M.F. DIMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH

Black Sea Shipping Company (BLASCO)

Soviet Union, Ukraine

 

Photo taken in Istanbul, Turkey, 1988.

 

Built: 1980 by Stocznia Szczecinska SA, Warskiego, Poland

Technical:  

Overall length: 137.1 m

Beam: 21.0 m

Draft: 5.60 m

Gross Tonnage: 10303 tons

Passengers: 350

Power: 4 Sulzer diesels, 12800 kW

Service Speed: 20.0 knots

Operating Routes: Europe, Mediterranean and Black Sea cruises.

Sister (or similar) Ships: M.F. Lev Tolstoy, M.F. Konstantin Simonov, M.F. Konstantin Chernenko (Later, M.F. Russ, (1988)), M.F. Mikhail Sholokhov, M.F. Mikhail Suslov (Later, M.F. Pyotr Pervyy (1989)), M.F. Georg Ots, M.F. Ankara, M.F. Iskenderun, M.F. Samsun.

Former Names: None

Later Names: M.S. Paloma (officially Paloma I) (2000)

Owners:
- 1980-2000: Black Sea Shipping Company, Odessa, Soviet Union, then Ukraine.
- 2000-Present: SCL Overseas Ltd., British Virgin Islands, under the Ukrainian flag, chartered to Hansatouristik, Germany and Neckermann Seereisen, Germany.

History and Current Status: From her date of delivery to 2000, she served in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe as the M.F. Dimitry Shostakovich of the Black Sea Shipping Company of Odessa, Soviet Union, and then Ukraine. She got renovated at Cityvarvet yard, Sweden, in 1985; at Lloyd-Werft, Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1991 and she got rebuilt and renovated at Remontowa yard, Poland, in 2000. In 2000, similarly to her sister M.F. Lev Tolstoy, she got purchased by the SCL Overseas Ltd. of BVI but continued serving under the Ukrainian flag as M.S. Paloma. She has a succesfull career now, serving mostly a German and European clientele in budget European/Mediterranean cruises, chartered to Neckermann Seereisen and/or Hansatouristik of Germany. As of January 2002, she has a large number of Western/Eastern Mediterranean cruises scheduled under charter to these companies.

(email all info about her to ata.bilgili@dartmouth.edu)

Notes: Named after the famous Russian composer, Dimitry Shostakovich, she was an occasional site at Istanbul. On one of the occasions, I had the luck of having my camera with me while she was leaving Bosphorus towards the Sea of Marmara on a transit passage southward. Although from far, these photographs conveniently provided the pictures for this site. I do not think I saw her again. It is good to know that I can still cross her path in Istanbul, since many of her scheduled 2002 cruises are to Eastern Editerranean, including Turkey and Black Sea.

Links:

- Micke Asklander's M.F. Dmitry Shostakovich page.
- Aleksi Lindstrom's M.S. Paloma page.
- MS Paloma at the Ferry Gallery.
- Cruiseferry.de's M.S. Paloma section.
- Shipphotos.co.uk's M.S. Paloma page.
- M.S. Paloma from the Dutch Cruise Site.
- MS Paloma and MS Palmira being repaired and maintained at Malta Drydocks.
- Kreuzfahrt-4u.de's MS Palmira and MS Paloma page.
- Hansatouristik.
- Neckermann Seereisen.

Line Drawings: From the book "Soviet Bloc Merchant Ships" by Bruno Bock and Klaus Bock, 1981.

Other Pictures: