2-914-115 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Four-Paddle-Wheel Danube Steamer "Tachtalia", 1854. 'Under a charter granted by the Austrian Government, the exclusive privilege of the regular traffic of the Danube is conferred upon...the Imperial and Royal Steam Danube Navigation Company...The company...has now surmounted this inconvenience [rocks near the surface of the River Danube], having just added to its fleet a steamer that can pass the Iron Gate, in all states of the river - her draught, with passengers and fuel, being only twelve inches and a half. This vessel...has been constructed by Messrs. J. and A. Blyth, the eminent marine engineers, of Limehouse, London...The boiler occupies the centre of the vesssel, and is suspended by attachments to the vertical ribs, so as to diffuse the weight over the whole surface of the bottom of the steamer'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.