Chain boat navigation on the Main was a special type of ship transport on the Main from 1886 to 1936. Along a chain laid in the river, chain boats pulled themselves upstream with several barges attached. The technology of chain shipping replaced the previous practice of towed shipping, in which the ships were pulled by horses.
As the canalisation project progressed upstream, the barrages required for this made chain towage more challenging, particularly due to the extended waiting times at the locks. This led to the emergence of a new competitor in the form of the propeller, which was made possible by the greater depth of the navigation channel. The use of diesel engines made the propeller a profitable option. The use of steam engines for the labour-intensive chain navigation became unprofitable, and this method was completely discontinued in 1936.
History
Before chain boat navigation The Main River has a relatively gentle gradient. Until the mean water level correction in the middle of the 19th century, the river was a slow-flowing shallow watercourse with numerous loops, bends, islands and, on occasion, several shallow river arms in close proximity to one another. In contrast, the occurrence of strong floods, particularly during the autumn and spring months, resulted in the flooding of areas, the erosion of riverbanks and sedimentation. Conversely, during the summer months, the water level in the channels, which were typically only half a metre deep, decreased to a few centimetres, resulting in the formation of shallows and sandbanks.
Upstream, the ship trains were towed by line riders. A typical train consisted of a chain of wooden vessels, each with a carrying capacity of 15 to 30 tonnes. They usually began with a Frankensau or a market boat and continued via Schelche, Schlumper and Nachen to the smallest vessel, the Ankernachen. The towpath often changed banks before the mouths of the tributaries or before steep slopes. At these points, horses and riders had to cross the navigation channel or be ferried across. Downstream, the ships drifted in the water current. Sails were set when the wind was favourable. The cost of towing the mostly empty or lightly loaded ships was high. Therefore, profit could usually only be made when the fairway was sufficiently deep and with fully loaded ships travelling downstream.
In 1828, the Stadt Frankfurt was the inaugural paddle steamer to traverse the Main between Mainz and Frankfurt. However, the venture was unsuccessful due to design flaws in the steam engine and the challenging navigation conditions in the heavily silted Main estuary. The trials were terminated as early as 1832. It was not until 1841, following the Free City of Frankfurt's accession to the German Customs Union and the completion of the Taunus Railway line from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden, that steam navigation on the Main resumed. However, it was unable to establish itself for several reasons. Firstly, the unfavourable fairways of the Main at low water levels during the summer months presented a challenge for steamboats with their relatively large draught, particularly given that the promised fairway improvements from the Bavarian state were not implemented to the desired extent. Secondly, the railway, which was constructed at the same time, was more efficient than steamships. It was able to travel at faster speeds and had shorter routes. The waterway from Mainz to Schweinfurt was 88 per cent longer. Furthermore, the railway was able to bypass customs offices, eliminating the need for lengthy waiting periods. It was also exempt from customs duties and tariffs, reducing its financial burden. As early as 1858, the unprofitability of steam navigation with paddle steamers led to the discontinuation of this mode of transport.
The time of chain boats on the Main
After navigation on the Main had lost more and more of its transport capacity to the railway and the use of wheeled steam tugs had failed due to the shallow navigation channel of the Main, Heino Held, owner of the Mainz-based forwarding and coal trading company C.J.H. Held & Cie., had the idea of saving navigation by introducing chain tug navigation. On 15 February 1871, he applied to the authorities in Prussia, Bavaria and Hesse for a corresponding licence, encouraged by the companies that had just started up on the Elbe. In 1872, the various states and towns along the Main then established a committee in Aschaffenburg. The committee was supported by Ewald Bellingrath, who had already played a leading role in the introduction of chain navigation on the Elbe and Neckar rivers. The committee discussed the merits of chain shipping and the canalisation of the Main. Mainz, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, was in favour of chain shipping as it feared that the canalisation of the Main would allow Rhine ships to bring their goods directly to Frankfurt, which would result in Mainz losing its position as a transfer point. Frankfurt, which was then part of Prussia, sought to become a Rhine port and only agreed to the chain once the canalisation to Frankfurt had been completed. The Bavarian state parliament was also opposed to the chain, citing concerns about competition for the Bavarian state railway. Initially, it only approved the chain as far as Aschaffenburg.
In 1885, the Hessian joint-stock company Mainkette-AG was granted a concession to operate chain shipping on the Main and through the Rhine to the port of Mainz. The Mainkette-AG laid the chain and the chain boats were built at the Neckar shipyard in Neckarsulm in 1886. The plans for the construction were provided by the company Gebr. Sachsenberg from Roßlau (Elbe), which had already gained many years of experience with the construction of chain boats and also supplied the entire machinery for travelling with the chain to the Neckar. From the Neckar to the Main, the chain ships could be transported directly by water, which would not have been possible from the Elbe. The chain ships were capable of pulling themselves and up to ten attached barges at speeds of around five kilometres per hour.
