2-969-837 - /Heritage Images

Navigation of the Elbe - the Steamer "Pollux" cutting through the ice at Altona, 1856. ''A novel and important experiment has just been made on the Elbe, with a view to ascertain how far it is practicable to keep the navigation of that river open during the winter. At present all communication by sea between [England] and Hamburg is completely stopped [in winter]...The fast ice... was about nine inches in thickness; and, when attacked by the steamer, was broken with perfect ease, and to a considerable distance on each side of the vessel, leaving a free channel of about sixty or seventy feet in width...The only difficulty...was opposite Altona, where the branch of the Elbe had caused an accumulation of ice, in many places five feet in thickness; yet even this compact mass yielded to the repeated attacks of the Pollux's iron stem...proof of the great strength afforded by iron as a shipbuilding material'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.