Built in 1825, she's named for Agrippina the Younger, a powerful Roman empress of the first century AD. Mother of Nero and sister of Caligula, Agrippina is always embroiled in a scheme. She plots her son's path to the throne, then has to evade his attempts to kill her.
His most spectacular assassination attempt takes place on her personal barge, when he has henchman rig the floor to break open, dumping her into the sea. That's one version.
In another, a lead roof collapses and should have killed Agrippina, but a corner catches on a couch and she squirms out from underneath. At this point the crew, having been paid or threatened by Nero, promptly sink the boat.
One of Agrippina's friends, hoping to be saved, calls for help, crying "I am Agrippina!" The henchmen bludgeon her to death in the water, while Agrippina swims to shore and takes refuge among peasant girls.
Nero then sends an assassin, and this time the plot prevails. Agrippina dies at the age of 43. The tempestuous life of the Empress might have been a warning for the woes of the steamship Agrippina.
In the 19th century, steam rules Europe and the West. Steam engines fed by coal drive machinery, trains, ships and more. River boats operate on wind, steam and paddle-wheel power. The Agrippina has two paddle wheels, one on each side, smokestack and sails.
Ships like Agrippina develop from engineering and industrial breakthroughs. Built in 1825 as a Rhine river boat, Agrippina is a forerunner in strength and style, with three masts and fifty beds. The building of this ship is a highlight of the Romantic Era in Germany.
The Rhine River of Germany captures hearts and imagination. Flowing from Basel to the North Sea, the Rhine is a path of international travel, trade and adventure for centuries. Rumors circulate of hidden treasure.
Rhine cruises came further into vogue in the 1800s, although steamship Agrippina knows little of them. Her dynamic engines are top of the line, but alas, the weight makes her too heavy to pass draft tests for the Rhine.
Originally designed for use in the Middle Rhine, she's put to work as a freighter on the Lower Rhine. This also fails and engineers uses Agrippina's engines as part of the innovative tugboat Hercules, thereby creating the first effective compound steam engine.
In 1829 Agrippina is the first towed barge on the Rhine. In 1836 she's briefly in miliary use as a troop transport vessel, decorated with the arms of Prussia. She takes a battalion of about 600 men to Koblenz.
In 1837 she receives some luxury use as she carries the King of Württemberg, family and entourage from Cologne to The Hague. According to a later traveler the cabins of the Agrippina are luxurious, with gleaming mirrors and polished wood.
Then a major accident in Rees, Germany in January 1841 causes extensive damage and shipboard flooding on the way upstream. The captain has to beach the boat and put the passengers ashore.
After an overhaul, Agrippina goes into work service to became the first steamboat to tow an iron barge on the Rhine. In the 19th century iron barges are quickly replacing wooden ones.
In 1843 she's struck by a coal ship while in port and immediately sinks. Although she is raised, and tows barges afterward, Agrippina soon goes to her final resting place in a ship junkyard, and is taken apart in 1846.
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