The R.C.S. Bremen

Between September 3rd and 13th, 1996, the fleet modestly began. The German ocean liner Bremen of 1929 was chosen to be a non-controlled motorized boat. She carried the most modest of electric motors and a plastic 3-bladed propeller, Power was provided by a simple AA battery. There was no power switch. The motor simply came on when I connected the wires. The most primitive possible of my fleet.

She was meant to be a toy that I could set loose on the water and would sail itself to the other side of the lake with a rudder. Really just a glorified bathtub toy. In her original form, she never even sailed on a lake. She made one voyage on a small fountain pool and a few brief passages in a swimming pool.

The Bremen then retired to a kind of oblivion. She sat, collecting dust, for seven years, all but forgotten.

In my radio-controlled efforts of 2003, the Bremen was revived. When I realized I had only to connect a radio and servo to the rudder, she suddenly became a radio-controlled vessle.

She then began her current encarnation as a single-channel radio-controlled boat. She has no throttle or ability to stop. She can only steer. Therefore, she is ideal for the man-made lakes in and around Scottsdale, Arizona. I just put her out on the water and run her around. Then I beach her and recover.

Currently, the Bremen is laid up, as I am using her radio in another vessle. However, she remains commissioned, and the eldest member of my fleet.