TARMO 1907 (icebreaker)

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Built as an icebreaker under yard No 797 by Armstrong Whitworth, Low Walker, New Castle U.K for the Government of Finland (Finnish Board of Navigation).
09 September 1907 launched as the TARMO.
Tonnage 1,574 gross, 497 net, dim. 67.1 x 14.3 x 6.1m.(draught), length bpp. 63.6m.
Powered by two triple expansion steam engines, manufactured by Wallsend Slipway Co.Ltd., Wallsend, 3,850 hp, speed 13 knots. Coal fired.
December 1907 completed.

27 January 1908 she arrived in Finland and served Finland for many decades as a icebreaker, she is the world’s oldest icebreaker.
She was not so economical when in services by full speed she burned four tons of coal every hour.
In the early years it assisted 200 till 300 ships annually, but the number increased in later years.

During the Finnish Civil War (27 January till 15 May 1918) the President of the Senate P.E.Svinhufvud and the senator Jalmar Castrén fled Finland on board the TARMO from Helsinki to Tallinn, from where she travelled to Germany, Sweden, Northern Finland and Vaasa.

During the War of Independence in Estonia (1918-1920) the TARMO transported 3,000 Finish volunteers to Estonia.

During World War II the TARMO served in the Finish Navy, she got an armament of 2 – 120 mm Vickers, 1 – 47 mm, 2 – 40mm Bofors, 3 – 20mm Madsen guns and two MG (machine guns).
18 January1940 while undergoing repair in Kotka harbour the TARMO came under attack of Soviet aircraft, which killed 39 crew members and wounded 11.

1950 She was modernised and refitted.
1963 Renamed in APU (help) when the new diesel electric icebreaker TARMO (II) came in service.
She was reserve until 1969 when she became a museum ship under her old name TARMO.

In 1970 during an exceptionally hard winter she came again in service as an icebreaker.

Between 1990 till 1992 she was renovated and is now a museum ship in Kotka Harbor, she has made in the spring of 1998 a brief visit to Helsinki and Tallinn.

IMO No 5352898.

Finland 2010 first class letter sg?, scott?

Source: Lloyds Register. Wikipedia. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Jean-Louis Araignon