Construction of a Museum of History of Dnipro Navigation and Shipbuilding is in the plans

Seventy thousand dollars will be used for restoring 18th-century items. This is a 12-meter-long baidak boat, which was brought ashore on the bank of the Desna River in 2010 and a military double boat, which was brought up from the bottom of Zaporizhia water area of the Dnipro in 2008. Part of the money will be used to work with a brigantine, which was brought up to the surface back in 2004. Until now no restoration work has been held because of the lack of money.

Now the collection of the preserve includes five ancient boats. The first one, so-called chaika, was raised from the bottom in 1999. It has been fully restored, conserved, and is used as a full-fledged tourist object. It is planned to accomplish the restoration work before this fall.

Serhii DUDARENKO, head of the scientific-education department of the National Preserve “Khortytsia”:

“Hydro-archeologists and restorers won the grant of the embassy. It was not accidental that this money was allotted to us, because only we have such an experience in wood restoration in Ukraine. Even restorers from Kyiv come to us to get help with wood work. Another reason could also be the fact that the founder of the American Navy John Paul Johns was fighting together with the Zaporozhian Cossacks on our territory. He was initiated into the Cossack and took an active part in Russo-Turkish wars. We were promoting this topic actively and, probably, we have been successful in bringing it to the representatives of the embassy.

“At the moment we are involved in restoration of the raised boats, but according to the general plan we are also going to build the new Museum of History of Dnipro Navigation and Shipbuilding. The grant money will hardly be enough, but this is the main purpose of our many-year work on hydro-archeology. The thing is that a shipbuilding dockyard was located on Khortytsia in 1738. At the same time around 400 ships were located near Khortytsia. Part of them sank and is resting on the bottom of the Dnipro. We have the reconnaissance data, but we haven’t brought up the remains, so there is plenty of work for us. All this needs restoration and conservation.

“The museum will be located under bridges, which are now being built in Zaporizhia. It is supposed to have a shape of a lotus flower with a boat in each petal. If we find another boat, we will build another petal. Our collection should not be a dead load, we should show it to people. Currently we don’t have any opportunity to do this.

“So far we practically haven’t been receiving any support from the state. Our preserve regularly earns much money from tourism, but we send it to Kyiv and do not receive anything in return. If some of the money were used for our needs, we could have realized some projects. At the moment we are working only thanks to charity.”