Tug Tarua 7. The yard model of the „Tarua 7“ on a scale of 1:100 (builder unknown) is on display in our section dedicated to harbour ships on deck 9 of the museum.
This small but powerful and heavy-duty tug is the „Tarua 7“. She was built in 1968 at the Elsflether Werft AG in northern Germany with 1,500 hp and a top speed of 12.5 knots. She is 28.4 metres long, 8 metres wide and has a draught of 3.81 metres. She is, like so many harbour tugs, a highly flexible vessel that can take on many tasks in addition to her towing capabilities.
She is one of a series of tugs built in German shipyards for the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT, การท่าเรือแห่งประเทศไทย). The PAT was founded in 1951 by the Thai Ministry of Transport, primarily to regulate the port of Bankok. The capacity overload of the Port of Bankok led to the construction of the Port of Laem Chabang in the east of the country from 1961. Both ports are still the two most important in the country today.
We do not have exact details of all the tugs built in Germany for the Thai Port Authority, but in our archives we have the construction plans for the „Tarua 3“, built in 1955 at the DW Kremer Sohn shipyard in Elmshorn, the „Tarua 4“, built in 1958 by F. Schichau GmbH in Wilhelmshaven, the „Tarua 5“, built in 1965 at the same shipyard, and the „Tarua 8“, also built in 1968 by DW Kremer Sohn.
Like many other tugs, the „Tarua 7“ has had an extremely long life. Longer, in fact, than most of the larger vessels she has towed in her career. The last sign of her life that we got was from 2013, when she was still in very good condition and we have no knowledge that she has since been decommissioned. It is thus quite possible that she even survived the shipyard that built her. The Elsfleth shipyard, founded in 1916, had to file for insolvency after the scandal surrounding the repair of the German training ship “Gorch Fock” and was sold in 2019. The court proceedings opened for this purpose include allegations of corruption and gross mismanagement.
The shipyard model of the „Tarua 7“ on a scale of 1:100 (builder unknown) is on display in our section dedicated to harbour ships on deck 9 of the museum.