Bismark on the Kiel

[julesargonaut]

I've just seen the photograph of the Bismark being "assisted" through the Kiel canal by two tugs. I think the one on the left of the picture is the "Berby"-formerly the "Aegir" . She was purpose built for the canal in 1895 by Fried Schickau in his Elbing yard,then Prussia,now Poland. She was single screw driven by a 90hp steam engine. She finally left service on the canal in 1947 and has been through many guises since,private yacht,passenger ferry,sports fishing vessel, and now seagoing home. I aquired her as a wreck,the pumps were just keeping her afloat,25 years ago. I had no idea of her pedigree and was far too taken up with repairing her. one of the hinderances was that her documents had been fiddled,not a facet of the German character I was familiar with,saying that she was built in 1928 My boatbuilding background told me this was complete bull. Finally I had time to investigate a few years ago and after trips to Poland, Bremerhaven and Brundsbuttel and considerable help from an archivist Reinhart Schmelzkopf I now know her basic history. Her name now is "Sabine" which I think she aquired upon leaving the Kiel. I would be delighted if anybody has photos from any period of her history.She was also an inspection vessel for the canal and has a magnificent inspectors saloon,carved teak panels and a mahogany desk built to the sheer of the boat all of which I found buried under layers of formica,and she"s now powered by an auxilliary generator engine out of a U-Boat ! Runs beautifully.
The superstructure is my recent work.