Traditionelle Boote in Deutschland. T. 7, Weidling und Weidlingbauer am Hochrhein

Abstract

Since drawings of traditional boats are extremely rare, it was a remarkable circumstance that, in the context of the German Research Foundation’s research project "Pre-Industrial Water Vessels in the Rhine River Basin", four drawings of "Weidlings" - as the flat-bottomed boats of the High Rhine are called - could be secured for the German Maritime Museum Archive. Executed in 1948 and in the 1960s, the four drawings comprise two depictions each of the "Langweidling" (long Weidling) and the "Halblangweidling" (half-length Weidling). The 22 and 21-metre-long Langweidlings and the 16-metre-long Halbweidlings are narrow, flat-bottomed vessels with blunt-tipped, upward-curving bows and sterns. When the research was carried out in the 1980s, boats of this type were already no longer encountered. Boats referred to as "Fischerweidlings" or "Fahrweidlings" now represented the Weidling vessel type. In these vessels, the ratio between length and width had shifted distinctly in favour of the width. Many of these Weidlings ended at the stern with a transom board. Interviews with two Weidling builders - a synonym for boat builders in Switzerland - as well as participatory observation of their work provided further insights into the development of Weidling construction. The article comes to the conclusion that the vessels subsumed under the generic term "Weidling" have a small number of features in common: a flat bottom, carvel side planking and blunttipped bows and sterns. A special common feature of these boats is that they were rowed from a standing position. In shallow waters they were also propelled by punting.