Lucia

Type: Luxe Motor
Year: 1925
Length: 24.9m
Beam: 4.5 m
Draft: 1.5m
Engine: DAF 825

Lucia was launched on the 17th March 1925 at the shipyard of Willem Mulder in the Skadskanaal in the Netherlands. She is a Luxe Motor, a “modern” inland vessel built without sails to capitalise on the relatively newly invented diesel engine (which first started to be used in ships from about 1910). She was built for bargeman Dirk Rehorst from Ouderkerk on the IJssel. He Christened the vessel “Verwisseling” which means to change and is possibly reference to his move from sail to engine. The ship owner Rehorst financed his barge by a loan of 7500 Dutch Guilders. The original engine, a Berkel, was affectionately known as “Fat Boy” and looked more like a steam engine with its external shafts, wheels and oilers than a diesel engine. When it was finally removed and replaced by a modern Daf it was restored by the Kramer Brothers and put on show at their engine museum at Zaandam. Through a variety of owners “Verwisseling” was renamed “Stella Maris” and then “Lucia” and came out of trade in 1978. Lucia arrived in Britain in 1999.