Stationery café “Relandersgrund” at Meritullintori waterfront, Helsinki, 4th August 2013.
Owner: Oy Majakkalaiva Ab, Kotka, Finland
Builder: Wm. Chrichton & Co., Turku
Displacement: 168 tons
Length: 27.1 m
Propulsion: none (she was originally equipped with 2 sails to relieve the strain on the anchor chain in rough seas)
Built 1888 in Turku, then in the Russian Empire's Grand Duchy of Finland, as a light-vessel for the Relandersgrund in the Gulf of Bothnia.
In the London Gazette of 28 April 1991 her position was given as approximately 61º 7' N, 21º 8½ E and that the Russian Government had informed that she now had “a fixed red light, not fixed white as heretofore stated; it is elevated 27 feet above the sea”. It appears that she was only in this position during the summer, when the sea was not frozen over, and between summers was laid up in Turku.
She was hijacked at Turku (sources variously give July 1814, 1917 and 1918, but 1917 would appear most likely) and taken under tow by a group of revolutionary Russian sailors (one source says they were her crew) but was abandoned & sank off the coast of southern Finland.
She was raised by the now-independent Government of Finland, repaired at Tallinn, Estonia, and placed in reserve under the name “Reserv 1”
In 1930 she was renamed “Varamajakka 1”
She was decommissioned as a light vessel in 1937 and served from 1938 to 1978 as an accommodation & workplace for the 2. Merenmittausretkikunnalle (2nd Inland Vessel Measurement Expedition), first with the marking “ MKH 3” & then renamed “Vuolle”
In 1978 shewas sold to a scrap dealer who renovated her for use as his summer villa
After falling into disrepair, she was sold in 1991 to “Kotka” (the city government of?) in southern Finland and extensively remodelled as a summer restauant boat under her original name of “Relandersgrund” for her present owner at Kotka in 1995.
In October 2005 she was towed to Helsinki and the following spring was again refurbished at the Suomenlinna Shipyard.