Technology - Submarine travels to the museum - steel colossus on its last leg
A roughly 350 metric ton U-Boat is on the move after months of preparation, heading to a museum in Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg. The steel colossus, discarded by the Navy, left the premises of the Technik Museum in Speyer, Rheinland-Pfalz, on a heavy-load transporter on Sunday. Numerous onlookers couldn't help but be drawn to this extraordinary convoy and took photographs along the route. The first leg took the boat to the Rhine, where U17 was winched onto a floating dock on Monday. The maritime relic is expected to reach its destination on July 28.
The approximately 50-meter-long U-Boat has been in service since 1973 and was decommissioned by the Navy in 2010. A portal crane lifted U17 onto a barge in Kiel over a year ago, which transported the steel giant of the 206A class to Speyer. Thousands gathered at the Rhine bank in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rheinland-Pfalz, and Baden-Württemberg to witness the transport of this impressive exhibit. In Speyer, weight was removed – also to make the boat suitable for filming. For instance, U17 must be tilted 73 degrees to one side in Heidelberg to pass under the Old Bridge.
The transport covered the four-kilometer-long, winding route to the Rhine in roughly three hours on Sunday – a little faster than planned. The project is estimated to cost the museums around two million Euros, with the majority of the financing coming from donations. In Sinsheim, attractions like the supersonic Concorde jet and the Soviet passenger plane Tupolev Tu-144 draw thousands of visitors each year. Race cars, locomotives, and components such as the rotor blades of the Pionier wind turbine Growian can also be marveled at in the exhibition hall in the Kraichgau.
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The U-Boat is scheduled to arrive in its new home, the Technik Museum in Sinsheim, located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. This journey follows a detour through the city of Mannheim, also in Baden-Württemberg. The iconic Rhine River will serve as a transportation route, with the shipment expected to pass by the picturesque town of Koblenz. The U-Boat's journey will cover several German regions, including Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein, before reaching its final destination.
Cologne, a renowned city in North Rhine-Westphalia, was among the locations where countless people gathered to witness the transport of the U-Boat. Speyer, in Rhineland-Palatinate, was another key location where the vessel was thoroughly prepared for its move, including the removal of excess weight. The defense sector played a role in the U-Boat's previous life, as it served with the German Navy for three decades.
In Sinsheim, the U-Boat will join an impressive assembly of technological wonders, including the supersonic Concorde jet and the Soviet passenger plane Tupolev Tu-144. The exhibition hall in Kraichgau, known for its race cars, locomotives, and other marvels of engineering, is set to become the new stage for the U-Boat U17. The transportation of this historic artifact is a testament to Germany's rich history in technology and defense, as well as its capacity for hosting world-class museums.
