History of South-Savo and Lake Saimaa ON THE PIER Living on the shores of Lake Saimaa

Saimaa becomes inhabited Savo between East and West Town built on islands Expanding town The harbour Strait Kyrönsalmi Tarburning Ironworks Agriculture Life in the archipelago Savo dwelling Villas Sääminki parish Church boats Savo boats Boats for every occasion Tar steamers Constructing a tar steamer Life on tar steamers Winter journeys   TAR STEAMERS, PITCH TUGGERS AND MUD ROLLERS At the end of the 19th century, a steam barge was developed as a cargo vessel to suit Saimaa’s conditions. The barge was still a common sight on Saimaa’s waters well into the 1960’s. The wooden framed steam barge was affectionately named ‘tar steamer’ and ‘pitch tugger’ as its framework was tarred. Steam barges with an iron construction were also known as ‘mud rollers’. The dimensions of the steam barge adhered to the size of the lock chamber of Saimaa canal: the 31 x 7 x 2.4 m bluff bowed and sterned vessel was to fill the lock chamber as tightly as possible. Steam barges were particularly operated as seaward traffic entering through the Saimaa canal. The cargo capacity of a full-sized steam barge was 100-140 net register tons, and it was able to transport 370-570 cubic metres of timber or 600-700 stacked cubic meters of logs. At the beginning of the tar steamer period, most of the boats were in private ownership. Merchants and manufacturers transported products and raw goods, but many farmers became interested in shipping, too, and often formed shipping companies. The importance of tar steamer shipping companies increased at the end of the 1910’s. W Gutzeit & Co. purchased the largest tar steamer fleet, owning as many as 36 tar steamers. Several vessels were also owned by Savonlinna Timber Ltd, H. Saastamoinen from Kuopio and Antti Luostarinen from Kangaslampi. The boating season for steam barges began in May and continued until the waters froze. Each season would see 10-15 voyages to sea or 20-30 on Saimaa. A journey to Helsinki took a week. Until the First World War and the Russian Revolution, firewood was the most important exported article. It was transported as 40 cm long billets to St. Petersburg, which was suffering of a shortage of wood. After Finland became independent, tar steamers transported pit wood, logs, sawn timber and firewood to Helsinki, Vyborg and other coastal towns along the Gulf of Finland – tar steamers even paid a visit to Norway and Denmark. Enterprises along Saimaa used the boats both for transporting raw wood to factories and manufactured goods to be sold.

29.7.2005