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PS Republica                                                                                                      River Danube : Tulcea, Romania
Republica in 2009.jpg

Republica in 2009.  Photo by kind courtesy of Zsolt Szabo


Built in Linz in 1883 as Csobanc.  After World War I as an armed patrol boat she became property of the Romanian state and was named Arad until 1930 and "Capitan Comandor Paun", and from 1947 until 1991, "Republica" . Still serving in the Romanian military navy, she was renamed as part of a policy of restoring old names and became  "Locotenent-comandor Vasile Paun", although the name was not the one she originally had, nor the correct rank of the naval hero she was named after. In 2003 she reverted to"Republica" when transferred to the ownership of the city of Tulcea. She has been maintained in working condition and has been reboilered (to burn oil rather than coal) and in 2008 was listed as a national cultural heritage monument. 

Republica was withdrawn from service due to boiler problems and now serves as a restaurant with attached museum

Engines  :  Photographs by kind courtesy of Captain Ferenc Tumpek


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