 Yavari at Puno in 2005 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Peru | |
| Name | SSYavari;MVYavari |
| Namesake | Javary River, Peru |
| Owner | The Yavari Project |
| Port of registry |  Puno |
| Route | acrossLake Titicaca |
| Ordered | 1860 |
| Builder | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company |
| Laid down | 1869 |
| Launched | 1870 |
| Completed | 1862 |
| Status | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 140 |
| Length | 100 ft (30 m) when launched in 1870; lengthened to 47.5 m in 1914 |
| Beam | 5.18 m |
| Installed power | 2-cylinder steam engine until 1914; thenBolinder 4-cylinder 320 bhp (240 kW)hot bulb engine |
| Propulsion | screw |
Yavari is a British-built iron steamship commissioned (along with hersister shipYapura) by thePeruvian government in 1861 for use onLake Titicaca by thePeruvian Navy.
She is named after theJavary River in theLoreto Region ofPeru, bordering theAmazonas State (Brazil), and was the first steamship to cross the highest navigable waters in the world. Currently the ship functions as a museum andbed and breakfast with bunk accommodation and is the oldest iron lake steamer afloat.
In 1862Thames Ironworks inWest Ham built the iron-hulledYavari andYapura under contract to theJames Watt Foundry ofBirmingham.[1] The ships were designed as combined cargo, passenger andgunboats for the Peruvian Navy.[1]
The ships were built in "knock down" form; that is, they were assembled with nuts and bolts at the shipyard, dismantled into thousands of parts small enough to transport, and shipped to their final destination to be assembled with rivets and launched on the lake. The kits for the two ships consisted of a total of 2,766 pieces between them.[1] Each piece was no more than 3.5. cwt—what amule could carry—because the railway from thePacific Ocean port ofArica went only 40 miles (64 km), as far asTacna.[1] From there pack mules had to carry them the remaining 220 miles (350 km) to Puno on the lake at 3,812 metres above the sea level.[1]
The original British contractor got the parts to Tacna but failed to complete the section of the journey with mules.[1] This was not resumed until 1868 and the first plates forYavari's hull were laid at Puno in 1869.[1]Yavari was launched in 1870 andYapura in 1873.[1]
Yavari was 100 feet (30.5 m) long and had a 60-horsepower (44.7 kW) two-cylindersteam engine, which was fuelled with driedllamadung.[1]
In 1914,Yavari's hull was extended in 15 meters to increase her cargo capacity.[1] At the same time she was re-engined as amotor vessel with aBolinder four-cylinder 320 bhp (240 kW)hot bulb engine.[1]
Even though peace had already been signed with theTreaty of Ancón between Peru andChile to end theWar of the Pacific on October 20, 1883, Rear AdmiralLizardo Montero and GeneralCésar Canevaro resisted inArequipa. Pursued by Chilean forces, they retreat toPuno and negotiate more support from Bolivia. Upon reaching Puno, on the shore of Titicaca, they boarded with their men the steam gunboatsYavarí andYapurá, to march towards the lake port ofChililaya, in Bolivia, where GeneralNarciso Campero was waiting for him with two Bolivian battalions to resume hostilities against Chile.
However, a Chilean division arrived in Puno on November 4, 1883 and its local authorities immediately handed over the place, declaring themselves in favor of peace and the government ofMiguel Iglesias. The Chilean forces transported by rail from the port ofMollendo toPuno thetorpedo boatColo Colo and launched there into the waters of Lake Titicaca, where it carried out patrolling operations to prevent communications, control the guerrillas and the military use of the lake.
The end of the Pacific War came with an impoverished Peruvian government, so in 1890 UK investors established thePeruvian Corporation which took over the concession to operate Peru's railways and lake ships.[1] In 1975 Peru nationalised the corporation andYavari andYapura passed to the state railway companyENAFER.[1] In 1976 they were transferred back to the Peruvian Navy, who convertedYapura into ahospital ship[2] and renamed herBAPPuno but discardedYavari.[1]
In 1987 charitable interests boughtYavari to restore her.[1] She is now moored at Puno Bay where she provides static tourist accommodation while undergoing full restoration.[1] In 2015, with restoration almost complete, a group of young East Enders sponsored by the West Ham United Foundation trekked over the Andes from Tacna to Puno following the original route of theYavari. With historianStephen Pewsey they participated in a "second maiden voyage" on Lake Titicaca, accompanied by the British Ambassador toPeru, H.E.Anwar Choudhury.
15°49′33″S69°59′50″W / 15.8259°S 69.9971°W /-15.8259; -69.9971