Motor yacht from the early 1910s
When the boatbuilder and excellent amateur photographer Eino Antero Bergius (1884 - 1978) shot this picture of a brand new motor yacht built at this yard in Vesilahti, I think he was rather pleased with what he saw, and probably a little bit proud, too. The picture, here shown restored and digitally hand colorized by me, is not dated, but I estimate that Bergius took the photo in the early 1910s. The original BW image is in the Vapriikki museum archive (finna.fi).
The National Biography of Finland gives this background information about Bergius as a boat builder:
"During his travels abroad, Bergius had been able to taste the lifestyle of the Belle époque, which included the belief in progress and the charm of speed created by technological development. He understood that the future would belong to vehicles powered by a combustion engine. The first boat equipped with a combustion engine was built in Germany in 1886 by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. The first actual motor boater in the waters of Tampere was apparently the linen factory manager Henrik Solin (1848 - 1902), who acquired a kerosene boat in 1899. In the fall of 1905, Tampere's first yard that manufactured motor boats began operations. These could act as inspiration when Bergius founded a boatyard in 1910 on the family farm in Suomela, Vesilahti.
Bergius boatyard specialized in fast and high-quality mahogany motor boats. Ordinary people could not afford motorboats for years, but the gentry of Tampere instead got their fine saloon boats from the Vesilahti yard, which immediately began to claim the title of the fastest boat on Tampere's waterways in the Näsijärvi Sailing Club's competitions. As early as December 1910, Tammerfors Nyheter published an illustrated presentation of Bergius' boatyard. According to the news, the shipyard had direct water connections to Tampere and Hämeenlinna, and in addition, boats could be delivered even further from the Lempäälä or Tampere railway stations. The maximum sizes of the boats were determined by the size of the railway wagons. Already from the opening year, the motorboat mentioned as the fastest in Tampere's waters, the Tarvakivi built for the bank manager Albert Snellman, had a speed of 13 knots, which means it could beat even the biggest steamships in speed. Even better was Turso, which Bergius built for himself, which won the 1911 Helsinki-Hanko race as a representative of the Näsijärvi Sailing Club, with an average speed of 19.2 knots despite the heavy waves. The journey took about half of what it would have taken for the big steamships of the time. In 1912, the Helsingin Kaiku magazine mentioned Turso as the fastest boat in this country. She was sold for a large sum to St. Petersburg. Bergius mahogany boats are known to have been sold as far as New Zealand.
Bergius's bigger boats were pretty much built based on the same, probably American drawings, and thus looked very similar to each other. It is known that none of the Bergius dream boats have survived: all that remains are the photographs taken by Bergius himself."
The Bergius boatyard in Vesilahti was destroyed during the 1918 civil war, after which he relocated it in Tampere. The activity continued throughout the 1920s, until the beginning of the depression put an end to the boatyard in 1930.
Motor yacht from the early 1910s
When the boatbuilder and excellent amateur photographer Eino Antero Bergius (1884 - 1978) shot this picture of a brand new motor yacht built at this yard in Vesilahti, I think he was rather pleased with what he saw, and probably a little bit proud, too. The picture, here shown restored and digitally hand colorized by me, is not dated, but I estimate that Bergius took the photo in the early 1910s. The original BW image is in the Vapriikki museum archive (finna.fi).
The National Biography of Finland gives this background information about Bergius as a boat builder:
"During his travels abroad, Bergius had been able to taste the lifestyle of the Belle époque, which included the belief in progress and the charm of speed created by technological development. He understood that the future would belong to vehicles powered by a combustion engine. The first boat equipped with a combustion engine was built in Germany in 1886 by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. The first actual motor boater in the waters of Tampere was apparently the linen factory manager Henrik Solin (1848 - 1902), who acquired a kerosene boat in 1899. In the fall of 1905, Tampere's first yard that manufactured motor boats began operations. These could act as inspiration when Bergius founded a boatyard in 1910 on the family farm in Suomela, Vesilahti.
Bergius boatyard specialized in fast and high-quality mahogany motor boats. Ordinary people could not afford motorboats for years, but the gentry of Tampere instead got their fine saloon boats from the Vesilahti yard, which immediately began to claim the title of the fastest boat on Tampere's waterways in the Näsijärvi Sailing Club's competitions. As early as December 1910, Tammerfors Nyheter published an illustrated presentation of Bergius' boatyard. According to the news, the shipyard had direct water connections to Tampere and Hämeenlinna, and in addition, boats could be delivered even further from the Lempäälä or Tampere railway stations. The maximum sizes of the boats were determined by the size of the railway wagons. Already from the opening year, the motorboat mentioned as the fastest in Tampere's waters, the Tarvakivi built for the bank manager Albert Snellman, had a speed of 13 knots, which means it could beat even the biggest steamships in speed. Even better was Turso, which Bergius built for himself, which won the 1911 Helsinki-Hanko race as a representative of the Näsijärvi Sailing Club, with an average speed of 19.2 knots despite the heavy waves. The journey took about half of what it would have taken for the big steamships of the time. In 1912, the Helsingin Kaiku magazine mentioned Turso as the fastest boat in this country. She was sold for a large sum to St. Petersburg. Bergius mahogany boats are known to have been sold as far as New Zealand.
Bergius's bigger boats were pretty much built based on the same, probably American drawings, and thus looked very similar to each other. It is known that none of the Bergius dream boats have survived: all that remains are the photographs taken by Bergius himself."
The Bergius boatyard in Vesilahti was destroyed during the 1918 civil war, after which he relocated it in Tampere. The activity continued throughout the 1920s, until the beginning of the depression put an end to the boatyard in 1930.