European Maritime Heritage
Newsletter
No 25. April 2009
The rebirth of the large floating crane Langer Heinrich
by Mr Giovanni Panella
hen speaking about the Italian “floating heritage” I would like to underline the fact that it’s heterogeneous: the various categories of ships and floating vessels included are indeed characterised by very different situations. Often yachts and vintage motorboats belong to wealthy owners who are able to pay for their restoration. Every year these yachts take part in gatherings and regattas and thus they are well known to the public - by this I mean the general public, not only boat enthusiasts. The situation is similar among boats of both national and international sailing classes, the ones that have made the history of sailing sports. However the situation is very different in the case of the crafts that we group under the generic denomination of “working ships and boats”: this category, indeed, includes a wide range of crafts, from small fishing boats to large Atlantic liners. Today this heritage has indeed reached its lowest lev-
W
els: several important ships have been wrecked, the few that still survive are in bad condition, and there is not even an inventory, a general overview, of what is left. Another category, very close to the field of industrial archaeology, could be considered as composed of the crafts operating inside harbours: floating cranes, tugs, barges, floating doors for dry docks, etc. In most cases, all these are craft that, after being laid up, are abandoned in some remote areas of our ports, awaiting to be scrapped. But sometimes, even for these craft, there are good news : the latest event in this respect - presented to the press last October - is the restoration of the huge floating crane Langer Heinrich . The long restoration process which took almost three years has been completed in Genoa harbour, and the crane has now regained its original appearance, the one it had when it started operating in the naval base of Bremerhaven in 1915 . The (continued…)
European Maritime Heritage
The rebirth of…
Newsletter
Published on behalf of the EMH by: S.M.E., Allégade 2, DK-3000 Helsingør, Denmark Tel: +45 4926 0748 E-mail: emh@smedanmark.dk Editorial staff: Ole Vistrup Giovanni Panella Contributors: Thedo Fruithof Giovanni Panella John Robinson Ole Vistrup
Photos: Mark Lloyd Giovanni Panella Ole Vistrup
_______________________________ EMH Office & Secretary: Mr. Thedo Fruithof, Dijkweg 222, NL-1619 JC Andijk, The Netherlands Tel: +31 228 593 136 Fax: +31 228 593 136 E-mail: thedo@wxs.nl President: Per Jessing, Olufsred Skogslyckan, S-510 22, Hysnaa, Sweden Tel: +46 705 100 038 E-mail: per@jessing.nu Vice President & Treasurer: Hendrik Boland, Frieseweid 1, NL-1602 LK Enkhuizen, The Netherlands Tel: +31 228 317 056 Fax: +31 228 317 056 E-mail: h.boland@planet.nl Executive Committee member: Mr. John Robinson, Woodmans, Stanley Downton, Stonehouse GL10 3QS, United Kingdom Tel: +44 1 453 822 908 Fax: +44 2 089 815 510 E-mail: rob.crusoe@btopenworld.com President d’Honneur: Mr. Anders Berg
(...continued) hull was built by the A.G. Weser shipyard and the crane’s structure was made by the DEMAG of Duisburg. The hull dimensions are 50x30 meters, it weighs 2,400 tons, it has a crew of 15 men, and can reach a speed of 4 knots; the Langer Heinrich is 84 metres high and can lift 250 tons at 360 degrees, a feature which is very useful to move the massive pre-fabricated equipment used to fit large ships. The pictures taken between 1915 and 1945 (kindly supplied by Mr. Markus Titsch from Wilhelmshaven) show it as it lifted loads of munitions or while it was used for the fitting of ships which then became famous for their military endeavours, like the battleships Admiral Graf Spee and Tirpitz. This crane – which for many years was the largest floating crane in the world – Langer Heinrich in 1932 was so well known in Germany that in 1925, at the time of the Weimar Repub- thermal stations until 1990, lic, it was even portrayed when it was moved to on bank-notes. The sky- Genoa harbour. Three years high value of those notes ago, its owner – in coopera(500 billion Deutschmarks) tion with Mr.Guido Rosato confirms that that was a pe- from the Ligurian “Soprinriod of rocketing inflation. tendenza” (the regional After surviving two world branch of the Ministry of wars, the Langer Heinrich Culture) – succeeded in was then used by the US having the Maestrale deNavy during the 1940s. In clared “worthy of protec1955 it underwent some tion” by the Italian Ministry restoration work whereby of Culture, and its restoraits steam boilers were re- tion was started. This has placed by diesel engines. In involved complex activities: 1985 it was bought by the considering that the crane shipowner Mr.Alessandro frame is not welded but rivZamponi, was renamed eted, several thousand nails Maestrale and used in Sar- had to be replaced and hotdinia to unload coal for clinched at heights up to 60
metres. These operations were entrusted to qualified technicians from Eastern Europe, who have maintained this know-how because they carry out maintenance on old railway bridges. The great care devoted to the tiniest details during the restoration is confirmed by the fact that research was carried out even to identify the exact shade of grey used in 1915 by the German Imperial Navy. Today the crane has gotten its original name back, Langer Heinrich, and operates in Genoa Harbour.
