 TSMaxim Gorkiy inHelsinki, Finland in June 2006. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Ordered | November 1966[4] |
| Builder | Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft,Hamburg,West Germany[2] |
| Cost | £ 5.6 million[5] |
| Yard number | 825[2] |
| Launched | 21 February 1968[2] |
| Acquired | 20 March 1969[2] |
| Maiden voyage | 28 March 1969[2] |
| In service | 28 March 1969[2] |
| Out of service | 30 November 2008 |
| Identification | IMO number: 6810627 |
| Fate | Scrapped inAlang,India, 2009 |
| General characteristics (as built)[2] | |
| Type | Ocean liner/cruise ship[6] |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 194.72 m (638 ft 10 in) |
| Beam | 26.57 m (87 ft 2 in) |
| Draught | 8.27 m (27 ft 2 in) |
| Depth | 16.40 m (53 ft 10 in)[7] |
| Ice class | 1 A[8] |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | Twin propellers[5] |
| Speed | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) |
| Capacity |
|
| General characteristics (2006)[5] | |
| Type | Cruise ship |
| Tonnage | |
| Decks | 10 (passenger accessible) |
| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)[8] |
| Capacity | 788 passengers[2] |
| Crew | 340 |
TSMaxim Gorkiy was acruise ship owned bySovcomflot,Russia, under long-term charter toPhoenix Reisen, Germany.[3] She was built in 1969 byHowaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft,Hamburg,West Germany for theGerman Atlantic Line asTSHamburg. In late 1973 she was very briefly renamedTSHanseatic. The following year she was sold to theBlack Sea Shipping Company,Soviet Union and received the nameMaksim Gorkiy in honour of the writerMaxim Gorky, renamed toMaxim Gorkiy after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[2][9]
On 20 August 2008Maxim Gorkiy was sold toOrient Lines.[10] She was due to enter service with her new owners on 15 April 2009 under the name TSMarco Polo II,[11][12] but in November 2008 the relaunch of the Orient Lines brand was cancelled.[13] On 8 January 2009 the ship was sold for scrap,[14] and she was beached atAlang, India on 26 February 2009.[15]
Although never used as such, the ship was originally planned as a dualocean liner/cruise ship, for service betweenHamburg andNew York City as well as cruising.[4][5][6] She was the first major passenger liner built in Germany since 1938.[4] On entering service for the Black Sea Shipping Company, she became the first four-star cruise ship operated under the Soviet flag.[16]
Several variants of the ship's name were used through her career. Some sources refer to her with theprefix TS (turbine ship) instead of SS (steamship),[3][4] while her final nameMaxim Gorkiy was also written asMaksim Gorkiy andMaxim Gorki.[2][4] She should not be confused with any of the Soviet era cruise liners of theIvan Franko class, the so-called "poet" or "writer" class, including the now scrappedMarco Polo.
TheHamburg Atlantic Line had begun operations in 1958, operating the formerCanadian PacificlinerEmpress of Scotland as the firstSS Hanseatic on a route connectingCuxhaven,Germany toNew York City.[17] In 1965 the company decided to order a replacement forHanseatic. In order to finance this, a new companyGerman Atlantic Line was founded and shares of the new company were offered to past Hamburg Atlantic Line passengers. The unusual scheme was successful, and an order was placed for the new ship atDeutsche Werft,Hamburg in November 1966.[4] Before the ship was delivered, Deutsche Werft merged with Howaldtswerke to form Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft.[18]
The new ship, eventually namedHamburg, was originally planned to operate both as an ocean liner and as acruise ship, similarly toQueen Elizabeth 2, under construction at the time. However, by the timeHamburg was delivered in March 1969, German Atlantic Line, as the whole company was known by then, had abandoned liner service andHamburg was used for full-time cruising. The firstHanseatic had burnt in September 1966, and instead of replacing herHamburg now entered service alongside the secondHanseatic that had been purchased fromZim Lines in 1967.[4][5][6]
The ship's interiors were modernized 1988, however most public spaces were in the same configuration as they were when the ship was built until the end of her career.[5]
The new flagship of theGerman Atlantic Line,[9]Hamburg, set on her maiden voyage fromCuxhaven,Germany on a cruise toSouth America on 28 March 1969.[2] She was the first major German-built passenger liner to enter service since 1938.[4] Until 1973Hamburg was used for cruising around Europe and the Americas alongside the secondHanseatic.[17]
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The operations of the German Atlantic Line were badly hit by theoil crises in 1973.Home Lines had lost theirSS Homeric in a fire earlier that year, andHanseatic was sold to the Home Lines on 25 September 1973 asDoric.[19][20] On the same day the secondHanseatic was sold,Hamburg was in turn renamedHanseatic, becoming the third ship to bear the name. Her career under the new name proved short however, as already on 1 December 1973 German Atlantic Line ceased operations, the newestHanseatic was laid up in Hamburg and placed for sale.[2][4][17]JapaneseRyutsu Kaiun KK were interested in buying the ship, but that deal did not materialise.[18]
TheMuseum for Hamburg History displays a model of the ship in her SSHamburg guise.
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On 25 January 1974Hanseatic was sold toRobin International,New York City, who immediately re-sold her to theBlack Sea Shipping Company.[2][4][18] RenamedMaksim Gorkiy, she was at the time the most luxurious ship to sail under the flag of theSoviet Union.[16] Before the ship entered service for the Black Sea Shipping Company, she was chartered to aBritish film crew and used to portray the fictional SSBritannic in thefilmJuggernaut.[21] From the beginning of her career under the Soviet flag, she was often chartered to West German tour operators.[18]
In June the ship began twice-monthly Caribbean cruises from New York, and was attacked twice while berthed inSan Juan, Puerto Rico. On December 28, 1974 a grenade was thrown onto the deck injuring two crew members. Anti-Castro Cuban exiles claimed responsibility.[22][23] On November 1, 1975 two bombs attached to the starboard hull exploded, producing holes about 35 feet forward of the rudder post. No one was injured and she continued the cruise toSaint Thomas and New York before being dry docked for repairs.[24][25]
An incident of a different nature took place while the ship was inbound to New York on 18 September 1980, when the port authorities declined the ship's right to make port due to theSoviet Union's involvement in Afghanistan at the time. Instead of entering portMaxim Gorky was forced to lay at anchor outsideStaten Island, while port ferries were used to bring her passengers to the city.[2]
In September 1988Maksim Gorkiy was chartered toPhoenix Reisen ofWest Germany for twenty years.[2][5] Despite being in service for Phoenix, the ship maintained her mainly Soviet crew (laterRussian/Ukrainian) and the Soviet Union's funnel colours. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union she was painted in the new colours of independent Russia, not those of Phoenix Reisen.[4][5]
In 1989Maksim Gorkiy made headlines twice. On around midnight on 19 June 1989 she hit anice floe while on a cruise nearSvalbard and begun to sink rapidly. All passengers and a third of the crew were instructed to abandon ship, while theNorwegian coast guard vesselSenja was dispatched to assist. By the timeSenja arrived on the scene some three hours later,Maksim Gorkiy was already partially submerged. 350 passengers were evacuated from the lifeboats and ice floes by helicopters andSenja. Senja took on 700 people.[26]
They were taken to Svalbard and later flown back to Germany. Meanwhile, the crew ofSenja had managed to stopMaksim Gorkiy's sinking, by which time her bow had already sunk down to the level of the main deck. On 21 JuneMaksim Gorkiy was towed to Svalbard where quick repairs were made to make her watertight enough to survive a return to Germany for repairs. The ship sailed toLloyd Werft,Bremerhaven under her own power and after repairs was back on service on 17 August 1989.[2][18][27][28]
Maksim Gorkiy made news again in December of the same year, when she was used as a venue for aninternational summit betweenGeorge H. W. Bush andMikhail Gorbachev atMalta.[2][27] On 26 July 1991, while on a cruise to Svalbard a television exploded on board, injuring three people. In December of the same year the ship was re-registered toNassau, Bahamas asMaxim Gorkiy.[2] Following the collapse of the Soviet Union she was transferred to the fleet of Sovcomflot, who continued chartering her to Phoenix Reisen.
