Yavari (ship)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Yavari is a ship commissioned (along with the Yapura) by the Peruvian government in 1861 for use on Lake Titicaca and built by Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd in London. It is named after the Yavari Rivers located in the Loreto Region of Peru, bordering the Amazonas State (Brazil).
It was built in 2,766 pieces, each weighing no more than what a mule could carry, due to the fact that no railroad existed at the time between the Pacific coast and Puno, where it was to be assembled. The transportation through Peru took 6 years, due to the extreme conditions and various unexpected delays, and the steamboat was finally launched in 1870. The 60-horsepower steam engine was fed with dried llama dung.
After a hundred years of service, the boat was in a poor condition, but it was recovered and restored in the 1990s. Today, it is moored in Puno, and hosts a museum and a bar.
[edit] External links
- Yavari Project — history and current state of the ship