2
Anxiety over sailing-ship safety
by Mr John Robinson
T
he summer of 2008 has seen the loss of two sailing ships in the Bay of Biscay, each in circumstances which remain to be explained. The causes of their loss may have repercussions for the future regulation of such traditional vessels. The Balearic schooner Tho Pa Ga left Ibiza on 25 June bound for the Festival of the Sea in Brest, an event which she had not attended previously. Her unusual name is Tibetan, and can be translated as He who listens with delight. After a brief call at Vigo, the 42m wooden vessel departed on 5 July on the last stage of her voyage to Brest. She carried the flag of Caramed Maritime, a voluntary association devoted to the support of lateen sailing in the Mediterranean, which also sent smaller vessels to be exhibited at the Brest event. On the night of 8 July, the water level inside the schooner was found to be rising quickly. The skipper Gerald Delgado mustered his crew, having appealed for help by radio. A prompt response by the French Coastguard and Navy resulted in all 9 crew being saved by a skilful naval helicopter pilot and transferred to the ferry Pont Aven, on its way to Plymouth from Santander. Tho Pa Ga quickly sank in 116m of water off the Ile de Sein. At a Press conference in Brest on 15 July, Gerald Delgado paid tribute to the skill and professionalism of his rescuers, and surmised that the catastrophic leak might
have been caused by striking a floating object in the dark (heavy weather in Biscay in the preceding days caused the loss of deck cargo from various merchant vessels). The organisers of the Brest Festival took a lead in founding an association Sauvez la goelette Tho Pa Ga which is raising funds for a proposed salvage of the schooner. If successful, this may reveal the cause of her sinking. At 0230 on 11 September the brigantine Asgard II was on her way to La Rochelle for maintenance when she was found to be taking on water. Built of steel in Arklow and commissioned in Balearic schooner Tho Pa Ga 1981 as Ireland’s national sail training vessel, she had given some 10,000 trainees a taste of traditional sailing, and was a popular participant in Tall Ships races. Colm Newport has been her captain since 1992, and called his crew to take to the life rafts. They remained close to the ship as dawn broke and revealed her to be submerged to deck level. All 5 crew and 19 trainees were rescued by a French coastguard vessel and landed on the island of Brigantine Asgard II Belle Ile twenty miles away. The vessel sank at 0825. The main propulsion. Motor reason for her sudden sink- vessels are also reported as ing remains to be ascer- sinking after striking debris tained. at sea (as may have happened to Tho Pa Ga). But It is a blessing that there any enquiry into the causes was no loss of life, or even will certainly examine the serious injury, in either inci- procedures for closing wadent, a tribute to well- tertight divisions at sea in planned evacuation proce- such vessels. Careful condures carried. out in the sideration of the reasons for dark. Neither accident these sinkings may produce seems linked to the fact that lessons applicable, not only the vessel relied on sails for to traditional sailing vessels
but equally to more modern hulls constructed on similar principles, albeit of more advanced materials such as glass-reinforced plastic or ferro-cement. Historic vessels can produce useful messages which we are very willing to place at the disposal of modern naval engineers and shipbuilders.
3
Secretary’s Report 2007
by Mr Thedo Fruithof, EMH Secretary
T
he EMH triennial congress in Rotterdam was the topic of the year 2007. This was a congress within the framework of the future European Maritime Policy, a project of the European Union with the EMH Rotterdam Declaration as a result. As part of the same EU process EMH presented its view during a subsequent Conference in Bremen hosted by the EU Presidency. The protest against the proposal to ban pine tar had a good result: pine tar is not any longer considered as a biocide. In Rotterdam the General Assembly elected Per Jessing as the successor of Michael vom Baur, and the other ExCom members were re-elected. New membership applications were accepted from Portugal and Norway. The year round The Havenmuseum in Rotterdam hosted the 6th triennial EMH congress from 1618 April. The (old) harbour was an impressive setting for the congress. The prelude was a harbour tour and the start of the ‘Race of the Classics’. The participants enjoyed it very much and the sunny weather contributed to a real warming-up of the congress. After a reception in the evening, hosted by the Havenmuseum the congress opened. Nearly 80 participants from 15 countries exchanged knowledge and got acquainted with each other.
