In 1974 the beloved steamer Thalia on the lake of Wörthersee built in 1909 was stopped due to some little damages from waves and had to be demolished. As the initiative of different citizens to preserve the Thalia was not a success from the very beginning, Velden pioneer (Veldener Pionier) Alfred Kretschmann decided to build a small steam launch in order to remember in such a modest way the steam era in the history of the steamboat building.
A small steam engine and a “dwarf” boiler were mounted on the existed boat structure. The death of the owner kept from completing the work, but the launch was made later by the employees of the museum "Historama" in 1990.

That made possible to think over the destiny of the ship Thalia and it was fully restored and put into service over again on 2 July, 1988.

In commemoration of the pioneer Alfred Kretschmann we introduce a historical parallel of two technical characteristics of two wide from being equal boats on the Wörthersee.

Specifications:
Steam launch DS Thalia

Length 4.50 m 39.80 m
Width 1.40 m 5.60 m
Engine power 1.5 hp (1 kW) 150 hp (110 kW)
Staff 4 4
Passengers 1 300