Photo: TeuvoSalmenjoki · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Museohinaaja Santtu

The museum tugboat Santtu is an iron-framed steamship built in 1894. It belongs to the collections of the Satakunta Museum and is moored at Reposaari in Pori.

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About the museum

The museum tugboat Santtu is a museum ship belonging to the collections of the Satakunta Museum, moored at Reposaari. The iron-framed steamship was built in 1894 at the Helsinki shipyard, and its earlier names were Bomba and Santahamina. The S/S Bomba was sold in the year it was completed to the Russian coastal artillery as a transport ship for the fortresses of the Gulf of Finland. The government of independent Finland seized the vessel in 1918 and handed it over to the navy; the ship was renamed S/S Santahamina and served as a transport ship between Helsinki and the naval bases near it.

In 1924–1927 the ship passed to the Mikkelin Puutavaraosakeyhtiö timber company, which operated on Lake Saimaa. In 1938 the Pori company Werner Hacklin Oy bought it, and the ship was renamed S/S Santtu; at that time it was thoroughly repaired, and its deck structures, engine room and living quarters were reshaped. In 1948 a diesel engine replaced the steam engine. Santtu worked as a harbour tug at Reposaari and Mäntyluoto until the 1970s; during the war it was used for outer guard duties and, in 1945–1948, for mine clearance.

The owner of Hangon Hinaus Oy, Heimo Saarinen, bought the vessel in 1971 and in 1982 donated it to the City of Pori as a museum ship. The Satakunnan Museon ystävät ry (Friends of the Satakunta Museum) association is responsible for the basic upkeep and public presentation of the ship in co-operation with the Satakunta Museum.