A U-17 submarine heads for Speyer
A U-17, class 206A submarine with a length of about 48 metres has arrived in Dordrecht and will soon be passing through Rotterdam. On the morning of May 2, between 8:00 and 9:00, the vessel passed under the famous Erasmus Bridge as it makes its way to Speyer in Germany.
The vessel is heading for the Technik Museum Sinsheim Speyer where it will reside as an exhibition object. Royal Van der Wees Group from Dordrecht has transported the submarine U-17 from Kiel through the North Baltic Sea Canal and across the North Sea on behalf of Spedition Kübler and the Technik Museum Sinsheim Speyer.
The U-Boot
The submarine has a length of about 48 metres and a draft of 4.6 metres displacing about 500 tons. The deployment area of the submarine was mainly in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Later after conversion to the 206 Alpha class the submarine was also deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.
The U-17 has performed a very special mission. Together with the U-26, it was the first German submarine in American waters after World War II. It was also the first to enter Baltimore harbor after the last submarine docked there in 1916 (U-Germany).
The Type 206 boats served the German Navy for almost 40 years, longer than any other submarine before that.
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Van der Wees handling the transport
In Kiel, the submarine was loaded with a 900-tonne crane onto a floating pontoon Lastdrager 27 of Van der Wees that then delivered the vessel via the Kiel Canal along the North Sea coast, to Dordrecht.
From there the U-17 will go through the Netherlands over the Waal back to Germany and then over the Rhine past Cologne Cathedral, the Loreley and the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz to Speyer.
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In Speyer, the submarine will go ashore on heavy transport transport towards the Technik Museum. At the Speyer location, the Technik Museum’s workshop can check all parameters for onward transport to Sinsheim and make the necessary preparations.
According to the Royal Van der Wees Group, the onward journey on the Waal/Rhein towards Nijmegen, will begin on Thursday May 11.
Passage under the Erasmus bridge
Royal Van der Wees Group paraded the submarine in the morning hours of May 2, when its Lastdrager 27 passed under the iconic Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam. Our colleagues from Schuttevaer were on site and happy to provide us with a photo of the passage.
