap. The Danube has always played a very important part in the long distance traffic from Western Germany to Vienna, In the Middle Ages ships and rafts travelled in large numbers to the "Emperor Town" or Kaiserstadt as the Austrian capital was called. Travellers of lesser means journeyed by raft, and regular sailings on certain days were introduced later. On March 23, 1696, the town of Ratisbon (now Regensburg) at the northernmost point of the Danube, in Germany, started to send rafts to Vienna. These were the "Ulmer Ordinari," because they sailed on a regular service.
Further towns followed this lead—Ulm in 1712, Donauworth in 1750, and Linz in 1754. These craft also sailed from Lauingen and Stadtambof to Vienna and were given various names along the river. They were called Wiener-rafts in Munich and "Munich-rafts" on the Danube. "Ordinari-rafts"in Ratisbon would be "Haller-Platten" in other places. Eventually regular services were established from Hall and Tirol, and Salzburg and Steyr also sent rafts.
Journeys were well organised by the "Ships-Unions" of the named towns, and a guarantee of "fairly safe" travelling was given. The rafts used on these journeys were called Zillen which were usually towed back by horses or they were "Platten" which on arrival were generally scrapped, and the wood put to other purposes. The people from Regensburg and Linz travelled in the Zillen while those from Ulm preferred the "Platten". On the Bavarian and Austrian Danube these "Platten" were called "Schwaben" "Schwabinnen" or "Schwabenplatten" as well as "Ulmer" and "Ulmer Ordinari" and in Ulm they were known as "Wiener Schiff' (Vienna boat). Their size differed. There were Ulmers 34 metres long by 7 metres beam, and smaller ones. The smallest was 19 metres long by 5.2 metres beam. Sometimes the Ulmer shipmasters travelled in the smaller craft which were then called "Vienna-Zillen".
The stamp design, drawn by Professor Maier Ernst Schrom, is a splendid illustration of an "Ulmer Ordinari" a real Schwabenplatten, which the artist designed from pictures of those days. Today they are known as "Ulmer Schachteln" a name which was given them in later years. The artist has carefully drawn in the black firemarks on the sides of the raft which gave the craft from the upper Danube their characteristics. These sides met at the "gransel" at an angle, while the craft had a very wide stern. On deck was a cabin, built like a hut, which had stands for the seamen both forward and aft.
Two men handled each of the four oars, one a seaman and the other a passenger who travelled at a nominal rate for "working his passage" by assisting the seamen. The oars were used for steering the raft which was carried by the flow of the river The "Ordinari" from most of the towns sailed once a week. The craft left Dim, for example, on Sunday or Monday from the end of the ice-flow until St. Catherine's Day. After this day it was often a matter of doubt whether the "Ordinari" could sail or not. In mid-summer with good wind and the normal level of the water the journey would take eight to nine days; in spring and autumn at least 14 days because of fog and wind. In November 20 days for the trip was not unusual. Prices in 1830 are recorded as 12 to 15 gulden for the front room of the cabin— presumably first-class —and four gulden for the back room. Freight rates were as follows: 1 florin 48 kronen per 1 cwt; 2 florins 15 kronen for 2 cwts. It will be noticed from the stamp design that the top of the hut was used as a sun deck in fine weather by male passengers; it was not apparently the custom for women passengers to bask in the sun on this deck. The "Ordinari" did not only take passengers and goods but also mail. In the Postal Museum in Vienna the wooden post-box in which the mail was carried by the Ulmer Ordinari" is preserved. An "Ulmer Postman" assisted in Vienna as well as other "Postmen of the Seamen" ("Drieftrager von den Schiffleuten ") who carried the mail to the people in Tirol, Salzburg and Regensburg. Also on view at Vienna is the famous "Willkonn" of the Ulmer Shipmasters' Guild, a silver plaque dating from 1786, and a silver plate from 1779 of the same guild, is also displayed there.
Often the journeys were described as comfortable and pleasant or uncomfortable and unbearable, depending on weather and the company one met on the voyage. Sea and river travel does not seem to have affected the passengers in those days any differently than it does the traveller today. In a letter written to Goethe, from Vienna, on July 20. 1819, the composer and conductor Karl Frederick Zelter (1758-1832) describes his trip from Regensburg to the Austrian capital in an "Ordinari". He speaks of the extremely light build of the raft and the very mixed company of passengers who were so cheerful that six days' travelling passed as six hours. The master had the best Bavarian beer on board; meat, bread and wine were bought fresh each morning, and the waiter says he could have happily carried on with his journey after he had reached his destination.
The "Ordinari" continued its regular service after the steamers came into operation on the river. But slowly this relic of romantic days disappeared. The last master of the "Ulmer Ordinari" was a Capt. Erhard Hailbronner, who died in 1896. He came from Ulm and his portrait is hung in the Urn Museum. It seems a pity that one of these Danube craft, for so long a regular feature of the daily life on the river, has not been preserved for posterity.
SG1267 Sea Breezes 1/55