unknown boat (type?)

[Laurens Q-fin]

Good evening all,

Anyone with an idea on the type of ship? The photo has been in my collection for a while, could it be a so-called Sperrbrecher

Cheers,
Laurens


PS: Here's a larger photo: http://users.pandora.be/peselhoek/photo_00116_a.jpg

[coastie]

My guess would be an small coastal Ice Breaker, look at the bow and see how it curves in way before the waterline mark. It has no apparent weapons and limited cargo capacity. The ice isn't very thick in the picture about 6 inches or so, over time this type of ice could dent the sides of the hull if not re-enforced. I don't know if there are any blue nose sailors on the forum that could help us out here.

[Laurens Q-fin]

Thanks Charlie , it makes sense. Indeed, there are no weapons but I was a bit surprised to see such a splintern pattern if it's 'just' a coastal ice breaker. I should have added this photo as well where we see the same ship on the right (judging by the two poles and the lower shaft in the middle). It could well be that all three ships make a passage for the larger and armored ship.

I want to get back on the first photo one more time. Near the red arrow, any idea what this kind of arm is used for? I believe they can also be seen on minelayer vessels...

Cheers,
Laurens

[Laurens Q-fin]

detail

[Simon O.]

Isn't that a Finnish flag it's flying?

[coastie]

That arm is called a Davit you can see a pair of them next to the smallboat/lifeboat they are used to lower the smallboat into the water.

[coastie]

Isn't that a Finnish flag it's flying?

It appears to be.

[Laurens Q-fin]

Thanks for the replies guys
I will keep on looking for possible clues...

Cheers,
Laurens

[coastie]

If you have Photshop or some other photo software zoom in on the middle ship there is a name on the stern and might beable to get more info from that. If you want you can e-mail me a high density photo and I could play with it. Also you can seen a high density one of the ice breaker as well. After playing with them I will delete them.

[Laurens Q-fin]

I do have Photoshop but other than adjusting the contrast, I'm certainly not a hero with it. I would be glad if you can alter them any which way. However, my scanner only goes up to 1200dpi and I fear we will not get the details we need...

[Simon O.]

Maybe one of our Finnish friends can help but going through Janes fighting ships of WWII the profile matches the 'Sisu'. A submarine depot ship and Icebreaker.

[Laurens Q-fin]

Simon, I think you've got it
With the word 'Sisu', it seems this is the only reference on the internet (a scale modellers website):

http://www.steelnavy.com/1250Gallery.htm

The shape of the hull matches indeed. I will not speak of the rest because it is too small and too poorly made. If you have the time, could you post a scan or photo from inside Jane's book?

Also, Jari Aromaa has a large website from the Finnish Navy in WW2. I will take a better look tomorrow on his website (the Sisu is also listed)

http://www.hut.fi/~jaromaa/Navygallery/index.htm

It seems that 'Sisu' was used more than once. The name was given to an icebreaker and a torpedo boat in WW2 and it was also used in the seventies for a new icebreaker (three ships, one name, not easy )...

Thanks again,
Laurens

[coastie]

Good job Simon.

I didn't have any luck of bringing out the name of the freighter in the picture but the Home Port name seems very long almost the same length as Copenhaugen, still that is only a guess.