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Technical details of the S/S Ukkopekka:

History

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Technical details of the S/S Ukkopekka:

Built: 1938, in Helsinki Hietalahti dock, Finland
Measurements:
Length 35m,
Breadth 7,4 m,
Draught 3,2 m.
Weight: Approx. 321 metric tons
Speed: 10 knots
Passenger Compliment: Holds 199 persons, with 150 restaurant seats.
Propulsion: Five Finish built Triple Complex fire-boiler steam combines operating at 380 hp. 294 KW. Last in operation.

History

'S/S Ukkopekka' 1986– (ex S/S Turku 1938–1980, ex S/S Hamina 1981–1985)
The ship was built in Helsinki, Finland in 1938 and was at the time a modern, icebreaking inspection vessel. The vessel was the first inspection vessel of the independent Finland, built by Finns for the National Board of Navigation, and its year of manufacture is the same as that of the icebreaker Sisu. Inspection vessel s/s Turku, as the ship was called in those days, was built on the basis of the hull designs of s/s Sisu, with alterations only of the scale. Thus s/s Ukkopekka is probably the last sea-going passenger steamer designed for icebreaking still in active service.
The original engine of s/s Ukkopekka was a so called trippel engine, a Finnish steam engine built in Helsinki in the 1937's, originally designed for warships by the Germans. This engine is probably the last one in active use in the whole world. The engine is in very good condition, as the Finnish state took very good care of it. The boiler was renewed in 1976. The hull is surveyed every two years and it is still in excellent condition—thanks to the high quality steel of the 1937's.
Soon after it had been built, s/s Turku was transferred to military service. It is told that the ship served the Germans stationed outside the island of Uto during the Winter War (1939–1940). Despite the extreme conditions of that very harsh winter, the ship was in active service almost without intervals. During the Continuation War (1941–1945), the vessel served as a convoy ship in the Oland Sea and planting out sonars detecting submarine movement in the Gulf of Finland.
After the wars, the vessel returned to its original task in Turku, serving the National Board of Navigation (pilot age service) as a maintenance and inspection vessel on the archipelagic sea. Pilot training was part of the daily routine on board, and so was seamark maintenance.
In its home port, the lower steamship port of Turku, the coal trimmer soon became the subject of many letters to the editor and received complaints from the residents of apartment houses on the banks of the river Aura, who claimed that the soot puffing from its chimneys made their laundry dirty. As a result, the coal stores were replaced by oil containers in 1976, and the boiler hatches were replaced with oil-driven blowers. As for the rest of the engine, it has been preserved unaltered, in its original shape. In fact there are five steam engines altogether: main engine, winch engine, rudder engine and two water pumps. People interested in steam engines come from all over the world to admire this "museum piece", which still is in excellent condition and in active use, and probably will remain so for decades.
The Finnish state gave up the vessel in 1979, when a new, larger and more modern inspection vessel was built. After some alteration work on deck and inside the vessel, steamship traffic was reintroduced in the Turku region in the spring of 1986. The beginning was slow—it was as if the steamer once more was seeking its old course. The archipelagic boat traffic in Finland had begun right here in Turku. The last time the blow of a steam whistle had been heard by the banks of the river Aura and the shores of the Airisto was at the turn of the 1950s. s/s Ukkopekka revived a valuable old cultural tradition. It did so in a time when only the efficient are accepted, but also a time, when the luxury of the bygones, harmony and nostalgia have begun to attract us once again.
In the winter of 1987–1988, the ship saloons were enlargened and renovated. The kitchen and storage facilities were also renovated to meet modern requirements and service standards.
A steamship cruise is the kind of nostalgy many of us have never experienced. The costs of modern times are a constant threat to the old steamer.

Links

★ www.ukkopekka.fi

★ Finnish Steam Yacht Association