Lifting bags have arrived – Lake Constance wreck to be lifted in March
Published: Monday, Jan 1st 2024, 05:20
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The ship "Säntis" has been sunk in Lake Constance for 90 years. An association wants to raise and exhibit it in March. The material needed for the complicated operation has just arrived from China.
The planned lifting of a 130-year-old ship from the bottom of Lake Constance is entering the hot phase. The twelve lifting bags with which the wreck is to be brought to the surface from a depth of 210 meters arrived in Romanshorn TG shortly before Christmas, as the president of the ship salvage association, Silvan Paganini, told the German news agency DPA. The bags had been ordered in China and were first shipped to Hamburg and then brought to Switzerland.
The deadline for authorities and organizations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to raise objections to the project expired on 31 December. The association, which was founded to raise the "Säntis", will find out in the coming weeks whether anyone will object. "We are confident that everything will go according to plan," said Paganini.
The "Säntis" was no longer fit to sail and was scuttled in May 1933. It lay in the middle of the lake between Romanshorn and Langenargen on the German side. Scrapping it was rejected as too expensive at the time. The 48-metre-long ship had been sailing on Lake Constance since 1892. It could carry 400 passengers.
Time is of the essence for mussels
The salvage operation is due to start at the beginning of March. The ship is to be lifted with the lifting bags and a recovery platform and stored at a depth of around twelve meters closer to the shore. It will then be fully salvaged at the beginning of April.
Time is of the essence, said Paganini. On the one hand, because the association is allowed to use the shipyard in Romanshorn free of charge for 14 weeks from March. "But also because of the quagga mussels," explained Paganini. The introduced species has been spreading in Lake Constance for a few years. The mussels could soon cover the wreck in a thick layer. This has already happened to some wrecks at shallower depths, he said. "The wreck of the steamship "Jura" off Bottighofen is now just a big pile of quagga shells." There were also shells on the chimney of the "Säntis", which was salvaged in July.
Exhibition venue is not yet known
The association, which has around 30 members, has raised 260,000 francs for the salvage material and the conservation of the wreck in addition to donations in kind via crowdfunding. There is already a berth for two years after the salvage, said Paganini. The "Säntis" is to be put on display. Whether in Switzerland was still unclear. "We don't have a commitment yet and are open."
Paganini, technical operations manager at Schweizerische Bodenseeschifffahrt, worked in the offshore oil and gas industry for a long time. What attracted him to the project was how the lift could be achieved with little money and without large crane constructions. "The depth of the water is exciting and you have to use a few tricks," he said.
©Keystone/SDA
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