Radetzky (steamship)

About

The Radetzky (Bulgarian: „“, „Radetski“) was an Austro-Hungarian passenger steamship built in 1851 in the shipyard in Óbuda, Hungary, and used for regular services on the Danube, mainly between Orşova, Austria-Hungary and Galaţi, Romania. Named after Bohemian nobleman and Austrian general Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858), it is most notable as part of the history of Bulgaria as the ship which revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev and his band bloodlessly hijacked and used to reach Kozloduy, Bulgaria. On 29 May 1876, after the ship left the port of Bechet, the Bulgarian revolutionaries, who had boarded her from different ports disguised as gardeners, forced the captain Dagobert Engländer to change course and transport the band to the Bulgarian port of Kozloduy, from where they would attempt to organize an anti-Ottoman uprising as a follow-up to the already crushed April Uprising of the same year. Botev sent the following message to the crew and the passengers:[1] Mr Captain!Dear passengers! I have the honour to notify you that Bulgarian rebels, whom I have the honour to be the voivode of, are located on this steamship. At the price of our livestock and our agricultural instruments, at the expense of great efforts and sacrifice of our goods, finally at the price of everything which is dear in this world (without the knowledge and despite the pursuit of the authorities

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.