Sometime between 2004 and 2006Maxim Gorkiy finally received the green/white livery of Phoenix Reisen.[4] Her long-term charter to Phoenix Reisen ended on 30 November 2008, and Phoenix Reisen did not extend the charter due to the high fuel expenses of operating a steam turbine powered ship.[3] The future of the ship remained uncertain for some time due to the new requirements of theSOLAS regulations coming into effect in 2010, meeting of which would have required large-scale reconstruction forMaxim Gorkiy.[27]
On 20 August 2008 it was reported that the re-formedOrient Lines had purchased the ship.[10] Orient Lines planned to rename the shipMarco Polo II and refit her to comply with the SOLAS 2010 requirements.[12] She was due to enter service with her new owners on 15 April 2009.[11] However, on 19 November 2008 Orient Lines made a statement that the relaunch of their cruise operations has been delayed indefinitely due to thefinancial crisis of 2007–2008.[13]
Following the termination of her charter to Phoenix Reisen in November 2008,Maxim Gorkiy was laid up atEleusis, Greece. In December 2008 plans were made to convert her into a statichotel ship to be permanently moored at Hamburg.[29] In early January 2009 the ship was reportedly sold to the scrapyard atAlang, India for€ 4.2 million.[14] Despite the sale for scrap the ship remained laid up in Greece and attempts were made to purchase her for hotel ship use.[30] In February 2009 the attempt to save the ship were reported to have failed, and she was beached for scrapping at Alang on 26 February 2009.[31] The ship was broken up in less than seven months after being beached.
The basic hull design ofHamburg is a conventional, robust steel construction, with entirely flat decks amidship that slope slightly upwards towards the bow in a compromise between modern construction techniques and traditional design values.[6] The superstructure adapted a clear,streamlined design in spirit of the modernism of the late 1960s.[9][27] With usage as a cruise ships in mind, the ship was built with a mid-shiplido deck complex spanning two decks on the top of the ship. The upper level of the complex was extended all the way to the sides of the ship, allowing a view uninterrupted by lifeboats from the lido to the surrounding sea from behind the shelter provided by high glass screens.[6][9] In addition to the lido deck, a large sports deck was designed behind the funnel.[5]
Perhaps the most distinctive individual exterior feature of the ship is her slim funnel equipped with a large saucer-like smoke deflector dish on the top, a design that has not been featured on any other ship in such a radical form. The futuristic funnel design in part earnedHamburg the nickname "The Space Ship".[9][27]
The interior layout ofHamburg was based on an axial design, with a central passageway running through the ship on each deck. In order to accomplish this, the funnel uptakes had to be divided.[6] The first notable passenger liner to have featured such a design had been another German ship,SS Vaterland of 1914.[32] Spaciousness was an important factor in interior design, and the feeling of space in the interiors was another reason for the ship's nickname as "The Space Ship".[27]
A major factor in establishing this sense of space was the effectively designed galley, restaurant and crew mess complex located in the forward part of decks 4 and 5. The galley was linked by direct vertical cores to service areas on the upper deck lounges, the whole design minimizing the space required for effective catering of the passengers and crew. This space-effective design also dictated that almost all public rooms are located at the front of the ship (a notable exclusion being the theatre), while all cabins are located on the rear part of the three decks below the promenade deck.[6][9][18]
Due to being planned for liner service,Hamburg was designed with spacious cabins, most of which (306 out of 326) feature full bath-tubs, a feature not found on many ships built since.[5][33] This was required for the potential use as hospital ship, a condition to be fulfilled for the loan back up from German government, if war would break out. It was the Cold War era. The deluxe cabins located on promenade deck, installed after the ourchase by Russia, feature floor-to-ceiling windows and separate bedrooms and living rooms.[5][9]
Most of the public rooms on board the ship were retained in their original use since the ship entered service in 1969, some—such as the Wolga Bar—retaining their original furniture until the very end.[5][9]
AsMaxim Gorkiy.[18]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1989 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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