SS ''Ollanta'', built in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1931, is a steamship on

Lake Titicaca Lake Titicaca (; es, Lago Titicaca ; qu, Titiqaqa Qucha) is a large freshwater lake in the Andes mountains on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, i ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

History

The Peruvian Corporation, a UK-owned company, had controlled

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

's railways and lake shipping since 1890. Traffic had outstripped the capacity of the Corporation's hitherto largest lake steamer (1,809 tons), the smaller (546 tons) and ageing '' Yavari'' and '' Yapura''. Accordingly, in 1929, the corporation ordered the ''Ollanta'' to work along with the ''Inca''.

Earle's Shipbuilding Earle's Shipbuilding was an engineering company that was based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England from 1845 to 1932. Earle Brothers The company was started in Hull in 1845 by two brothers, Charles and William Earle. The firm was made u ...

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

on the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

built ''Ollanta'' as a "knock down" ship; that is, they assembled her in their shipyard with bolts and nuts, marked each part with a number, and then disassembled her into many hundreds of pieces and sent her to Peru in kit form. The pieces were shipped by sea from King George Dock in Hull to Mollendo on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

coast of Peru. They were then delivered by rail to Puno on Lake Titicaca, where ''Ollanta'' was finally riveted together and launched. Earle's put the engineer William Smale in charge of reassembling and launching ''Ollanta''. At 2,200 tons and long, ''Ollanta'' was larger than any previous ship on Lake Titicaca. Titicaca, therefore, had no

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

big enough to build her, so one of Smale's first tasks was to have one built. A major ship had not been launched on Lake Titicaca since the ''Inca'' 25 years earlier in 1905, so no local suitably equipped workshops or skilled craftsmen were available for Smale to recruit. So, Smale made the best of local labour and improvised machine tools from railway equipment. Earle's sent a skilled team from England to help launch the ship, but Smale got ''Ollanta'' completed before the team arrived, so Smale launched the ship using his unaided local workmen. ''Ollanta'' had capacity for 950 tons of freight, 66 first-class passengers on the upper deck of her deckhouse, and 20 second-class passengers in the forward part of the ship. Her four oil-fired steam engines gave her a top speed of . She was the Peruvian Corporation's most luxurious steamer on the lake and the culmination of nearly 70 years' development of Titicaca steamers since the building of '' Yavari'' started in 1862. In 1975, the Peruvian Corporation was nationalized and ''Ollantas ownership passed to the state railway company ENAFER. She now belongs to ENAFER's successor

PeruRail PeruRail is a railway operator providing tourist, freight, and charter services in southern Peru. It was founded in 1999 by two Peruvian entrepreneurs and the British company Sea Containers. The main line between the port of Matarani, Arequipa ...

, which has refurbished her to carry a total of 70 passengers. ''Ollanta'' is no longer in scheduled service, but PeruRail leases her to be chartered for tourist cruises.

References

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