John Richardson, head of the EU Maritime Task Force was the keynote speaker. The traditional dinner closed the first congress day. On the second day 25 contributions were given and at the end a declaration – the Rotterdam Declaration – was discussed and accepted. For president the General Assembly elected Per Jessing (Sweden) as the successor to Michael vom Baur. Hendrik Boland (VicePresident and Treasurer), Thedo Fruithof (Secretary) and John Robinson (Minutes Secretary) were reelected for three years. Thanks to the staff and members of the Havenmuseum and the support of many sponsors the sixth EMH congress was a great success. Members of the ExCom attended the European Conference A European Vision for the Oceans and Seas in Bremen 2 to 4 May. Anders Berg, EMH Hon. President delivered a well-received EMH presentation based on Ole Vistrup’s text for the European Commission’s Green Book. In May also the final response for the Green Book was presented to the Maritime Task Force. In May the ExCom attended the publication of the Riga Charter launched by Fedecrail in Brussels and EMH attended a meeting of Fedecrail in Helsingør. In Antwerp the ESPO symposium was attended.
ExCom gave a presentation in Seixal (Portugal) during the conference organized by the local Ecomuseum that celebrated the museum’s 25th anniversary. In Ferrol (Galicia, Spain) EMH was present at a congress during the maritime festival of the Galician Federation of traditional boats (FGCMF). A presentation was given in Vigo during a conference in the framework of the Green Book process and during a symposium on replicas in Torgelow the Chairman of the Cultural Council was active. A paper about EMH was delivered in Santander during a symposium on port/ city relations and EMH was represented at the biennial ICMM congress in Malta in October. Six months after the EMH congress the proceedings of the Rotterdam Congress were published and offered to Nathalie Hesketh through Per Jessing as opening of the Classic Boat Show in Enkhuizen (Netherlands). A special thank to Wim de Bruijn for his effort to be on time with this publication. The Executive Committee met twice, in Admannshagen and in Helsinki. In October, Finland’s national umbrella organisation, the Skutföreningen Kustkultur hosted the EMH Working Group on the island of Suomenlinna in Helsinki,
where an attractive program was set up. A walking tour of the Island and a boat trip through the archipelago interspersed very fruitful meetings of the Working Group and Councils. The Safety Council met once in Helsinki, where Jaap Baalbergen (Netherlands) took over the chair from Jan Fock, who had led this important Council since its inception. Thanks to his energy and knowledge EMH achieved so many successes and an important Memorandum of Understanding for traditional ships in European waters. The Cultural Council met in Rotterdam and Helsinki. Per-Inge Lindqvist (Sweden) took over the helm from Arne Gotved (Denmark), who had previously conceived the idea of a charter and launched it in Barcelona. This so called Barcelona Charter is a charter for the conservation and restoration of traditional ships in operation and is more and more accepted as a practical guideline for ship owners and institutions. The Cultural Council started up a project for an inventory of traditional ships in Europe. The Inland Waterway Council, chaired by Dörte Münstermann has tried to recruit more national representatives to this Council, but only Germany and the Netherlands have responded so far. Germany has taken a lead in drafting a response to the Joint Work-
4
ing Group and the Netherlands has been invited to give a response. An application for Associate membership was received from Associacao Portuguesa do Patrimonio Maritimo in Portugal. Advisory membership was sought by the Ecomuseu Municipal do Seixal in Portugal and the Ship Preservation Centres at Bredalsholmen, Norheimsund and Gratangen in Norway. EMH was accepted into membership of Europa Nostra.
The EMH Newsletter came out twice and was distributed by post and by email. The EMH website is still a tool to communicate. No big changes were made. The contact list grew to 1700 addresses in 45 countries. Marianne de Zwart assisted in many office tasks, including financial administration.
The contributors in 2007 Eight National members (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom) formed the
base of our work. Eighteen Advisory members supported EMH. The maritime museums in Dunkirk, Enkhuizen, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Bremerhaven, Greenwich, Helsingør, Helsinki, Liverpool, London, Paris, San Sebastian, Seixal, Stockholm / Karlskrona, and the Skibsbevaringsfonden of Denmark supported our work and three Ship Preservation Centres in Norway from: Bredalsholmen, Norheimsund and Gratangen. There were five Associate members: Sail Training In-
ternational (STI), Maritieme Site Oostende (MSO) and the Sammenslutningen af Mindre Erhvervsfartøjer (SME) of Denmark, Estonian Association of Historical Ships, Baltic Sail/Hanse Sail Rostock and the Portuguese Association for Maritime Heritage (APMM). We continue to work together with our founders, volunteers and other interested people to keep Europe’s traditional fleet in operation.
