Crusader Coin Ancient coins are of great value as a source of information about past times. They concentrated the spirit, the aroma of those eras that will never return. Touching an ancient coin, a person is transported back in time. I experienced a similar feeling when I first picked up a medieval crusader coin - a penny for the County of Tripoli. The campaigns of the knights in Palestine, which pursued the goal of liberating Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher from Muslims, and their founding of Christian states in the Eastern Mediterranean had a strong influence on the development of the medieval world. In the “Latin East”, in Palestine and Syria, the crusaders in the 11th-13th centuries created four states - the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Edessa and the County of Tripoli. They all minted their own coins, the images and inscriptions of which mixed European, Islamic and Byzantine design elements. Sailing practice on the ship “Malakhov Kurgan” ended at the end of August 1967. The last port of call was Syrian Latakia. This city, like Beirut located to the south, was practically not damaged by the “Six-Day War”; peace and tranquility reigned here, active business and trade activities were carried out. At the request of the first mate, the ship's agent arranged for the crew to take a bus tour of ancient city. The ship's cultural fund had accumulated enough funds for the event, and they should have been spent on the current voyage so as not to be deposited for the future. At the appointed time he arrived on board the ship sightseeing bus and the crew members, free from shifts and work, set off on an exciting journey. - The history of Latakia dates back to ancient times. - began the story of the young guide Fatima, a final year student at the Faculty of Humanities at Damascus University. - The city was founded by the Phoenicians and named Ramita. The commander of Alexander the Great, Seleucus I, renamed the polis in honor of his mother, calling it Laodicea. In the Middle Ages, Latakia, as well as the entire Middle East, was ruled alternately by Arabs, crusaders, Egyptian and Ottoman sultans. The guide showed well-preserved Roman buildings - the city arch tetrapylon and the remains of an ancient colonnade, as well as several Christian churches of Byzantine times and medieval Muslim mosques. After visiting the historical sites, the bus made a stop at the popular Shatt al-Azraq beach, which translates as “ Cote d'Azur“. At the end of the excursion, the guide gave the sailors an hour of free time so that they could make purchases at the city bazaar - souk. In search of a memorable souvenir about Latakia, I came across an antique shop, where in a pile of old trash I noticed a small round silver object. - Is this a coin? – I asked the owner. - Yes. Crusader coin. - he answered. The Arab merchant liked the camera hanging on my shoulder. – Let’s trade: I’ll give you a coin, you’ll give me a camera. On the eve of the flight, at the Dynamo store on Sovetskaya Armiya Street (now Preobrazhenskaya) I bought a simple Smena camera for 12 rubles. I planned to photograph my first meetings with foreign countries. The flight was ending, and this task was practically completed. After buying the gifts, there was no money left and, in order not to miss out on an interesting coin, he agreed to the Arab’s offer. Returning to the ship, I began to study my acquisition using the catalogue. The reference book reported that the denomination of my coin was a penny; it was minted in the Middle Eastern city of Tripoli around 1275 - 1287. I expected to receive more detailed information in Odessa from an experienced specialist in medieval numismatics, Professor P.O. Karyshkovsky. With the return of the ship from the voyage, I went to the history department of Odessa University, where the professor headed the department of history ancient world and the Middle Ages. - That's right, the seller didn't deceive you - this is a Crusader coin. - said Pyotr Osipovich. The professor knew Latin well and easily translated the legends on the coin. - On the obverse the name of the issuer is indicated “SEPTIMVS BOEMVNDVS” - Bohemond VII, and on the reverse the place of mintage is “CIVITAS TRIPOLIS SVRIE” - the State of Tripoli in Syria. - But Tripoli is not in Syria, but in Lebanon. – I asked again. - That’s right, this is now, but in the Middle Ages the borders between states were different. The name of the mint is indicated in order not to confuse the Syrian Tripoli with the city of the same name in northern Africa. - What do the images on the coin mean? - The cross in an openwork frame on the front side of the penny is not only a symbol Christian faith , but at the same time also the coat of arms of the County of Tripoli. The three fortress towers on the reverse side represent part of the Crusader castle. – the professor answered. Karyshkovsky explained which fortress, in his opinion, is depicted on the coin. Some numismatists believe that this is the famous citadel of Krak des Chevaliers, the stronghold of the Order of the Hospitallers in Syria. But the professor had a different opinion. - The castle of Krak des Chevaliers was not part of the jurisdiction of the County of Tripoli, and therefore could not be depicted on a Tripolitan coin. I believe that the reverse of this penny depicts the towers of the Chateau Saint-Gilles fortress, which was located in the city of Tripoli, the capital of the county of the same name. This castle was named after Count Raymond of Saint-Gilles, leader of the First Crusade and founder of the fortress. By the way, this fortress has been well preserved to this day. - said Pyotr Osipovich. The professor gave comprehensive information regarding the history of my coin and the tragic fate of the state that minted it. The County of Tripoli arose in the north of modern Lebanon during the First Crusade. After the capture of the cities of Byblos and Tripoli by the army of Raymond of Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, and the conquest of Beirut and Sidon by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem, the entire coast of Phenicia, as well as a significant part of the mountainous regions of the country, fell into the hands of the crusaders at the beginning of the 12th century. The coastal and mountainous areas north of Byblos became part of the county of Tripoli, and Beirut and Sidon became vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Under Count Bohemond VI, the state of Tripoli in 1268 began minting its own coins - grossos. The Count and his successor Bohemond VII issued silver coins in two denominations - pennies and half-pennies. The average weight of a penny was 4.2 g, and for a half penny it ranged from 1.9 to 2.1 g. At the beginning of his reign, Bohemond VII minted coins that were almost indistinguishable from his father’s grosso, but the silver standard in them was lower. The County of Tripoli existed for almost two centuries - from 1105 to 1289. After the death of Bohemond VI in 1275, civil strife broke out in the state. The top of society split into two camps, in one were the widow of Count Sibylla and the secular knighthood, led by the young and ardent Bohemond VII, in the other - Bishop William of Tripoli and his supporters, who were supported by the Knights Templar. Bohemond VII captured the residence of the Templar Order in Tripoli and personally killed the Genoese governor, an ally of the Templars, with a dagger. Under Bohemond VII, the crusaders no longer fought with the Muslims, but preferred to buy peace with them for money. The conclusion of a peace treaty with Sultan Baybars cost the County of Tripoli 20 thousand gold bezants. Bohemond VII was childless, and after his death in 1287, the new ruler of Tripoli, named Lucia, came into conflict with the city commune. The head of the commune turned to the Mamluk Sultan Kelown for help. The Grand Master of the Templar Order, Guillaume de Beaujeu, warned the residents of Tripoli about the danger, but they did not believe it. The Kelowna army took the city by surprise, the Mamluks broke into the county capital and street fighting broke out. Templar commander Pierre de Moncada had the opportunity to escape on a galley sailing to Cyprus, but chose to remain in Tripoli and died with a sword in his hands, like the rest of the city’s defenders. Thus, in 1289, the history of the County of Tripoli ended tragically. - If I were asked to name the most beautiful coin minted by the Crusaders in the Holy Land, I would choose the Tripolitan penny of Bohemond VII. – Karyshkovsky summed up his story. - The design of the coin amazes with its harsh beauty, brevity and expressiveness. Today this small coin on the European numismatic market costs good money- 300 euros and above. It is also dear to me as a memory of my sailing practice on the ship “Malakhov Kurgan” and my first acquaintance with foreign countries.

Poem by Vladimir Vysotsky to Anatoly Garagula. We bring to your attention another poem by Vladimir Vysotsky - “Well, that’s all! The deep sleep is over!

OK it's all over Now! Deep sleep over!
Nobody allows anything!
I'm leaving, separate, lonely
Along the airfield from which they take off!

I will visit the above-water monastery,
That other people call the ship.
My captain, my friend and my savior!
Let's at least forget something!

Let's forget something - I need it, it's okay!
That's it - a woman you know!
Remembering everything is simply impossible.
Yes, it’s simple and unnecessary - what are we?

1969

Interesting Facts:

Garagulya Anatoly Grigorievich (1922-2004) - sea captain, participant in the Great Patriotic War. It’s interesting that Anatoly Grigorievich fought in the sky - he was a pilot, and after the war he decided to conquer water element— entered and graduated from the Odessa Higher Naval School. Since 1965, he has been the captain of the Georgia ship, and after its decommissioning, since 1975, he has been the captain of a new ship with the same name (although the new ship did not have the individuality and luxury of its predecessor, which caused the captain’s dissatisfaction).

Anatoly Garagulya was friends with famous cultural figures who traveled on the Georgia ship, which cruised the Black Sea. Among them are Vladimir Vysotsky, Marina Vladi, Vasily Aksenov, Konstantin Vanshenkin, Bulat Okudzhava, Pyotr Todorovsky and others.

Vysotsky and Vladi rested their souls on the ship, hiding from prying eyes. The couple stayed in a spacious cabin and ate in the captain's personal dining room. This is how the ship is described in the memoirs of Marina Vladi: “The cabins and salons are of extraordinary luxury. “Georgia” is richly decorated with carpets, embossing and painting... Tolya arranged everything wonderfully: the cabin is filled with flowers, on the table there are fruits, pies and a bottle of Georgian wine. We don’t know where to start...” There are many photographs in which Vysotsky and Vladi are captured together with Anatoly Garagulya on the captain’s bridge of the ship. During the cruise on the Georgia, Vysotsky wrote many wonderful poems.

Anatoly Garagulya starred in films - he played the captain of the ship "Gloria" in the film "The Crown of the Russian Empire, or the Elusive Ones Again" in 1970. Vladimir Vysotsky dedicated poems to Anatoly Garagula, the most famous of which is “Man Overboard.”


Vysotsky is third from the right, Marina Vladi and sailors of Soviet cruise ships against the backdrop of the motor ship "Georgia"

Today is about the white ship.
It is a rare person who does not smile dreamily when he sees on the horizon the swift silhouette of a large passenger ship gliding in ultramarine. There is a delicious and carefree life, there is a fresh wind of travel and pleasant acquaintances, everything is good there by definition. A universal symbol of hope for a better future. This is how the hero of today's story remains for thousands of people, different time looking at the horizon line from its deck.

The vessel described below we'll talk, moved not only in space, connecting continents, but also left many traces in history, witnessing many significant events in the “roaring” 1940s. Like any interesting hero, our character had two lives: one was a mature Black Sea Soviet life, the other, like many of our post-war cruise ships, was a foreign military ocean youth. Polish-Danish parents, breaking a traditional bottle of champagne on the side of the built ship, could not even imagine what trials their brainchild, solemnly named MS Sobieski, would have to go through.

SECOND LIFE




Motor ship "Georgia". Stills from the film "The Crown of the Russian Empire" (1971)

Let's start with the ending. In 1971, the continuation of the super-blockbuster of Soviet children “The Elusive Avengers” entitled “The Crown of the Russian Empire” was released on the screens of the country. The denouement of the film's twisted plot took place on board the snow-white liner "Gloria" in the Black Sea. His role was played by the Soviet cruise ship Georgia. In the 1950s-70s, the liner performed regular flights on the Crimean-Caucasian line in the Black Sea.
Among its passengers was Vladimir Vysotsky. He loved very much sea ​​cruises, annually sailed on the motor ships “Adjaria”, “Shota Rustaveli” and “Georgia”, which plied the Odessa-Batumi route with a call at Sukhumi.


Romantic idyll on board the liner

YOUTH

The motor ship that became "Georgia" arrived in 1950 on the Black Sea from Poland, where it bore the name of the Polish "our everything" John III Sobieski, the medieval ruler of Poland, under whom the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth experienced its renaissance. Sobieski was built before the war in June 1939 by the British shipyard Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in the Newcastle suburb of Wallsend. The total capacity of the liner was 11,030 GRT. Hull length - 155.9 m, width - 20.5 m, draft - 7.72 m. The ship could carry 850 passengers.

The vessel was ordered by the Polish-Danish shipping company Gdynia-Ameryka Linie Żeglugowe SA and was intended for the then most profitable voyages to New World. Airplanes did not yet fly across the ocean and it was possible to get to America and back only on specially built ships of various shipping companies.
Polish ships entered the transatlantic routes in 1930 and their appearance was accompanied by the following texts in the local press:

"The creation of a transatlantic connection is extremely important. On the one hand, our young shipping industry shows the flag on the leading routes of the world, on the other hand, this is the first step towards breaking with indifference to the dominance of foreign shipping companies, primarily German ones. From Poland overseas sending one of the largest contingents of European immigrants. So far, the very impressive revenue from the transport has gone entirely into foreign pockets. Considering that more than 60,000 immigrants left Poland last year, foreign companies earned about $6 million from this. And This is only the fee for transporting emigrants, excluding those who arrived back."

The first voyage of MS Sobieski took place on June 15, 1939 from Gdynia to Brazil and Argentina. This destination was popular among emigrants from Europe during the interwar period. In their memoirs, they note the comfort and sophistication of the ship’s interior and the presence of a kosher kitchen. But all this did not last long.

WAR
After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the ship escaped German captivity and ended up with the British, where it was mobilized for military service. As a military transport, the Sobieski took part in many significant events of the war at sea, the mention of which will warm the soul of a lover of maritime history.

NORWAY 1940


Members of the 1/6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding), 147 Brigade, 61st Division talking with officers of the Polish steamer MS Sobieski en route to Norway, 20 April 1940.


They are playing on the deck on board the MS Sobieski liner

In May-June 1940, evacuates Allied forces from Narvik (Norway) during Operation Alphabet.

FRANCE 1940
At the end of July 1940, Allied troops were evacuated from Western France (Operation Aerial).


Polish interned military personnel from a camp near Toulouse, who were evacuated, including on board the MS Sobieski, during one of the voyages to Britain from Western France. June 1940 A total of 25,000 Poles escaped


General de Gaulle with Churchill's representative General Spears on his way to Dakar in September 1940.

WEST AFRICA 1940
Already in September 1940, the ship took part in the Battle of Dakar (Operation Menace) - an unsuccessful attempt by the Allies to recapture the strategically important Atlantic port of Dakar in French West Africa(now Senegal) from the Vichys. 8,000 paratroopers took part in the operation. The negative result on land, the failure of the battleship HMS Resolution, lowered de Gaulle's authority in the eyes of the British for a long time.


MS Sobieski, Atlantic Ocean, Sierra Leone, Freetown - the base of the British fleet in West Africa. 1940.

VALUABLE CARGO 1940

Later in the same July 1940, the convoy transported about a thousand captured Germans and Italians, as well as some Polish valuables to Canada. Among the valuables were: Szczerbiec - the coronation sword of the Polish kings, the Gutenberg Bible, 136 huge tapestries from the 16th century, from the time of King Sigismund from the collection of Wawel Castle in Krakow, 36 Chopin manuscripts, as well as gold bars worth several hundred million dollars from the Bank of England. In this regard, the presence of prisoners on board seems to indicate a “human shield”, do I understand correctly?
MS Sobieski is part of an impressive Royal Navy convoy at the head of the battleship HMS Revenge under the command of Admiral Sir Ernest Russell Archer, who would later become the senior naval officer in Northern Russia(since 1943) and then will head the Joint Services Mission in Moscow (since 1944).
Upon the ship's arrival in Halifax on July 13, 1940, the valuables departed for Ottawa.
Immediately after this, MS Sobieski returned to Britain as part of a convoy and brought 8,077 Canadian troops.


Drawing of a soldier from the 18th Division en route to Halifax on the Sobieski in late October 1941.

1941
On October 30, the ship sails from the British fleet base in Scotland to Halifax as part of convoy CT.5. On board were British troops who would then depart from Halifax for Africa as part of the first American convoy, WS-12x. The convoy arrived in Cape Town on December 8, 1941. Two days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

SINGAPORE 1942


Liberated from Japan's notorious Changi camp, Allied troops arrived in port on hospital ships. 1945

In February, the Battle of Singapore with the Japanese begins. Sobieski is mentioned in connection with the transport to the theater of war of the British 18th Infantry Division, which arrived a few weeks before the final, managed to fight only a short time, after which it was captured by the Japanese.
Sobieski would return for them at the end of the war and take them home from Britain's notorious Changi camp. Traveling home aboard the liner, Briton James Bradley writes a book, Towards the Setting Sun: An Escape from the Thailand-Burma Railway, 1943, about his escape from terrible Japanese captivity in the jungle. There, more than 100,000 Allied prisoners died during the construction of the railway.


Landing in Madagascar. Operation Ironclad. In the background are transports.

MADAGASCAR 1942
In 1942, the ship took part in Operation Ironclad, which Churchill later called “the only episode that became an example of good and skillful leadership of the war.” From May 5 to November 6, 1942, with the support of a large naval force, about 15 thousand Allied soldiers from Britain, the Union of South Africa, India, Australia, Tanganyika, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, as well as from the Dutch Volunteer Corps landed on Madagascar.


British naval squadron on Diego Suarez, Madagascar after the surrender of the French. 1942 MS Sobieski - one of the squadron transports

Their goal was to prevent the island from being captured by Japan. Here, for the first time, revolutionary for that time means and methods of landing amphibious assault on an unequipped coast were used (landing armored vehicles on the shore, supporting the landing by aircraft carriers, etc.). Subsequently, the experience of this operation was used in one way or another in the development of all subsequent Allied amphibious assaults, including the landing in Normandy in 1944. It is worth noting that de Gaulle’s forces were not used after the failure in Dakar. The British this time chose to do without them.
I wonder if we count the ships lost by France during WW2, who sank them the most? I wouldn't be surprised if they're English :)


Signing of the surrender by the Vichy French aboard the British HMS Ramillies. Captain Howson, Chief of Staff to Rear Admiral Syfret with Colonel Claerbout, the Officer Commanding Diego Suarez

The Allies were opposed by the forces of Vichy France, represented mainly by colonial troops. Interestingly, 15 thousand tons of fuel for the operation were delivered from Port Said to the ports South Africa two Soviet tankers - Sakhalin and Tuapse. They were “on the way” to help the allies during the round-the-world passage of a group of Soviet ships led by the icebreaker Mikoyan.
As for the Sobieski transport itself, after the surrender of the island’s garrisons, the British diligently trawled the coastal waters and were the first to let Sobieski into the mine-cleared port area, and only then did the main landing forces enter there. In Poland they are very proud of this fact. Skeptics smile knowingly, suspecting the British of practicality.
Further, for some reason, the description of the active life of the ship ends and the ship appears only in the lists of various allied convoys.

1943
In 1943, Sobieski is found in the list of the Allied convoy WS 28, traveling along the African route Freetown-Cape Town-Aden.

1944
In 1944, the name of the ship appears in the convoy that left Southampton for France on December 25, 1944. The Sobieski was carrying the 201st General Hospital. The date can be associated with the beginning of the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes on December 16, 1944.

AFTER THE WAR 1946-1950
At the end of the global carnage, MS Sobieski sails under the Polish flag on the route Genoa-New York and Naples-Halifax. But the old days are gone forever - the era of flights across the ocean began passenger aviation. In February 1950, Sobieski made his last 29th North Atlantic voyage. After which it was sold to the USSR.


Safety drills on board MS Sobieski during a voyage with Armenian repatriates


Postcard from the ship, sent by one of the repatriates from Gibraltar

During this time, the ship “floats up” in an interesting episode. In 1947, a group of American Armenians decided to return to Armenia. 162 people sailed on the Sobieski in January 1949 from the United States to Italy, where in Naples they boarded a Romanian ship that was heading to Batumi. The settlers noted in their memoirs that they were disappointed when the rich interiors of the Polish liner were replaced by the harsh compartments of the Romanian transport - "a squat, ugly-looking cargo ship without any special accommodation for passengers."

So, in general, this is how the happy fate of the Polish pre-war ship from American lines turned out, which witnessed the famous military operations of the Allies at sea, carried the lucky ones on Soviet Black Sea cruises for 20 years and went on its last voyage for cutting in the late 1970s .

A Polish video in which footage from the film “The Crown of the Russian Empire” is disguised as a chronicle of the alleged arrival of MS Sobieski in America! This is how fake stories are born :)

The fate of the troika passenger ships German shipping company "Seedienst Ostpreussen": "Tannenberg", "Hansestadt Danzig" and "Preussen" in a whirlwind historical events 1930-40s

In 1975, at the Wartsila shipyard in the Finnish city of Turku, the transfer of a new vehicle-passenger motor ship "Belorussia" to the customer - Sovcomflot of the USSR - took place. This ship was the lead in a series of five ships. Initially, all five ships were transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company of the USSR Ministry of Marine and Fleet.


The order was given to the Finnish shipyard for a reason - the Wartsila company was already known in the USSR, and Finnish shipbuilders had a lot of experience in building ferries. Despite all the external similarities with the large car-passenger ferries that plied in the Baltic basin, the new ships cannot be called ferries in the usual sense. The ships had only one car deck and were still intended to transport primarily passengers, and then cars between ports Black Sea coast THE USSR.



m/v "Belorussia" leaves the port of Valletta, 1975




"Belorussia" leaves Southampton, 1987



Red stripe on the false pipe with the Soviet coat of arms, home port of Odessa - this is what "Belorussia" was like in the second half of the 80s. Pictured - June 1988, Fremantle



m/v "Belorussia" 1992. being towed through the English Channel under the tow of SMIT ROTTERDAM


In 1993, after repairs in a dry dock in Singapore, the ship was renamed Kazakhstan II, and then, in 1996, DELPHIN



Already under the name Kazastan II, Durban, 1994.


This is how she is these days - DELPHIN:



on the approach to Kiel harbor (Kiel, Germany)




At the same time, in 1975, the motor ship "Georgia" was put into operation. He was also transferred to the ChMP.



"Georgia" in Southampton, 1976



in Sochi, 1983



Southampton, November 1983



Istanbul, 1991



still "Georgia", 1992, Quebec, Canada. The ship was chartered for cruises on the St. Lawrence River.



the coat of arms of the USSR was changed to a Ukrainian trident, the name was changed to Odessa Sky, St. Lawrence River, Canada, August 1995



In 1999, the ship sailed under the name Club I. The photo was taken in the North Sea


Soon the ship was renamed again - Club Cruise I. Presumably, this renaming occurred in the same 1999 - the ship changed owners. Then, in 1999, the ship was renamed again - Van Gogh - after the famous Dutch painter. The ship sailed under this name until 2009. In 2009 it was renamed again - SALAMIS FILOXENIA. The ship still operates under this name.



Port Caen, 2004



off the coast of Norway, 2007



Kiel Canal, 2008



Port of Split, Croatia, 2008





SALAMIS FILOXENIA at anchor off the island of Patmos, July 2010


If we conditionally divide ships into series according to the year of construction, then the motor ship "Azerbaijan" is the last motor ship of the first series - like "Belarus" and "Georgia" it was built in 1975 and became the third ship of the "Belarus" type. In 1996, the ship received a new name - Arcadia (when you look for its pictures on various sites - at least one more ship is referred to as Ardkadia, which has nothing to do with our fleet - New Australia and also Monarch of Bermuda). In 1997, the ship was renamed Island Holyday, and the ship operated under this name until 1998. From 1998 to the present - ENCHANTED CAPRI.



The photo was taken before the collapse of the USSR, but it is not yet possible to determine the exact year



Fremantle port, first half of the 90s



Southampton 1992



"Azerbaijan" in Genoa, late 70s. By the way, there is a photo of the motor ship "Ivan Franko" taken at the same pier. Just from a slightly different angle.



1998, the name is Island Holiday



photo from 1996-1997


In 1976, two more vessels of the series were delivered to the USSR Ministry of Marine and Fleet - Kazakhstan and Karelia.


The motor ship "Kazakhstan" was renamed in 1996 - ROYAL SEAS, and in 1997 - "Ukraine". It was for this reason that “Belarus” was called “Kazakhstan II”. In 1998, the ship changed ownership, flag and name - ISLAND ADVENTURE. The ship still operates under this name today. Although in what capacity is difficult to say. It is known that in 2007 it operated in Miami Beach as a floating casino.



"Kazakhstan" in Greece, Mykonos, May 1983



"Ukraine" leaves Fort Lauderdale, 1998



ISLAND ADVENTURE, photo 1998, location - Fort Lauderdale



Miami Beach, 2007


The last ship in the series was the Karelia. She is currently based in Hong Kong.


"Karelia" was put into operation in 1976, in 1982 the first renaming - the ship received the name of the recently deceased General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L. I. Brezhnev. In 1989, when perestroika was in full swing in the country, the ship was renamed again - its original name was returned. In 1998, the ship passed under the Liberian flag and changed its name to OLVIA, then a series of resales and renamings followed - 2004 - NEPTUNE, 2005 - CT NEPTUNE, 2006 - NEPTUNE.



December 1983



"Leonid Brezhnev" in the Kiel Canal, 1985



"Leonid Brezhnev" in the port of Tilbury, 1987



Port of Tilbury, 1989



"Karelia" in the first half of the 90s



OLVIA in 2004, the mouth of the Elbe River



Neptun in 2007, Hong Kong



Hong Kong, March 2010


________________________________________ ___________________


Photos of ships - www.shipspotting.com, www.faktaomfartyg.se


Information on renaming - www.faktaomfartyg.se

Page 4 of 7

In the same year, the ambulance transport was disbanded and returned to the civilian department. During the war years, "Lvov" carried out 35 evacuation flights and delivered 12,431 people to the rear. The ship sounded the "combat alarm" 325 times and evaded attacks from more than 900 enemy aircraft. More than 700 aerial bombs exploded near its side, and more than 300 holes were found in the hull. 26 torpedoes were fired at the transport, and it sank twice. Seventeen crew members were killed and forty-five were wounded. After repairs in 1946-1947. The ship was again put on the Odessa-Batumi line. In 1950, there was another repair and in 1952 the ship was transferred to the Odessa-Zhdanov-Sochi line.

In your last flight"Lvov" left Odessa on October 11, 1964 and passed through all the ports of the Black Sea region, where its routes ran during the war. Then the ship was handed over to the youngest sailors - the children's flotilla. At first the ship was anchored in Odessa, and then it was transferred to Kherson, where young sailors came to it for more than two decades. The corridors and cabins of the ship were filled with future sailors, mechanics, radio operators, and captains. Many of those who sailed the seas and oceans of the planet or worked at the country’s most powerful shipbuilding factories began their lives on the decks of the Lvov motor ship. The Spanish “internationalist” liner served its second homeland honorably and is worthy of the grateful memory of its descendants.

An unexpected addition to the Black Sea passenger fleet after the war were two former Polish liners. In 1949, the steam turbine ship "Jagiello" arrived from Poland, which was built in 1939 in Germany for Turkey under the name "Dogu", then requisitioned by Germany itself. The ship received a new name - "Duala". The British who captured the ship after the war gave it the name "Empire Ock". The ship took part in military transport until 1946, when it was transferred to the Soviet Union for reparations, which temporarily transferred the steam turbine ship to Poland, where it was given the name "Jagiello".

In 1949, the liner was returned to the USSR and received the name "Peter the Great". The vessel had a total capacity of 6,261 GRT. The length of the liner's hull was 125.1 m, width - 16.1 m, draft - 6.63 m. Two steam turbines with low steam pressure allowed the ship to reach a full speed of 15 knots.

"Peter the Great" carried 610 passengers, but the ship turned out to be shaky, with debilitating rocking, which frightened tourists.

In 1974, the liner was sold for scrap to Spain and towed to the port of Castellon for dismantling.

Another liner that arrived on the Black Sea from Poland was the Sobieski motor ship. The ship was built in 1939 at a shipyard in Newcastle (UK). The total capacity of the liner was 11,030 GRT. Hull length - 155.9 m, width - 20.5 m, draft - 7.72 m. Two eight-cylinder Kinkaid diesel engines drove two propellers and provided a full speed of 16 knots. The ship could carry 850 passengers. The liner at one time was specially built to operate on the Gdynia (Gdansk) - New York line. During the war, Sobieski, as a military transport, took part in landing operations near Narvik, Madagascar, Sicily, Salerno, North Africa and Normandy. At the end of the war, the ship was returned in 1946 to the Gdynia - New York line.

In 1950, the Poles handed over the ship to Sovtorgflot (Odessa Black Sea Shipping Company). The ship received a new name "Georgia", and began regular flights on the Crimean-Caucasian line in the Black Sea. The ship served without accidents until April 1975, when it was excluded from the Black Sea Shipping Company and sold for scrapping in the Italian port of La Spezia.

As clean trophies after the war, some more ships were transferred to the Black Sea Shipping Company for reparations from Romania, an ally of Germany. The first real addition to the passenger fleet on the Black Sea was a beautiful snow-white liner named “Ukraine”. Before the war, this ship belonged to royal Romania and even then it semi-officially had the nickname “White Swan of the Black Sea.” And the liners "Bessarabia" and "Transylvania" were designed in Denmark according to a Romanian order in 1934. June 26, 1938. "Transylvania" entered service. Three months later, the construction of Bessarabia was completed. It was envisaged that both ships would be used on the line Constanta - Istanbul - Piraeus - Alexandria - Jaffa - Haifa - Beirut - Alexandria - Piraeus - Istanbul - Constanta. But the outbreak of the Second World War dashed these plans. Until April 1940, the liners transported Polish Jewish refugees from Constanta to Beirut. Twice during the war, both liners almost became targets of Soviet submarines that were moving to positions near the Bosphorus. The Romanian government was forced to delay the return of the ships to their homeland and leave them in the roadstead of Istanbul until the end of hostilities. Well, then the ships parted ways: “Transylvania” was left to Romania, and “Bessarabia” was transferred to the USSR. Romanian "Transylvania" until the beginning of the 70s carried out Passenger Transportation in the Black, Aegean and Adriatic seas, off the coast of North Africa. Sometimes she called at Odessa and the ship from afar could be mistaken for the m/d "Ukraine"