Gallery Section
The Gallery will host images that follow various aspects of the S130 Restoration Project. This include salvaged items, details of the donor vessel ‘Arthur’ and regular updates from the restoration process.
NEW – We have now received four pictures direct from Schlichting Werft (the company who originally built S130) showing Gunther Rabe and his crew when they collected S130 from Schlichting in 1943. We are extremely grateful to Marcus Schlichting for providing us with these pictures.
Click below to select and view a Gallery
After languishing in a mud berth for some time, S130 needed to be transferred to a new site on dry ground for the restoration process. This was done on a cold day in March 2008 on the morning of one of the most severe storms in 20 years! It required three cranes and specialised remote controlled hydraulic catapillar flatbeds.
Once S130 had been lifted out of the water, it was then time to build the restoration shed over her. This will be her new home during the restoration project.
Arthur is a Zobel class Schnellboot built in 1959. As such many of its components and parts are identical to those used in S130, and can be dropped in with little or no modification. It therefore made sense to move Arthur from Southampton to Mashfords, a yard near to S130 and remove those parts which could be reused.
There are very few remaining sources of original parts for wartime Schnellboote. Although many were constructed, to date we have only found one site where salvage of parts was possible. On the last day of the war five S-Boats were scuttled by their crews off a town in Denmark. Permission was obtained from local authorities to salvage significant items from the site. Items retrieved included an armoured bridge, two full torpedo tubes and several propellors.
Below you will find historic pictures of Schnellboots. Whilst we are quite sure that the first picture is actually of S130, the remaining pictures are of her type (38b).
Four pictures showing the day Gunther Rabe and his crew collected S130 from Schlichting Werft in 1943. Pictures are copyrighted to Schlichting Archiv.
