Unique ship transport from France to Lake Constance

Sensation for the Dornier Museum: After decades, the MS Altenrhein, which was commissioned in 1928 for Dornier-Werke, has returned to Lake Constance. Built at the Bodan shipyard in Kressbronn according to the plans of Dornier test pilot and pilot-in-command Franz Zeno Diemer, and equipped at the time with a 65 hp (48 kW) six-cylinder Maybach engine, she was a tug for the legendary Do X, once the world's largest seaplane, and was also used for passenger trips to the Do X. Visitors to the shipyard were also allowed to travel on the MS Altenrhein.

Already last year, David Dornier, director of the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, made a joyful discovery in France: the MS Altenrhein, commissioned by his grandfather, Charles Dornier, appeared in a motor yacht harbor.

The motor boat, which is 15 meters long, 2.8 meters wide and weighs 8 t, was lifted from a truck trailer on site in Mulhouse and transferred to a winter storage car. The project was comprehensively planned by Schmidbauer. A forwarding agency transported the boat in a four-and-a-half hour trip to Lake Constance where a new adventure awaits the 92-year-old Altenrhein. In a spectacular and perfectly fitting maneuver, the freight forwarder chauffeured the boat to the museum's depot. Then the Altenrhein was lifted from the truck trailer by a crane from our ranks, a Liebherr LTM 1070. David Dornier and Julia Menzer, collection manager and curator of the Dornier Museum happily received it from there.

The boat which is a donation to the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen was built in the last century by Dornier test pilot and pilot Franz Zeno Diemer. According to museum director David Dornier, the Altenrhein will first be restored and exhibited in the museum and, if all goes well, it will be used as an excursion boat on Lake Constance once again.

 

Watch a video of the unloading here.

 

Sources:

https://www.schwaebische.de/landkreis/bodenseekreis/friedrichshafen_artikel,-einzigartige-schenkung-fuers-dornier-museum-_arid,11244681.html

https://www.suedkurier.de/region/bodenseekreis/friedrichshafen/ein-wichtiges-stueck-geschichte-ms-altenrhein-kehrt-an-den-bodensee-zurueck;art372474,10563453

https://www.fliegerweb.com/de/news/Airliner/Die+MS+Altenrhein+ist+zur%C3%BCck-20583

 

Equipment:

  • LTM 1070-4.2

 

Location: Friedrichshafen, Lake Constance

Period: 12.07.2020