A 100-year-old barge that survived the Nazis in WWII – and later a devastating fire in Bembridge – will now be scrapped.
Rijnstroom IV, currently a houseboat moored at Bembridge Harbour, was built in 1922 to carry grain on the Dutch canal system. In the Second World War, it was commandeered by the Nazis to carry munitions on the River Rhine.
Fast forward several decades to 2004 and the veteran vessel was spotted by Robert Lowe, moored at the Odessa Boatyard in Newport. Robert bought the vessel which he then painstakingly converted to a houseboat.
In 2015, the houseboat suffered a devastating fire which destroyed the wheelhouse. The boat was then renovated in Hythe and returned to the Island.
Unfortunately, having been renovated twice, Rijnstroom then suffered structural damage whilst having her hull repainted in Cowes in 2020.
Now, following an 18-month investigation by Mr Lowe’s insurers, they have decided it is too expensive to repair, and have written the vessel off.
The barge will now be taken away by a Portsmouth-based salvage company on 19th April to be scrapped in a Hythe shipyard.
Robert Lowe and his wife have had to move into temporary accommodation, whilst Robert begins the task of building a new houseboat. He intends to convert an old Thames hopper barge which he is transporting from Rotherham to the Island.
Robert believes his new barge will take a year’s renovation work to become liveable and hopes to move into his new houseboat in 2023.
He says of the scrapping of Rijnstroom IV:
“It’s a sad end for this grand old barge that has made it to 100 years old, and also survived the Nazis in WWII.”
Good luck building the new boat house.
It was still more reliable than the floating bridge.
Brilliant comment, tickled my sense of humour
Just because the insurers have decided that it is to expensive for THEM to pay for repairs, does not necessarily mean it will be scrapped. If the historic interest is significant enough someone else may repair it. Lets hope so.
That boat was completely rotten when it entered the yard mentioned! I saw it!
It would be really lovely if a wealthy entrepreneur were to buy the barge from the insurance company and do the repairs themselves. So sad to have survived her history to date only to be “written-off”
Absolutely gutted! Me and my husband used to stay on the Rijnstrome for our hols. We loved visiting Bembridge so much that we have finally made our home here. Sad day! Please can someone rescue it? Pleeeeeez?
The boat was put into dock on levelled support blocks. During the docking process an area of the bottom of the boat pushed up and dislodged internal flooring, pointing to major structural weakness. Following insurance investigations discovered that the major structural sections of the boat had rusted away so badly, coupled with poor quality repairs in the past, means that the whole bottom of the boat is extremely weak. Non of that could be seen before docking as it was all hidden under permanently fixed floorboards. No liability or fault was attached to the yard.