Artship

About

Artship (formerly MS Unterelbe) is a 1939 German motor coaster (Küstenmotorschiff). It is one of the oldest operational vessels of its type in Northern Europe, and the last surviving operable German coastal motor ship built before the Second World War. The ship was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine as a munitions transport during World War II before spending eighty years in commercial cargo service and joining the Finnish Heritage Ship Register. In 2024, the ship crossed the North Sea to London under its own power. In 2025 it underwent repairs in Chatham, Kent to operate as a floating arts centre alongside Theatreship in Canary Wharf's West India Docks. Together the two vessels form the world's largest floating arts centre.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.