Bad weather on Lake Constance delays work on salvaging the steamboat
Published: Thursday, Apr 4th 2024, 13:40
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The bad weather in March has delayed the preparatory work to salvage the steamship Säntis from the bottom of Lake Constance. The plan is still to bring the ship ashore on April 17. The prerequisite for this is a longer period of good weather.
"We are certainly behind schedule," said Silvan Paganini when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. The president of the Schiffsbergeverein and the other members of the association, who are devoting their free time to the project, have only been able to work on the lake for one day and one night in the past two weeks. One reason for this was strong winds.
For this reason, not all of the lines that are needed to lift the ship and are to be pressed under the hull beforehand have been attached. Another attempt will now be made this weekend.
In addition to the personnel and the weather, the technology is one of the main challenges during the rescue. "We are a low-budget project," said Paganini. If a system breaks down, it is difficult to organize a replacement. The association almost lost one of its diving robots used for the preliminary work. The loss of this robot would probably have resulted in further significant delays.
Hope for three days of good weather
Stable weather conditions will once again be required when the work at a depth of 210 meters is completed. The ship will then be raised from the bottom of the lake to just below the surface. The "Säntis" will then be towed with a recovery platform into a bay off Romanshorn TG and lowered there again.
On April 17, the ship is to be brought to the surface and towed to the shipyard of Schweizerische Bodensee-Schifffahrt AG (SBS) in Romanshorn. According to Paganini, this phase of the salvage operation requires three days of good weather in a row.
Despite all these challenges, the president of the Schiffsbergeverein is confident that the original schedule can be adhered to. If the "Säntis" cannot be brought ashore on April 17 as planned, the association will continue to try until the end of the month. However, those responsible would then not have much time left.
Permit for salvage expires at the end of April
"The permit for the salvage expires at the end of April," explained Paganini. The association is also dependent on employees from the SBS shipyard to launch the ship. "Once the peak season has started at SBS, these people will no longer be available," says Paganini.
The "Säntis" was scuttled in May 1933 because it was no longer fit to sail. She was moored in the middle of the lake between Romanshorn and Langenargen D. Scrapping her was rejected as too expensive at the time. The 49-metre-long ship had been sailing on Lake Constance since 1892 and could carry 400 passengers.
©Keystone/SDA
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