Tugboat Magni
callsign: Tango-Foxtrot-Oscar-Delta
Magni is the first steel ship to be built in Iceland. The tugboat Magni was designed for the Port of Reykjavik by Hjálmar R. Bárðarson.
The keel was laid in late 1953 and rest of the building took place in 1954. Magni was build in Reykjavik at company named Stálsmiðjan (Steelworks Co).
In June 1955, Magni was officially delivered to the Port of Reykjavik. The ship was equipped with Deutz 1000 horsepower main engine and 2 Deutz auxiliary engines.
Magni was kind of a multi purpose ship because Magni could be used as a tugboat, an icebreaker, firefighting vessel and could carry up to 40 ton of fresh water to deliver to ships at anchor on the outer harbour.
At first Magni was equipped with hydraulic winch at the bow for buoy maintenance but it was removed later on.
Magni served the harbour for around 35 years with pride and at the time Magni was the only tugboat that operated for the Port of Reykjavik. Around the year 1990 the main engine had a catastrophic failure and Magni was taken out from service. Magni has been laying around in the harbour of Reykjavik neglected.
In the beginning of 2017, Axel Orri Sigurdsson, a 21 years old recent graduate of the Maritime academy of Iceland and Friðrik Friðriksson, 80 years old former boatswain at Eimskip (The Icelandic Steamship company) started showing an interest in Magni.
Axel and Friðrik share a common interest in old ships and their history. They both collect items from old ships. Axel and Friðrik found out that there where no restoration plans for Magni, so around March 2017 they contacted the owner of Magni, which is the Reykjavik City Museum. They confirmed that no restoration was ongoing with Magni and they asked for ideas for the future of Magni. They scheduled a meeting with the museum onboard Magni, and at that meeting, 57 year old Böðvar Eggertsson, engineer and a teacher at the School of Marine Engineering, joined the team.
The meeting led to establishing the 'Hollvinasamtök Magna', or, 'Magni Support Organization'. Their goal is to restore Magni in the next 5 - 6 years.
