Maritime Heritage Society wants to excavate 100-year-old tugboat

The Heritage of the Sea Association operating in the West Pomeranian region is considering the possibility of recovering the wreck of a unique steam tugboat “Bolek”. The vessel, which is more than 100 years old, has been lying submerged at the bottom of Lake Dabie in Szczecin most probably since the early 1970s.

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Why is this wreck so special? Well, it turns out that this is most probably the only specimen of this type of vessel in Poland. Its condition is so good that the Association is considering refurbishing the tug and, depending on the possibilities, restoring it to full working order, or “parking” it permanently in the future Maritime Museum in Szczecin.

“It is the only steam tug in our country in this condition. It is an absolute rarity. As an association we would very much like to bring it to the surface,” says Aleksander Ostasz, director of the Museum of Polish Arms in Kołobrzeg and chairman of the board of the Sea Heritage Association.

The tug, which measures 18 m long and 4.5 m wide, was built in the Netherlands in 1912. Its propulsion comes from 1927. It was then that a 120 hp steam engine was installed on “Bolek”, imported, like the vessel itself, from the country of tulips. Very little is known about its fate. Some information appears only in 1947, when after being fished out from the waters of the Vistula Lagoon and renovated at the river shipyard in Elbląg.

“Just getting the tug out is a cost of about PLN 100,000. To renovate it to a state where it could sail again is difficult to estimate, but it’s probably another 200 thousand PLN.” – Ostasz further explains.

From 1948 she was listed as “Bolek” in the register of the Maritime Office in Gdańsk. In 1950 she was transferred to the Przedsiębiorstwo Robót Czerpalnych i Podwodnych in Gdańsk, and in 1956 she sailed in the Szczecin branch of this enterprise. In 1968 she was withdrawn from service and handed over to the National Protection League.

“The tug lies near the entrance to the Dabska Struga, at a depth of about 10m. It is completely silted up. Raising it will be quite an interesting operation, but I think it is within our technical capabilities,” says Andrzej Kocewicz from the UW Serwis company, which has a lot of experience in conducting underwater work.

The Sea Heritage Association requests contact all persons who have any information about the tugboat. Its history, crew, people connected with “Bolek” or photos will be great research material.

Source: pap.pl, tvn24.pl