Cologne, 31. January 2004

Thanks all givers!

The ship is in back in water. At long last, its new anchorage is in the harbour of Schnackenburg.

All those who have clicked on this website know about Wladimir Rosik's misfortune. Nothing happened for nine months, until a man from North Rhine-Westphalia began to get involved in the ship's salvage. On Dec. 10th, a website was set up and the first three donations were registered on Dec. 16th (by the way - all three donors came from Cologne).

In fact, since March 21st 2003 nothing noteworthy had been done to help Mr. Rosik. Today, five weeks after the launching of the fundraising campaign, the ship is back in water. All those who have helped since the first days of the setup of the "construction site", earn a great deal of praise and many thanks, especially to those who helped voluntarily and gratitiously.

Some bitterness, however, remains: Yesterday, Captain Rosik, Hans Hermann Mietz and the mayor of Schackenburg appeared on the NDR-programme "Aktuelle Schaubude". This was the first live appearance after the ship had successfully been salvaged. Schnackenburg's town book, the „Goldene Buch“ had been brought out and presented to three women of the town who had worthily collected 3,700 € for Wladimir Rodik at the weekend by selling coffee and cake. This sum will be given to him directly, as the money in the donations account needs to be available for the actual salvaging of the ship. Unfortunately, none of the interview partners (Hans Hermann Mietz, Wladimir Rosik, Andreas Koch) were given the opportunity to thank the donors whose commitment had set the ball rolling. This was NDR's fault. "We did not have the possiblity to say anything concerning the donors", the mayor said afterwards. THW representative M. Mietz commented later in a telephone call: "We were not able to mention anything. On air, the questions were posed diffently than we had agreed on beforehand. It was very unfair".

It appears the NDR has lost track of the story. After all, the broadcaster has been reporting on the fate of Wladimir Rosik since summer 2003 and was also informed about the development of the donations campaign. For several days, TV teams stayed in Schnackenburg in order to report on the ship's salvaging, partly broadcasting live. Apparently, the NDR did not judge it relevant enough to mention that a person from North Rhine-Westphalia took the initiative and that particularly at the beginning of the campaign people from western and southern parts of Germany transferred the first donations.

In the name of Wladimir Rosik, Andreas Koch and Hermann Mietz, I herewith wish to apologise to all donors, whose commitment could not be sufficiently valued in public.

As announced, the amount of money in the bank account will be used without deductions (apart from account-keeping charges) to pay bills arising from the salvage operation.

Wolly Wessel

Latest news
28th January 2004 Rescued at last! Congratulations!
26th January 2004 90 cm at the week-end...

22th January 2004 ... many people want to help!

15th January 2004 ... something is on the move!