Friday, July 07, 2006

The dying minesweeper



The poor old thing was no longer needed and anchored up the Schelde river. Left to die. The Belgian Navy replaced a number of these old wooden minesweepers by modern boats with 'plastic' hulls. I retraced the history of these wooden minesweepers and found that they were originally bought from the U.S. right after WW II.
M906 is the only boat of its kind left. A couple of years ago a group of enthusiasts started restoration with only limited funds. They claim that if the ship is not taken care of urgently it will deteriorate beyond repair. Due to the daily tides on the river the ship comes to rest with all its weight on the hull and the wooden spine of the boat will eventually break...
This picture is from the first roll of film with my 'new' Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR with Planar lens.

I went back to the site last week, only to discover that M906 is no longer there. From the 'M906 Breydel' website I learned that at this time the ship is being wrecked at a nearby shipyard...