{"id":10118,"date":"2016-10-06T19:31:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldfishing.nfdtesting.uk\/icefish-conference\/2016\/10\/06\/historic-trawler-project\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T00:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:17:07","slug":"historic-trawler-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/news\/industry-news\/historic-trawler-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic trawler project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Escreet, chairman of Hull-based SMS Towage is leading the campaign to re-float, lift and return the Viola <\/em>100 years after the vessel last sailed from the port.<\/p>\n

He has formed the Viola Trust, led by experienced industry figures under the patronage of former Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP, to raise the estimated project cost of \u00a33 million.<\/p>\n

As fundraising gets underway, Solis Marine is sending John Simpson and Rosalind Spink to spend two days examining the Viola<\/em> in South Georgia to determine whether the vessel can be delivered to Hull as early as next spring to take its place in a maritime heritage programme.<\/p>\n

Ms Spink said: \u201cThe only drawing we have is from 1905 and covers the class of vessel rather than the Viola specifically. She has never undergone a full inspection in the modern era so essentially we will look at her condition and whether she has the strength to survive the journey back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Viola<\/em>, which is also known as the Dias<\/em>, was built in Beverley in 1906 and sailed off to war in September 1914 with a crew of local fishermen after being requisitioned by the Admiralty. She was in the maritime front line throughout the Great War and involved in sinking two U-boats, making only a brief visit to Hull whilst still on Admiralty service in 1918.<\/p>\n

After demobilisation in Milford Haven, the vessel worked around the world as a trawler, a whaler, a sealer and an exploration vessel.<\/p>\n

In 1982 the Viola<\/em> was one of the vessels targeted by Argentine scrap metal merchants in the landing which sparked the Falklands War. In 2015 the Viola<\/em> was featured in a set of stamps which were released in South Georgia, where it still sits on a beach.<\/p>\n

To find out more and to offer help and donations please contact Paul Escreet at PEscreet@smstowage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World class salvage and marine engineering businesses are joining forces to try and bring a historic steam trawler back from a beach in South Georgia to its home in the UKs Humber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-10118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10120,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118\/revisions\/10120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10118"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=10118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}