SREMSKA MITROVICA, Serbia (AP) — The wreck of a steam tugboat dating from the early 1900s is the latest relic to emerge from shrinking waters in Serbia as Europe's rivers run dry, with the continent engulfed in prolonged, extreme heat and drought.
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SREMSKA MITROVICA, Serbia (AP) — The wreck of a steam tugboat dating from the early 1900s is the latest relic to emerge from shrinking waters in Serbia as Europe's rivers run dry, with the continent engulfed in prolonged, extreme heat and drought.
SREMSKA MITROVICA, Serbia (AP) — The wreck of a steam tugboat dating from the early 1900s is the latest relic to emerge from shrinking waters in Serbia as Europe’s rivers run dry, with the continent engulfed in prolonged, extreme heat and drought.
The rusting hull — once a famed vessel known as the Slovenian — surfaced earlier this month from the Sava River near the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica, 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of the capital of Belgrade.
While parts have appeared above the surface before, the locals say the wreck has never been so exposed.
“It’s been several years since it was last seen, so there is quite an interest,” said historian Andrija Popovic, who is the head of the town museum.
“It’s truly something you don’t see every day,” he added about the boat, which has been dubbed “Sava’s Titanic” by Serbian media.
Warships, mammoth bones and parts of ancient constructions all have emerged from the slumping waters of the Danube, the Rhine and other rivers in the scorching drought that has also disrupted trade, power and water supplies.
A record-low Danube River has severely impacted nuclear power plants in Hungary and Romania and halted traffic along Europe’s second-largest waterway. A monthslong drought has ravaged crops from the Netherlands to Bosnia and caused water shortages that extend as high as the Alps.
The ship survived two World Wars before it sank
According to Popovic, the Slovenian was made in 1913 in a shipyard in Budapest, Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
It measured roughly 54 meters (177 feet) in length and was initially named Vag, which is Hungarian for Slovakia’s longest river, Vah. With a steam engine, the boat pulled heavy cargo between Budapest and other towns along the Danube.
During World War I, the boat largely paused its routes, Popovic added. As the war ended and the Austro-Hungarian empire was dismantled, the boat’s ownership switched to the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians — which would later become Yugoslavia — as part of war reparations, he said.
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