Book review:
Fishing the European Coast by Mike Smylie
The History Press, Stroud, GL5 2QG England, www.thehistorypress.co.uk, ISBN 978 0 7524 4628 8, £14.99
By Mr John Robinson
M
ike Smylie is passionate about traditional fishing vessels. For five years he owned and sailed the Loch Fyne skiff Perseverance, which he found in southern Portugal and sailed back to the West of Scotland, where she had been built in 1912. Last year he wrote and published a history of these remarkable fishing vessels with their characteristic high-peaked lug rig and sharply-inclined sternpost, under the title The Slopemasts. Mike is no less passionate about the nutritional benefits of fish. For the International Festival of the Sea at Bristol in 1996, he prepared an exhibition called “The Herring Exhibition”, with a small mobile smokehouse which he still takes to festivals as part of his “Kipperland” show. You can see him at the Canal Festival at Nordhorn in Germany on 23-24 May and at the Wooden Boat Festival at Beale Park on the River
Thames from 5-7 June this year, where he will be smoking herrings and explaining their importance as part of a healthy diet. Over the past decade, Mike has travelled all over Europe conducting his own personal survey of traditional fishing vessels. As a qualified naval architect he can draw and describe them with a trained eye. Having worked as a shipwright at Dickie’s boatyard at Tarbert on Loch Fyne in Scotland, he also understands thoroughly the construction and maintenance of a wooden working boat. So anyone picking up his recent book Fishing the European Coast can do so with confidence that the author knows what he is writing about. The chapters broadly correspond to broads types of fishing vessels; beachlaunched boats, inshore and offshore sailing vessels, motorised vessels etc., ranging in each chapter across the
whole of Europe and occasionally into North Africa. His lively sketches enliven the text, as do occasional anecdotes about the exploits of individual fishing vessels. As a regular visitor to maritime festivals at Douarnenez and Brest, Mike has also seized every opportunity to photograph visiting fishing vessels under sail and to hear about their histories from the owners. The EC Fisheries policy of deliberately destroying traditional fishing vessels to meet decommissioning targets shows no sign of being reversed, despite the efforts of EMH and organisations such as the 40+ Fishing Boat Association (co-founded in 1995 by Mike Smylie) to secure the future of a few significant vessels for heritage purposes. Already many of the fishing boats photographed or drawn by Mike within the past decade have gone for ever. This very
readable book is full of perceptive observations demonstrating why these threatened vessels are an important part of the maritime culture we all share, and why we should cherish them and keep them sailing. Congratulations to the author for presenting his discoveries for us all to enjoy, and incidentally for providing a lively travelogue of his many journeys around Europe’s sea-coasts and rivers in search of these very important tools of human nutrition and survival. If ever we succeed in compiling a comprehensive Atlas of European Fishing Vessels, we shall need many more people as diligent and knowledgeable as M i k e S m y l i e (www. kipperman.co.uk ) to record and interpret the traditional vessels whose gradual disappearance we all deplore.
5
Lugger tackles the Southern Ocean
by Mr John Robinson. Photos by Mark Lloyd.
the challenge of building a new lugger with which to recreate the voyage. Accepting the requirement to keep contact with his family and supporters while at sea, he opted for modern solar panels to power his computer, and reluctantly included an engine to comply with modern safety requirements. To acknowledge these departures from historical accuracy, he has called the new vessel Spirit of Mystery. Navigation is by the sun and stars, using an historic brass sextant, but they have the benefit of bottled gas for cooking, and modern protective sailing suits, far superior to the oilskins worn by the crew of the original Mystery. Advisers ashore help them with weather routing information. Pete has limited his crew to four people, to reduce any risk that overcrowding can bring on a long voyage in arduous conditions. He is accompanied by his 14 year old son Eliot, his brother Andy Goss and his brotherin-law Mark Maidment. The quartet rowed Spirit of Mystery out of Newlyn harbour on 20 October 2008, and soon had to contend with seasickness as the crossed the Bay of Biscay. Departure had been timed to allow them to spend Christmas in Cape Town, their first landfall. Pete quickly learned the excellent qualities of a wooden boat in stormy weather at sea, and the massive Cornish oak frames and larch planking stood up well to the strains of rough weather. The keel, stem and stern are made from ekki, a hardwood
Pete Goss ete Goss is an international racing yachtsman who achieved international fame in 1996 when he turned back into a hurricane during the singlehanded Vendee Globe circumnavigation to rescue fellow competitor Raphael Dinelli. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur for this heroic feat of seamanship, French sailors remain highly appreciative to Pete for saving Dinelli from drowning in the wild waters of the Southern Ocean after his yacht sank, and he nearly died of hypothermia during his 48 hours in a freezing liferaft. Goss had to nurse him gradually back to full consciousness, with sweet tea and plentiful warm bedding, as they sailed together towards proper medical facilities on a far-distant shore. Pete Goss maintains his involvement with competitive sailing at international level, but recently took delivery of a traditionally rigged Cornish fishing boat in which he is recreating the voyage in 1854 of the lugger Mystery from Newlyn to Melbourne. Gold having been recently discovered in
P
Spirit of Mystery naturally resistant to borers and so dense that it sinks in water, reducing the need for additional ballast. Spirit of Mystery crossed the Equator on 21 November, and her crew looked keenly forward to meeting their families ashore in Cape Town over Christmas. Bad weather in the South Atlantic delayed their progress but early on Christmas Day they sailed triumphantly into Table Bay, to an enthusiastic reception. A stopover in Cape Town gave time for rest and a few adjustments to the rig. As the New Year began, the brave quartet sailed away from Table Bay to tackle the notorious Southern Ocean, with Melbourne as their first scheduled stop. This remarkable voyage, in a lug-rigged vessel hardly 12 metres long, will help to demonstrate the suitability of a traditional fishing boat to tackle some of the wildest seas on the globe. You can follow their progress, with periodic weblogs transmitted from the lugger by Pete Goss, if you enter ‘Spirit of Mystery’ or ‘Pete Goss’ into your computer search engine
Australia, six Newlyn fishermen proposed to sell their boat and seek their fortunes in the gold diggings. Their skipper offered to take them to Melbourne in the 37ft Mystery, which previously had hardly been out of sight of land. They pulled her out of the sea to protect her underwater hull with zinc, added some lockers for extra provisions and water, and left Newlyn in November 1854. Early the following year they sailed into Cape Town, where the colonial authorities were sufficiently impressed to entrust them with the mail for Melbourne, which was safely delivered 166 days after they had left Newlyn The original Mystery went on to serve as a pilot vessel on Australia’s east coast, where she was subsequently cast ashore and wrecked. Most of her crew subsequently returned to Cornwall with whatever they had earned in Australia. Diana Berry is a modern-day descendent of those brave Newlyn fishermen, who had the idea of commemorating the 150th anniversary of their epic voyage. In 2007 Pete Goss took on
6
Maritime Heritage in Portugal
Associação Portuguesa do Património Maritimo
by Mr. Ole Vistrup
T
he Portuguese Maritime Heritage Association Associação Portuguesa do Património Maritim APPM - was founded back in 1998. In connection to the Lisbon Expo 98 a large quantity of traditional and historical ships met, and it became the occasion at which the idea of a national association was born. Late December 1998 a meeting was arranged. Attendees came from all over Portugal, and the decision of forming the organisation was made. However … as it often happens among traditional boat owners … everybody are occupied with maintaining their own boats and ships … or busy earning money for the maintainance … and time for organisational work often gets a low priority. So not much happened until 2000 when some of the attendees from Setúbal began to work on the bylaws of the organisation, and it took another two years until December 2002, before the official registration of APPM took place. And not until 2006 an executive committee was elected, and the APPM started really moving. But then things started to happen. Based on the Parliamentary Assembly for the Council of Europe Recommandation 1486/2000 and on the Barcelona Charter APPM was able to propose three (continued…)
Above and below: Traditional salt carriers in the otherwise modern port of Setúbal.
7
Galeão Zé Mario … all three photos to the right.
(...continued) protocals of cooperation to local authorities. Galeão Zé Mario The restoration of the galeão Zé Mario, a former salt carrier, was the most important of the three protocals. Zé Mario had already once before been saved from scrapping, since already in the late 1980s she was restored by pioneers in preservation of floating maritime heritage Henrique Cabeçadas, Antunes Dias, and Alvaro Pescaria. These three gentlemen are by the way the main responsible persons for the exsistence of a fleet of galeão’s in Setúbal today. But in 2006 Zé Mario had been out of service for 3 years, and was deteriorating fast. In November 2006 APPM sent a document to the Portuguese National Nature Preservation Institute proposing that Zé Mario should be restored according to the principles of Recommandation 1486/2000 and to the Barcelona Charter. The proposal was accepted, and Zé Mario is now undergoing a major restoration. The main objective of the project is to get the ship back into active service. APPM members will use the ship in maritime tourism as well as for environment education cruises with school children.
8