The ''Viola'' is a

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

trawler built in 1906 in

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

. She is the oldest surviving steam trawler in the world. During her long career, she was known as HMT ''Viola'', ''Kapduen'', and ''Dias''. She is currently beached at

Grytviken Grytviken ( ) is a Hamlet (place), hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic. Formerly a whaling station, it was the largest settlement on the island. Grytviken is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, ...

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

, though there are currently plans afoot to return her to Hull.

History

Cook, Welton & Gemmell Cook, Welton & Gemmell was a shipbuilder based in Hull and Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. England. They built trawlers and other small ships. History Founding and move to Beverley The firm was founded in 1883 on South Bridge Road, Hul ...

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

built ''Viola'' for the Hellyer Steam Fishing Company in 1906. After launching, she was floated down the

River Hull The River Hull is a navigable river in the East Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. It rises from a series of springs to the west of Driffield, and enters the Humber Estuary at Kingston upon Hull. Following a period when the Archbishops o ...

where the engineering firm of Amos & Smith fitted her with steam engines. She burnt

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

until 1956 when she was converted to oil. She was part of the Hellyer Steam Fishing Company's

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

fleet, and like much of Hellyer's fleet was named after a

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

character. Hellyer trawlers stayed out at sea for weeks at a time, transferring their catch to a fleet of five fast steam

cutters Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * ...

that commuted between the fishing grounds and the fish markets of eastern England. ''Viola'' was regularly at sea for more than 310 days a year.

''Viola'' at war

In September 1914, ''Viola'' was requisitioned by the Admiralty (FY 614) armed with a 3 pounder gun and moved to

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

, patrolling the waters out as far as

Fair Isle Fair Isle ( ; ), sometimes Fairisle, is the southernmost Shetland island, situated roughly from the Shetland Mainland and about from North Ronaldsay (the most northerly island of Orkney). The entire archipelago lies off the northernmost coa ...

looking for

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

s and escorting other vessels. Later in the war, ''Viola'' was armed with a

12-pounder gun 12-pounder gun or 12-pdr, usually denotes a gun which fired a projectile of approximately 12 pounds. Guns of this type include: * 12-pounder long gun, the naval muzzle-loader of the Age of Sail * Canon de 12 de Vallière, French cannon of 1732 * C ...

, and transferred to the

Tyne Tyne may refer to: __NOTOC__ Geography *River Tyne, England *Port of Tyne, the commercial docks in and around the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England * River Tyne, Scotland *River Tyne, a tributary of the South Esk River, Tasmania, Australia Peopl ...

for

minesweeping Minesweeping is the practice of removing explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that purpos ...

duty. She was one of the first vessels to use

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

s. She was also fitted with

hydrophone A hydrophone () is a microphone designed for underwater use, for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones contains a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potential when subjected to a pressure change, such as a ...

s. Along with other armed trawlers she was involved in actions resulting in the sinking of at least two U-boats: the

UB-30 SM ''UB-30'' was a German Type UB II submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy () during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 22 July 1915 and launched on 16 November 1915. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 18 March ...

off

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

on 13 August 1918, and the UB-115 off the

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

coast on 29 September.

''Kapduen'' and ''Dias'' - whaling

Many vessels from Hellyer's North Sea fleet were lost during the war. After the war Hellyer decided to concentrate on the distant fishing grounds off the coast of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

. Consequently, in 1918 they sold-off the remaining North Sea trawlers, including ''Viola'', which they sold to Massey & Sons. In the following year Massey sold her to L. Thorsen of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, who renamed her ''Kapduen''. The

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

firm of Nils Torvald Nielsen Alonso acquired Thorsen and converted ''Kapduen'' for whaling, fitting her with a new bridge forward of the funnel. She was renamed ''Dias'' in 1924 and over the next few years whaled off the coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. By 1927 she was laid up at

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

''Dias'' - sealing and expeditions

''Dias'' was then sold to

Compañía Argentina de Pesca Compañía Argentina de Pesca () was initiated by the British-Norwegian whaler and Antarctic explorer Carl A. Larsen, and established on 29 February 1904 by three foreign residents of Buenos Aires: the Norwegian consul P. Christophersen, ...

, who moved her to

for sealing. She also served as a support vessel for expeditions in the South Atlantic, supporting the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasting, weather forecasts and to study the weather and clima ...

Laurie Island Laurie Island is the second largest of the South Orkney Islands. The island is claimed by both Argentina as part of Argentine Antarctica, and by the United Kingdom as part of the British Antarctic Territory. Under the Antarctic Treaty System a ...

, the

Kohl-Larsen Ludwig Kohl-Larsen (born ''Ludwig Kohl''; 5 April 1884 in Landau in der Pfalz – 12 November 1969 in Bodensee) was a German physician, amateur anthropologist, and explorer. Biography In 1911, he traveled as ship's doctor with Wilhelm Filchner ...

Expedition of 1928/9, the British South Georgia Expedition of 1954/55, the topographical surveys carried out by

Duncan Carse Verner Duncan Carse (28 July 1913 – 2 May 2004) was an English explorer and actor known for surveying South Georgia Island, South Georgia and for the portrayal of Special Agent Dick Barton on BBC Radio. Early life Carse was born on 28 July 1 ...

between 1951 and 1957, and the Bird Island Expedition of 1958.

Retirement and decay

In 1964 the whaling station at Grytviken closed, and ''Dias'', along with another sealer, ''Albatros'', was laid up. A caretaker was responsible for maintenance, painting, and running the engines, but he left in 1971. Over the next few years snow and ice built up on the superstructure and ''Dias'' foundered at her mooring in the winter of 1974. ''Albatros'' sank the following year.

Rescue campaign

In 2004, as part of a project to restore and conserve Grytviken, ''Dias'' and ''Albatros'' were refloated and cleared of all remaining oil. Both ships have now been beached. An organisation, the "Friends of ''Viola/Dias''", seeks to preserve the ship, either ''

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

'' or by bringing her back to Hull. The "Friends of ''Viola/Dias''" estimate the cost of repatriating ''Viola'' at £1 million, and restoration costs at £5 million. In 2006 ''Violas original bell was discovered on a farm at Sandefjord. Hull Maritime Museum purchased it and in 2008 returned the bell to the ship. In 2016 the ''Viola'' was surveyed to determine its condition and whether or not it could be refloated and restored.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Viola Trawler website
- ''Daily Telegraph'' {{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919) Fishing vessels of the United Kingdom 1906 ships Ships built on the Humber Naval trawlers Anti-submarine trawlers of the Royal Navy World War I naval ships of the United Kingdom Norway–United Kingdom relations Argentina–United Kingdom relations Fishing vessels of Norway Whaling ships Ships and vessels on the National Archive of Historic Vessels