DEANS MARINE PIETER BOELE STEAM TUG

A model in the Peterborough club on its test run, not quite finished, not the best days very cold wind and gusty, but needs must to get on with the build for the summer.
1/35th scale length 965mm x beam 180mm powered by a kyte motor running on 6 volts Nimh battery.
The "Wacht am Rhein VII" was built in 1893 as a Rhein tug by the P. Boele Shipyard at Slikkerveer in Holland. She was a tug powered by a coal fired boiler,a compound engine developing 300 IHP and was designed specially for the middle part of the river Rhein which has lots of bends and very strong currents. Her hull design is long and narrow to suit these conditions.
The steering and control gear is behind the funnel giving very little view forward but with a much better view of the ships which she tows. In 1894 the ship was taken into service under the name "Wacht am Rhein VIII" by J Huttner in Wesel-Buderich. This company was established at an outstanding location on a bend of the Rhein where in addition to towage they ran a hotel-restuarant. To date (1993) this hotel-restaurant was still managed by the Huttner family although the shipping operation was sold off many years ago.
Around the turn of the century the ship came under the control of the Johann Knipscheer Shipping Company who were the first firm who dared to attempt to tow a ship upstream to Basel on the Swiss border. The ship was renamed "Direktor Johann Knipscheer". In 1919 she was renamed "Speculant". Between 1924 and 1957 a number of major alterations were made to her power plant and superstructure.
Today
In 1972 she was renamed Pieter Boele, after her original builder and in 1987 handed over to the Prins Hendrik Maritime Museum in Dordrecht where she has been kept in service by volunteer enthusiasts.