Story
Rito’s past is largely shrouded in obscurity. Some sources mention 1906 as the year of its construction, but no confirmation has been obtained, and no one knows for sure where it was in its early days. Heikki Kuosmanen, who owned the ship in the 1960s, recalls hearing that Steamboat was originally a private pleasure boat in the Gulf of Finland. It moved from the sea to Päijänne (according to vague information, it would have been used by the tar factory owned by Paavo Kuosmanen in Kuohu, Jyväskylä countryside, around 1920) and from there to Pielinen, the Saimaa watershed, where the first owner is Junnula House. This is the ship’s first certainly known owner to have it since at least the mid-1920s. The ship carried “milk to the dairy and the people to the waters”.
At one point, the steam engine was replaced with a Wikström internal combustion engine, which, however, “fell” fairly quickly after the ship was taken over by Martti Nieminen, a locomotive driver from Nurmes. Martti, like his brother Erkki, was a steamer, and the machine – presumably a boiler – was obtained from the brothers’ steam called “Lokki” in Jyväskylä, which had previously steamed in Keurusselä as “Pohjoislahti”. The boiler was originally from a local soft drink factory, it was built in 1934 in Tampere. They are still part of Rito’s equipment.
A man who became the owner of Rito in the turn of the 60s says that he sailed on board e.g. In the “beach collection of runaway trees” and vendace workshops. “It was an incomparable boat. It doesn’t matter better. The frame was of excellent excellence, and there was no need to fear Pielinen’s worse weather. There was always enough fuel, wood, and always on the shores of the islands enough to reach the home beach by the stack ”. However, the ship eventually fell into disrepair for lack of use until it was “found” again and bought (then anonymously) in 1974 by a steam enthusiast from Lahti with a fairly large steam fleet at its best: Riton, whom he gave the working name “Nina” Actions. Rito’s deck structures and interior had deteriorated, but its machine and boiler were working properly, and the ship was driven by its own machines from Nurmes to Ristiina, from where it was transported by road to Lahti where it was thoroughly refurbished. The new deck structures were made of sheet steel, striving to follow the forms of hummingbird vapors at the turn of the century. At the turn of 1976-77, the ship was resold to a private owner, and it was transferred to Mikkeli and later returned to Saimaa after refurbishment.
After his return, however, Rito’s runs declined, and eventually it stood still. In 2016, the vessel gained new owners and will be restored to working order again.
Technical information
- Name: Rito
- Type: Steam launch
- Home port: Ristiina
- Completed: 1906?
- Builder: ?
- Former names: ?
- Lenght: 8.25
- Beam: 2.05
- Draught: 0.6
- Speed (knots): 5–6
- Former owners: ?, Junnulan tila, Viensuu, Lieksa (?-?), Private owners (1955-2016)
- A nice to know fact about the ship:
- Engine type: Compound
- Engine built: ?
- Engine manufacturer: ?
- Engine power (ihp): 7–8
- A nice to know fact about the engine: Without condenser
- Boiler type:
- Boiler built: 1934
- Boiler manufacturer: ?, Tampere
- Fuel: Wood
- Furnaces (number): 1
- Operating pressure (bar): 5
- Heating surface: 2.5
- A nice to know fact about the boiler:
