As Europe's Rivers Run Dry, a Historic Ship Emerges

The wreck of a steam tugboat dating from the early 1900s is the latest relic to emerge from shrinking waters in Serbia as Europe's rivers run dry, with the continent engulfed in prolonged, extreme heat and drought. The rusting hull—once a famed vessel known as the Slovenian—surfaced earlier this month from the Sava River near the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica, 45 miles northwest of the capital of Belgrade. While parts have appeared above the surface before, locals say the wreck has never been so exposed, reports the AP. "It's been several years since it was last seen, so there is quite an interest," said historian Andrija Popovic, head of the town museum. "It's truly something you don't see every day," he added about the boat, which has been dubbed "Sava's Titanic" by Serbian media.

Warships, mammoth bones, and parts of ancient constructions all have emerged from the slumping waters of the Danube, the Rhine, and other rivers in the scorching drought that has also disrupted trade, power, and water supplies. A record-low Danube River has severely impacted nuclear power plants in Hungary and Romania and halted traffic along Europe's second-largest waterway. A monthslong drought has ravaged crops from the Netherlands to Bosnia and caused water shortages that extend as high as the Alps.

According to Popovic, the Slovenian was made in 1913 in a shipyard in Budapest, Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It measured roughly 177 feet in length and was initially named Vag, which is Hungarian for Slovakia's longest river, Vah. With a steam engine, the boat pulled heavy cargo between Budapest and other towns along the Danube. During World War I, the boat largely paused its routes, Popovic added. As the war ended and the Austro-Hungarian empire was dismantled, the boat's ownership switched to the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenians—which would later become Yugoslavia—as part of war reparations, he said. "This is when it was renamed the Slovenian," Popovic said, adding that it's a mystery "why this name was chosen."

Then, during World War II, the Slovenian—and its new country—came under Nazi occupation. After Yugoslav anti-fascist forces liberated Belgrade in 1944, they used the boat to transfer the wounded and equipment while pushing German troops further west. The boat was carrying wounded fighters when it hit a German mine in late April 1945, Popovic said. "It sank and has stayed in the same place since that day." Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness. Serbian hydrology expert Dejan Vladikovic said the current drought is a combination of a lack of winter snow and a very dry spring. "What awaits us in the future ... is that such situations will be more frequent," he said. "We are entering periods when this will, unfortunately, become a new normalcy."