page_title: The Thekla
section_title: Construction and working life
hierarchical_section_title: The Thekla / Construction and working life
caption_attribution_description: English: Thekla in high seas carrying timber.
context_page_description: Thekla is a former cargo ship moored in the Mud Dock area of Bristol's Floating Harbour, England. The ship was built in Germany in 1958 and worked in the coastal trades.
  In 1982 the ship was bought by Ki Longfellow-Stanshall, the wife of Vivian Stanshall, refitted, and brought to Bristol in 1983 as the Old Profanity Showboat. It was used as a theatre to showcase music of every sort, including cabaret, comedy, plays, musicals, and poetry events. The ship also contained an art gallery. The living quarters were home for Vivian, Ki, their daughter, Silky Longfellow-Stanshall, and Ki's daughter, Sydney Longfellow, as well as a few key personnel.
  During the 1990s, under new management, it was run as a rent-a-nightclub. The ship has now been returned to its original working name of Thekla and is run as a night club and venue for various bands by Daybrook House Promotions.
context_section_description: Built in Yard No. 185, Thekla was launched on 12 July 1958 by Büsumer-Schiffswerft W & E Sielaff at Büsum, Schleswig-Holstein for the Schepers family of Haren/Ems. One of the last riveted ships to be produced (the hulls of metal ships have long been made by welding plates), she measured 424 gross registered tons and had a deadweight tonnage of 718 tons. Her overall length is 52.77 m (173 ft 2 in) and breadth 8.82 m (28 ft 11 in), with a 3.21 m (10 ft 6 in) draft. Thekla's hold was lined with Australian red jarrah, one of the hardest woods. With a single screw propulsion, she was powered by a 220 kW (300 bhp) diesel engine made by Bohn & Kähler, Kiel and was said to be a U-boat engine left over from the Second World War, however these engines were not built until the 1950s.
  Thekla was a coastal trading vessel carrying a variety of cargoes between northern and western European ports, particularly timber from ports of the Baltic Sea. During her trading life, she remained on the ship register of Haren/Ems, passing in ownership from Johann Schepers to Josef Schôning and then Bernhard Schepers but with no change of name.  After running aground at Gatesend, Norfolk, she was left rusting away for seven years in the half-abandoned docks of Sunderland on the eastern coast of England, before being purchased by the Stanshalls for £15,000.
caption: Thekla in high seas
exif: {}