History from the river: MSG welcomes the newest ship to its fleet. Since yesterday, a beautiful old model of a Main chain boat has been on display in the ‘Donau’ meeting room.
We would like to thank our member, Mr Hans Erich Büchner, to whom we owe this permanent loan. We will treasure it, as it represents an exciting piece of inland navigation history: the time when the Main chain boats were active.
Historical background: Chain boats (in use from 1886) were powered by a steam engine. It used this to pull itself along a chain lying on the river bed. The chain was lifted, ran over the bow to a chain wheel driven by the steam engine and was then lowered back into the river via the stern. This was a very low-loss utilisation of steam engine power; with an output of approx. 130 hp, the tug could pull itself and several barges. (Source: 100 years of MSG, history in words and pictures, 2016)