The line between Mainz and Aschaffenburg was inaugurated on 7 August 1886. By October of that year, all three chain boats (Mainkette I-III) were operational on this route. The Fränkische Kurier published a review of the early days of chain navigation:
In the following years, Mainkette-AG expanded its fleet of ships with three screw steam tugs. Initially, these were used mainly as feeder boats in Mainz-Kostheim and Frankfurt. However, they were then increasingly used for towing services between Mainz and Frankfurt itself.
In 1892, the Bavarian government granted the Mainkette-AG's repeated request to extend its chain to Miltenberg, subject to the proviso that it could be cancelled at any time. However, just two years later, the Bavarian government passed a law to establish its own chain navigation on the Main, with the chain being extended to Lohr in the summer of 1895. In the absence of its own chain tugs, the Mainkette-AG was authorised to operate on this section of the river in return for a chain usage fee. From 1895 to 1901, the Hessian Mainkette-AG continued to operate its chain boats on the Bavarian sections of the river as far as Miltenberg or Lohr.
In 1898, the Bavarian kingdom established the Königlich Bayerische Kettenschleppschiffahrt-Gesellschaft (KBKS) in Würzburg, which was managed by the Bavarian state railway. The newly established state company was tasked with constructing five chain tug boats, designated K.B.K.S. No. I to V, at the Übigau shipyard in Dresden. The boats were prefabricated at the shipyard, transported by rail to Aschaffenburg, and then riveted together and launched between 1898 and 1900.
The Bavarian state built a shipyard near Schweinheim for maintaining its chain ships. It is located below river kilometre 88.8 between the banks of the Main and the former Mainländebahn railway.
However, following the deployment of all new Bavarian chain boats, the Hessian Mainkette-AG was forced to withdraw from Bavaria. The Königlich Bayerische Kettenschleppschiffahrt-Gesellschaft purchased the chain between Aschaffenburg and Miltenberg from the Mainkette-AG and extended it in the following years: 1900 to Kitzingen, 1911 to Schweinfurt and 1912 to Bamberg. The chain reached its greatest length of 396 kilometres. In 1910 and 1911, three additional boats, designated K.B.K.S. No. VI to VIII, were prefabricated in Übigau and assembled in Aschaffenburg. From 1912, eight Bavarian chain tugs were thus travelling between Aschaffenburg and Bamberg.
The chain boats were mostly only used for travelling uphill. In 1900, the Aschaffenburger Zeitung described the situation of chain navigation as follows:
Following the abdication of King Ludwig III in 1918, the designation K.B.K.S. (Königlich Bayerisches Kettenschiff) was amended to remove the first 'K.' for 'Königlich'. Consequently, the ship number eight was no longer referred to as K.B.K.S.NoVIII, but simply B.K.S.NoVIII. (Bayerisches Kettenschiff Nummero acht). In 1924, the designation was changed to DRG. KS NrVIII (Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft Kettenschiff Nummer acht). Following the 1937 takeover by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the designation was changed to DR.KS NrVIII (Deutsche Reichsbahn Kettenschiff Nummer 8).
The end of chain navigation
As the people of Frankfurt were initially interested in the canalisation of the Main as far as their city, the Bavarian state now showed great interest in the canalisation of the Main as far as Aschaffenburg. All goods, in particular the Ruhr coal required to operate the Bavarian state railways, were to be transported there by ship, stockpiled, stored and distributed. This did not affect the state-owned Bavarian chain shipping company operating upstream on the Main, but the Mainz-based company Mainkette-AG had to bear the consequences. The damming of the river led to a greater water depth and, at the same time, a reduction in the flow speed. In particular, the long tows had to be split up at the locks of the barrages and sluiced separately. This could result in delays of up to five hours, as the barges had to be manhandled into and out of the locks.
The shift in profitability from chain shipping to propeller-driven vessels was significant. With the progressive canalisation of the Main as far as Aschaffenburg in 1921, the Mainkette-AG was only able to use its screw-driven boats economically and ceased tugboat operations entirely in the early 1930s.
In 1935, the Nuremberg Reichsbahn Directorate also had to state the following for the Bavarian route: "The volume of traffic on the chain tugboat service on the Main has declined extraordinarily in the first half of this year due to competition from screw boats, so that operations have almost come to a standstill and the question of completely closing down the company must be considered." The reason given for this was:
Another disadvantage of chain dragging was the sideways movement of the chain across the river bed, which could result in the chain being pulled into the inside of the bend. This resulted in the chain occasionally dragging large stones into the navigation channel or edging up stones already in place. Furthermore, the chain was not returned to its original position each time it was lifted.
Bavarian chain navigation was completely discontinued in July 1936 and the chain was lifted in 1938. On 14 May 1938, the Fränkische Kurier described the last voyage of a chain boat on the Main:
The name Mainkuh