The PS ''Helvetia'' was a

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

that operated on

Lake Zürich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

between 1875 and 1958. She had a capacity of 1200 passengers. The ''Helvetia'' was built in 1875 for the

Swiss Northeastern Railway The Swiss Northeastern Railway (''Schweizerische Nordostbahn''; NOB) was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (''Bodensee'') and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the ...

(NOB), and acquired by the

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft The Lake Zurich Navigation Company (, ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zurich () and the river Limmat in Zurich.The company's services connect lake-side towns between Zurich and Rapperswil/ Schmerikon, i ...

(ZSG) in 1903, when the NOB became part of the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

. Between 1909 and the 1950s, she operated alongside the later, and still extant, paddle steamers ''Stadt Zürich'' and ''Stadt Rapperswil'' as the backbone of the ZSG fleet. She last operated in 1958 and, after briefly serving as a restaurant ship, she was partially scrapped in 1964. The remains of her hull were scuttled at the harbour of Nuolen, where they remain. The ''Helvetia'' was named after the national personification of Switzerland, and this name is now carried by the ZSG's motor vessel ''Helvetia''.

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Paddle steamers 1875 ships Steamships of Switzerland Ships built in Switzerland {{Switzerland-stub