Tarina
The year of construction of Hovinsaari is mentioned in many sources in 1921, but in reality it is older. It was probably built in St. Petersburg in 1905 as a small auxiliary / maintenance ship for the navy called Tsetvortij 4. Most sources mention that its year of construction is unknown. The ship’s time in Russia is obscured, but like Heikki Peuranen, it remained with the Finnish state in connection with independence. At the end of 1919, Enso Gutzeit Oy bought a few small ships and their hulls from the Russian Navy Central Department. They were used to make tugs at the Laitaatsilla workshop in 1920-21, such as “Kuokkastenkoski”, “Kekonkivi”, “Maavesi”, “Vuoksenniska” and “Hovinsaari”. The latter (was S8 when he moved to Gutzeit) was named after the island in Kotka and the Saha on it. However, it was not placed in Kotka, but in Lake Saimaa and Gutzeit’s so-called to the starting point of the intermediate route to Rutola.
The history of the Gutzeit Intermediate began when, in the 1880s, the expanding company began to need more wood. In the past, it had been procured mainly from the Kymijoki watershed, but now it was also procured from Saimaa, where there was still less competition and cheaper prices than in Päijänne. In order to get the Saimaa trees cost-effectively to the Kymijoki floodplain, Gutzeit built an over-export plant in Rutola, the southwesternmost corner of Saimaa, which was used to move the logs over a narrow isthmus and then float the so-called all the way to the Kymijoki River. The intermediate route was 110 km long, and the course of the swim in it varied: on some of the waterways the trees were swam in loose, on the lake sections they were sped on. There were 9 small sparrows at work along the fairway. The task of Hovinsaari was to receive the loads of large line tugs and bring them to the Rutola overflow plant for transfer to the intermediate route.
In 1955, Hovinsaari was turned into a bundle press against the stern and transferred to Lake Koitere in North Karelia to Pamilo Oy. It bundled mainly at the mouth of the Koitajoki River, which flows into Koitere, in Anninsalmi. Most of the wood was fog from Russia. The bundles were towed over Koitere to Pamilo, where they were lifted past the power plant and further towed to the Pielisjoki River. The work was done in two shifts, part of the bundle crew lived in their homes and the rest in Gutzeit’s barge in Koitere Helmi. Hovinsaari moved back to the Gutzeit fleet in 1959, but was sold the following year to the North Karelian Swimming Association. It then served the North Karelian Swimming Association until the end of its professional career, until it stood still in the 1970s and eventually passed into private ownership.
Technical information
- Name: Hovinsaari
- Type: Tugboat
- Home port: Porvoo
- Completed: 1905?
- Builder: ?, St. Petersburg
- Former names: Tsetvortij 4, S8
- Lenght: 14.65
- Beam: 3.62
- Draught: 15
- Speed (knots): 8
- Former owners: Enso Gutzeit Oy, Pohjois-Karjalan Uittoyhdistys, Private owners
- A nice to know fact about the ship:
- Engine type: Compound
- Engine built: ?
- Engine manufacturer: Savonlinnan konepaja
- Engine power (ihp): 50
- A nice to know fact about the engine:
- Boiler type:
- Boiler built: 1920
- Boiler manufacturer: Lypsyniemen konepaja, Savonlinna
- Fuel: Wood
- Furnaces (number): 1
- Operating pressure (bar): 10
- Heating surface: 20
- A nice to know fact about the boiler:
