M.S. OSETIYA

Black Sea Shipping Company

Soviet Union, Ukraine

 

Photo taken in Istanbul, Turkey, late 1980's.

 

Built: 1963 by Severnaya Verf (Severny Shipyard), Zhdanov, Soviet Union.

Technical:  

Overall length: 101.5m

Beam: 14.6 m

Draft:3.8 m

Gross Tonnage: 3219 tons

Passengers: 250

Power: 4000 HP

Service Speed: 14.5 knots

Operating Routes: Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Sister Ships:

- M.S. Afghanistan,
- M.S. Bukovina,
- M.S. Kirghizistan,
- M.S. Kolkhida (broken up),
- M.S. Moldaviya (later M.S. Alessia, broken up in 1996),
- M.S. Uzbekistan (later M.S. Odessa Sun, M.S. Omega, broken up in 2000),
- M.S. Svanetia (became M.S. Tallinn in 1995),
- M.S. Tadzhikistan (became M.S. Wang Fu in 1993),
- M.S. Tatariya (broken up in 1999).

Former Names: None

Later Names:

Owners:
- 1963-????: Black Sea Shipping Company, Odessa, Soviet Union, then Ukraine.
- ????-1997: Danube Shipping Company, Soviet Union, then Ukraine.
- 1997: Broken up.

History and Current Status: She operated under the Black Sea Shipping Company flag as a liner in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. She was brogen up in 1997. mostly carrying low budgeted Russian tourists on shopping cruises.

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

Notes: M.S. Osetiya was a very familiar site in the 1980's maritime scene of Istanbul. She was so familiar that her existence in the docks could not eliminate reports of "no docked ship" between amateur ship enthusiasts! I remember myself swearing at her a couple of times, when I saw that she was the only "thing" docked at Karakoy after one of those long photography trips instantanesously decided. Mostly carrying low budgeted Russian tourists on shopping oriented cruises to the Black Sea and Mediterranean ports, she was calling at Istanbul pretty much weekly, and sometimes more frequently during high season. Usually carrying stains of rust on her hull and looking pretty neglected and pitiful (the photo above shows her in a pretty good condition, by the way), I considered her a workhorse of the Soviet passenger fleet. Being small and non-luxurious probably made her very accessible to low budgeted passengers, in turn bringing profits that no other passenger vessel could bring. In my photos, M.S. Osetiya usually appears in the background or partly hidden behind a larger cruise ship. One day, I said to myself: "What the hell, let me get a picture of her too and waste a frame or two!" and luckily came up with the picture above... I am so glad I did!... Scrapped in 1997, she is no more and a part of my youth too!...

Links:

- Alexi Lindstrom's M.S. Uzbekistan page (sistership to M.S. Osetiya).
- A May 1999 news article from the Ukrainian newspaper The Day, discussing the cheap selling prices for M.S. Odessa Sun, as well as M.S. Taras Shevchenko and M.S. Shota Rustaveli.
- Alexi Lindstrom's M.S. Tallinn page (sistership to M.S. Osetiya).

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

Other Pictures:

Postcards from My Collection: