Basle — a huge inland harbour

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 21

Basle — a huge inland harbour

By

JOHN LESLIE

Landlocked Switzerland has a merchant shipping fleet of at least 35 oceangoing vessels, according to the latest advice from the Swiss Maritime Navigation Office. On rare occasions they are seen at Lyttelton. Switzerland also has a huge inland “sea port” — Basle, near the headwaters of the mighty Rhine (1300 km long) which flows into the North sea, through Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. ? Europe’s huge , land mass is criss-crossed , by great navigable rivers.. The Danube flows into the Black Sea and the Volga, Europe’s longest river, flows into the Caspian Sea. European countries are vitally dependent on their enormous riverborne commercial trade, hence the urgent need for great inland barge ports such as Basle. Switzerland has the largest seagoing merchant fleet among Europe’s inland countries but Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia also have their lesser share. Many obscure "flag of convenience” ownerships might swell the total. In addition to their enormous traffic of motorised freighting barges, the great rivers —' Rhine, Danube, and Volga — also have splendid, limited-sized, passenger “river liners.” It is the Rhine which has largely determined the

course of European history. A trade route since Roman days, minor sovereigns and robber barons, beset it from their riverside castles, exacting tolls from river traffic in the Middle Ages. In 1803, this hazard was abolished through French pressure. The Rhine Shipping Act of 1868, formed a controlling authority of combined user nations. The first towed-barge arrived at Basle on June 2, 1904. Year-round river navigation became practical only this century. Today’s owners of the magnificent inland port are the joint-cantons of BasleTown and Basle-Country, which lease the land with the requisite infrastructure (quays, roads, railway tracks, water and power supplies, lighting, etc.) to private firms, which erect and run, cargo-handling and storage facilities at their own expense. The whole inland port of Basle, often referred to as the “Ports of Both Basies,” is administered by the Rhine Shipping Office at Basle. Railways in the joint ports are run by Swiss Federal Railways. The “Ports of Both Basies” are not free ports, but technically “inland harbours” with facilities for bonded storage. Before he died, Mr W. I. Bradley, of Lyttelton, who gave many years of distinguished service to the Lyttelton Volunteer Fire Brig-

ade, visited Europe in retirement, and was impressed by the port of Basle. As a seaport dweller himself he suggested that this incredible inland Swiss river port might be of interest to New Zealanders. Twenty years ago, a Dutch-born, former Rhine barge master, Mr P. van Wyk, who had served in Rhine barges since his early youth, migrated to Lyttelton, and worked for the Lyttelton Harbour Board. Rhine barge work was hard but always interesting, he recalled. Less than a fortnight after being born ashore, his children came “home” to barge life. Education requirements prompted him to migrate to New Zealand, and although the huge motorised barges were commodious, clean and comfortable, children had to be considered. Mr van Wyk frequently spoke enthusiastically of the Rhine in spite of the long hours and hard work, so much so, that in the last decade, he returned to the Rhine with his wife to resume the work he knew best. The Rhine is particularly popular with tourists at this time of the year, not least New Zealanders who may admire sundrednched, riverside vineyards, medieval castles, historical cities, and the sight of skilful bargemasters navigating the fast-flowing river on pas-

sage from Rotterdam to Basle or vice versa, passing the famed Lorelei Rock, once haunted by a legendary siren who lured seamen to their doom. Names such as Cologne, Bonn, Coblenz, Boppard, Mainz, Worms, Mannheim, Strasbourg, and Basle were as familiar to Mr van Wyk as are Papanui, Riccarton, or Spreydon to Christchurch citizens. The luxurious Rhine passenger vessels, owned by the K.D. German Rhine Line, founded more than 150 years ago, include among this 27-strong river fleet the popular and comfortable Deutschland, Britannia, France, Nederland, Austria, Italia, Helvetia, and Europa. The great inland port of Basle is the end of the inland river trip by luxury vessel. Basle is a fantastic achievement, an industrial hive of activity, a tribute to the painstaking and meticulous, efficient Swiss. According to Mr van Wyk, who worked for two big Rhine companies, one of them owned by Baron Thyssen, a million large barges

— German. Belgian, French, Dutch, Swiss, and Polish, moved on the Rhine in a single year. Others were owned in Britain, Luxemburg, and East Germany, he said. Splendid summers were contrasted with harsh winters and sometimes their barges were frozen in. Rotterdam to Basle, or Basle to Rotterdam, with glorious scenery, German lager, or a Rhine wine festival may whet the tourist’s appetite, but for the Rhine bargemaster and his shipboard family, Basle is only another port of call. Although Basle is internationally acclaimed as the main river, inland, European port today, Duisburg, badly damaged in World War 11, was formerly Europe’s biggest inland port.