The sheetlet above is Switzerland 1978 Lemanex 78 Stamp Exhibition sheetlet containing 8 stamps (Lake Steamers plus 4 labels) unmounted mint, SG MS 952.
The stamp featured are :
- LA SUISSE: "La Suisse" is the flagship of the General Navigation Company (CGN) of Lake Geneva. The steamer has generous proportions: it is 78 metres long, 15 metres wide and has a capacity of 1,200 passengers.
- IL VERBANO: Commissioned in 1826 it was the first steamer on lake Maggiore Postal service between Magadino and Sesto Calende
- MS GOTTHARD: Early steam navigation on both Lake Maggiore and Lake Lucern benefited mainly from the heavily used St Gotthard Pass route.
- DS LOETSCHBERG :Steam navigation on the lakes of Thun and Brienz was taken over by Bern – Lotchberg – Simplon Railways in 1913. Loetschberg was commissioned to provide a service between Brienz and Interlaken.
- VILLE DE NEUCHATEL: This steamer is a low and flat bottomed saloon-type motor craft typical of the lakes and canals at the foot of the Jura mountains. She has been in service since 1972.
- MS ROMANSHORN: The stamp shows the car and passenger ferry "Romanshorn". She is a double-ended ferry, with 457 tdw, driven by two Voith Schneider propellers and was built in 1958. She can carry 560 persons and 35 cars on Lake Constance.
- LE WINKELRIED: The ship is 60 metres long she can embark 1100 passengers. She is equipped of four boilers, and her Compound engine with oscillating cylinders of 850 hp give a speed of 28.5 kilometres per hour. She is the fastest steamer at that moment
- DS WAEDENSWIL: The steamer Waedenswil was commissioned in 1895, converted to diesel operation in 1931, and finally laid up and scrapped in 1965.
Source: http://www.swissinfo.org/
