‘The very first steamship to enter the Trondheimsfjord was the English Georg Canning, in 1837. During a stay in Trondhjem, the ship was rented out for a pleasure trip to Steinkjer. Everywhere, the steamship caused great excitement and sometimes horror. In Mosvik, the men resolutely refused to row out to the ‘Smoke boat’ (“Røykbåten”), which could go against both wind and current.‘ (From the information board at Jørstad)
15 years later, a fixed route network was established at Innherred, served by steamships. On Ytterøya, Jørstad was listed as a port of call from 1850.
‘D/S “Nidelven” was built in Trondhjem and was the first passenger steamship to be made in Norway. The hull was built at Trondhjem’s shipyard, it was made of pine, copper bolts and skin. The boiler and machine were built and installed by the Factory at Nidelven (now Trondhjern’s Mech. Verksted).’ Today the factory contains apartments, where we lived ourselves in the 1990’s. Coal consumption was 3 barrels per hour. The first trip was made on Trondhjemsfjorden on 24th of November 1850, including singing, music and great festivities.
In the first years there was no quay at Jørstad, people and goods were rowed out to the steamship. Indherred’s Aktie-Dampskibsselskab built the quay and the ‘Litjpakkuset’ (the Little Warehouse) at Jørstadsjøen in 1930. Now the goods could be hoisted directly on board. For easy lifting of horses and cattle, the steamship had its own cattle box. A cattle box copy can be found on the quay, and Idun just had to try it.
D/S Nidelven’s route at Innherred was a big disappointment, as the traffic in no way covered the expenses. Travel by steamship was considered luxury. People from Innherred traveled to Trondheim mostly by small boats. This took time, but then they could also spend the nights in the boat while they were in town, and a city trip usually took a week or two. The ‘Nidelven’ was later put into different coastal routes, but that was not a success either. She was too large for fjord shipping and too small for coastal shipping, and was scrapped on 18 October 1895 after many years out of circulation.
We took a commemorative bath for the steamship traffic from the beautifully restored quay. It was ‘Stiftelsen Ytterøy Bygdetun’ who started work on the quay in 2005.
Then it was just a matter of jumping in!
The last boat that went between Trondheim and Steinkjer was the motor ship “Steinkjer”. The boat was purchased by Indherreds Aktie-Dampsibsselskab in 1968, and put into service in December the same year. On 12 September 1974, “Steinkjer” made its last passenger and freight trip between Trondheim and Steinkjer. After 118 years, there was definitely put an end to the continuous passenger traffic by boats to and from Steinkjer. However, the story does not quite end here. If you’re lucky, say in early August, a steamship may still appear.
Sources: WikiStrinda, ‘Gamle Dampen’ by Olaf T. Engvig and Jørstad info board.