20 people drowned in Lake Lucerne 80 years ago
Published: Friday, Oct 11th 2024, 10:10
Updated At: Saturday, Oct 12th 2024, 05:50
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One of Switzerland's biggest shipping disasters occurred on Lake Lucerne 80 years ago today. When two ships collided, 20 people drowned - most of them from the same village.
On October 12, 1944, Gottfried Studer from the Entlebuch community of Escholzmatt married Pia Portmann. They celebrated until the evening in St. Niklausen, a pretty village on Lake Lucerne near Horw, not far from Lucerne.
The wedding party then boarded the motorboat "Schwalbe", which was to take them to Lucerne railroad station. At the entrance to Lucerne Bay, 60 to 70 meters from the shore, there was a fatal collision with the Nauen "Schwalmis", as the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (NZZ) reported the following day.
"Shocking cries for help"
The "Schwalbe", with 33 passengers on board, sank in the lake, which was around six meters deep. Some of the passengers were trapped in the cabin, others fell into the water. The NZZ reported "distressing cries for help".
The crew of the Nauen was able to save 13 people. Almost all of the 20 fatalities lived in Escholzmatt, as the list of victims published by the NZZ shows.
The groom survived, but not his bride. His father, his parents-in-law, several brothers and other relatives also died. The wife and daughter of a Lucerne National Councillor were also among the dead.
Half families killed
The tragedy was that half the families had perished, wrote the NZZ. Escholzmatt had been plunged into deep mourning by the accident and children had waited in vain for their parents to return home.
The groom, his grandfather, had taken in three orphans, journalist Sämi Studer, who had written a book about the accident, told SRF's Regionaljournal Zentralschweiz on the occasion of the 75th anniversary five years ago.
The captain of the "Schwalbe" also lost his life. The autopsy revealed that he was under the influence of alcohol. His motorboat was overloaded. It remains unclear why he headed straight for the oncoming Nauen.
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