'Titanic of the Alps' shipwreck to be raised at last after sinking 91 years ago

10 February 2024 , 18:38

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The work to raise the wreck of the Säntis is expected to start in March (Image: Credit: Schiffsbergeverein via Pen News)

Plans to raise a ship dubbed the Titanic of the Alps from the depths of a mountain lake have been approved.

The shipwreck now lies 210m (689ft) beneath Lake Constance, which borders Germany, Switzerland, and Austria after sinking in 1933 and now Swiss authorities have given the green light to the ambitious scheme. The steamship Säntis has been called the Titanic of the Alps because of how her stern rose out of the water as she sank, with a number of technical similarities between the two ships.

But unlike her famous namesake, the Säntis will now, the organisers of the salvage mission hope, see daylight again. The plan has been hatched by the Ship Salvage Association and they will now attempt to raise her next month. But the Säntis is much older than the famous ocean-going liner – she was commissioned 20 years before the Titanic sank – and, once salvaged, will be the oldest surviving Lake Constance steamship.

The Säntis sank in the same way as the Titanic (Credit: Schiffsbergeverein via Pen News)

Silvan Paganini, the association’s president, said the similarities between the two ships came down to some rare pieces of engineering. He said: "The steamship Säntis has a three-cylinder steam engine like the Titanic. A three-cylinder steam engine is very rare, so that is one of the similarities from a technical aspect. Then there's how the ship sunk: it sunk over the bow – the same like the Titanic. And also the stern went into the air with the flag flying high, that was also similar to the Titanic."

He added that the wreck was far better preserved than the doomed liner due to the unique conditions within the lake, adding: "It’s in really good condition. We have here a freshwater lake, it’s really deep at 210 metres, it’s very dark there, it’s not much oxygen, so it’s really good conserved. You can still see the paint on the side and read the letters on the side of the ship.”

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The ship had a long 40-year history of service before being scuttled (Credit: Schiffsbergeverein via Pen News)

Named for the Swiss Alpine mountain, the Säntis could carry up to 400 people in her heyday, and spent 40 years plying her trade on Lake Constance. Despite her nickname, however, the disaster that befell her was economic – not humanitarian, explained Mr Paganini, as the Säntis was the first one to transfer from coal to an oil-driven engine, and it turned out to be an economic disaster. He said: "They even discussed that it was so bad that they wanted to go back to coal. The ship was sunk because it was not used, and not needed anymore.

"It was a big crisis in 1933, and they took away all that they could still use – so, for example, the whole wooden deck they removed because they could burn the wood to make heat. Also some of the doors for example – they were found in cellars in the village here. Then they had still the steel left, and in the crisis steel had no price."

The cost of scrapping the Säntis was 10 times greater than the value she would bring being broken up, so she was instead scuttled in May 1933. She was all but forgotten by the close of the Second World War, but was rediscovered in 2013. Now she’s set to be brought back to the surface, after crowdfunding efforts secured more than 200,000 Swiss Francs (£182,000) to raise the ship.

Mr Paganini said: "The cheapest solution is lifting bags. They’re like balloons which work underwater, you fill them with air and then they lift. We plan to do the first lift at the end of March, from 210m to 12m, and then in April, the final lift from 12m to the surface." The Säntis will then be restored at the nearby shipyard in Romanshorn – where she was previously renovated in 1898.

Paul Donald