The big crane

One thing is never missing in Basel are cranes. I think I never saw the city without at least few cranes standing in the background. Cranes are so commonplace that one tends to overlook them here. Somewhere in Basel, somebody is always building something…

This post is about the biggest crane I ever seen in my life.

Earlier this year a big hole in the ground appeared between the structures of the Holzpark area, surrounded by a black fence (almost instantly covered with graffiti).

For months I wondered why it has been excavated. It was there when I sketched the overview of the area.

One day I found the road closed and a huge crane was being assembled next to the excavation. An when I say huge, I mean HUGE. The picture I took of it doesn’t really give it justice. The crawlers of that thing were big as a bus! What is going on?? What they are gonna do with that thing??

I kept coming back to check on that thing over the next few days, while it was assembled (using smaller cranes). I really wanted to draw it, but I couldn’t find a way to frame the view in a way to convey the size of that enormous machine.

I wanted to see it in action.

“For sure it costs an astronomical amount of money to keep it here,” I thought. “It cannot be long before it will be used for whatever it is needed here”.

This was on a Friday. I hoped nobody worked during the weekend. “I’ll come here to check on Monday”, I thought.

On Monday, though, there was an apocalyptic thunderstorm over Basel and it poured rain the whole day. I didn’t brave the weather and I stayed home.

The next day, when I finally showed up, the big crane was already being dismantled and in the middle of the excavation, among Holzpark’s bars and food trucks there was…a ship!

A lightship, to be precise, that is a ship with a lighthouse on top. In the middle of the park. And It was lifted from the river by the huge crane, during the thunderstorm, and positioned in the excavation. And I missed the whole operation. F**k!

I returned few days later and I drew the ship. I also searched more info online about the whole thing. I gathered that the ship was called 'Gannet 1954' and came from South Rock, Ireland, where the coastline is not suitable for normal lighthouses. Once decommissioned, it was brought to Basel. In her new location, it will become a restaurant. On the light tower, there will be a radio station. Cool.

And I also found a video of the crane in action!

Anyway, here is my sketch…