Zeldenrust III

Type: Motor barge, originally built 1932 as one of a pair
Length: 28.0 m
Beam: 5.1m
Draft: 1.1m
Engine: air-start Kromhout 2H3 80hp

Zeldenrust III (seldom at rest) started out as one half of a catamaran ferry in Nijmegen, Holland. The construction of a bridge lead to its decommissioning in 1936 and splitting into two tanker vessels. The portside half (the one here) was shortened by 7m at the Jonkers & Stans shipyard in 1936 and renamed Vlismar 4. In the second World War she was confiscated by the German Kriegsmarin and used as a supply vessel. Towards the end of the war it was found under water in Hoorn by the previous skipper Jacobus Dane, who later salvaged and restored the vessel. He added a back cabin in 1964 and continued skippering her until the 1970’s. The ship stopped working commercially in 1976 and had a couple of other owners before the present one acquired the vessel in 2006, moored in Rotterdam in the Museum Harbour as a class A original vessel for three years, before motoring over to London where the ship now lies.