M.S. SHOTA RUSTAVELI

Black Sea Shipping Company (BLASCO)

Soviet Union, Ukraine

 

BLASCO issued postcard, 1978.

 

Built: 1968 by Mathias-Thesen-Werft, Wismar, (East) Germany). Renovations in 1989, 1991 and 1997.

Technical:  

Overall length: 176.1 m

Beam: 23.6 m

Draft: 8 m

Gross Tonnage: 20499 tons

Passengers: 750

Power: 2 Sulzer Diesels, 21000 HP

Service Speed: 20.3 knots

Operating Routes: New York-Montreal service in early years. Worldwide cruising later, mostly in the Mediterranean and European routes, with occasional African and Australian cruises.

Sister (or similar) Ships:
- M.S. Taras Shevchenko.
- M.S. Ivan Franko (scrapped in India in 1997 as M.S. Frank).
- M.S. Aleksandr Pushkin (In 1992, she was purchased by the Orient Lines and renamed M.S. Marco Polo. She is very succesfully cruising as of June 2005.)
- M.S. Mikhail Lermontov (On February 16th, 1986, she hit a reef off Cape Jackson, New Zealand and sank in 36 m of water with one life loss, She is a SCUBA diving attraction now).

Former Names: None.

Later Names: M.S. Assedo

Owners:
- 1968-2001: Black Sea Shipping Company (BLASCO), Odessa, Soviet Union, then Ukraine.
- 1997-June, 2001: Laid up at Ilyichevsk, Ukraine.
- June, 2001-October 2003: Omiks Ltd, Odessa, Ukraine, under charter to Metropolis-Tur, Moskva, Russia.
- Beached at Alang in December 2003, scrapped later.

History and Current Status: M.S. Shota Rustaveli is the fourth vessel built by Mathias-Thesen-Werft of (East) Germany, in the so-called "Five Poets" series, consisting of the vessels given in the "Sister Ships" section above. These were the largest vessels specifically built for the Soviets and were primarily designed to operate worldwide in liner and cruise services to earn money for the Soviet Union. The secondary design criteria was for them to serve military purposes (troop carriers, etc), in the case the Soviet Union got into a war. In the absence of this second option, M.S. Shota Rustaveli served very succesfully in the Mediterranean/European cruising market, first in her black and then white livery, under the hammer and sickle of BLASCO until 1991, After the collapse of the Soviet Union, between 1991 and end of 1997, she continued cruising under the same name and Ukrainian flag, with limited success, mostly for Italian charterers. In late 1997, when BLASCO could no longer operate its ships because of financial problems, she was taken off active duty and laid up at Ilyichevsk, Ukraine. In June 2001, after about 3 years in layup, she got transferred to a Ukrainian company, called Marchvin, and renamed M.S. Assedo (Odessa, spelled backwards). Marchvin currently leases her to Metropolis-Tur of Moskva, Russia. Metropolis-Tur markets her only in Ukraine for Mediterranean and Western/Northern European cruises. Although with problems (mechanical, administrative), it is still great to see her sail in 2002. As of January 2002, she is offered for sale or charter directly from the present owners, as seen in MTC Internationl Shipbrokers, Inc.'s webpage.

Update October, 2003: As reported by Patrick Wetter on cruisepage.com:" Fact is that, despite the quite successful operation of the Assedo through Metropolis Tur in Russia and Ukraine, the owners decided to agree in the sale of the ship as the purchase-price was very realistic with respect to the current situation of the cruise-market It will become more and more difficult to find a buyer for any classic ship which needs more and more refurbishments in order to comply with the latest restrictions for safety at sea. All this needs lots of money and compared to the current value of the ship, Marchwin Ltd. did probably a better deal in selling the Assedo than keeping her further more years and ending up in lay-up one day as the market needs up-to-date vessels. The price of 5.9 Million USD was a fair price for the Assedo and the ship will continue to be technically managed through Omiks Ltd. for now. The ship is supposed to be operated for casino-cruises such as the China Sea Discovery which will be most probably replaced by Assedo. But the new operators did not specify any details yet. Still somewhat surprised by the sudden sale of the vessel which already had been communicated once but commented not to be concluded in any way I hope that she won't follow the steps of China Sea Discovery. But honestly I have the impression that now the glorious days of this ship will be over soon."

Soon after this report, the casino-cruise deal with the Chinese fell through and Assedo was sold for scrap to Indian shipbreakers for a fairly good price of 3.5 Million USD. She was then replaced by M.S. Olvia (ex M.F. Kareliya) by Metropolis Tours in March, 2004..

Update December, 2003: As reported by Maritime Matters:" Assedo arrives at Alang. Assedo has been the subject of conflicting reports in recent days. She will definitely not be going to the Far East for use as a gambling ship as she was destored at Iliychevsk (November 3), passed through the Suez Canal (November 18) and beached ten days later (November 28)."

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

Notes: M.S. Shota Rustaveli, or "The Great Black Whale", as I used to call her, with reference to S.S. Canberra. Although M.S. Shota Rustaveli was much smaller than S.S. Canberra, she probably was the only vessel in the Soviet fleet (this could be also true for her sisters) that could be called a "whale"... Being larger than many other Soviet vessels, she was always a welcomed sight, whether sailing or docked along Karakoy. I still remember her and her other sisters carrying the logo for the 1980 Soviet Olympics on their superstructures, back at the end of 70's. With her fine lines, reminiscence of the long gone North Atlantic liner days, she was a very fine example of a passenger vessel. When you looked at her, you could see that she was principally designed to do crossings and not cruises. This however, did not cause her to fail as a cruise vessel. After some modifications and renovations, she got converted into a cruise vessel succesfully.

Of the 5 poets, M.S. Shota Rustaveli and M.S. Taras Shevchenko were the ones calling at Istanbul often. M.S. Ivan Franko followed them. I personally never saw M.S. Mikhail Lermontov or M.S. Aleksander Pushkin, probably because they were mostly used in the Baltic and Far Eastern routes. The only picture that I have of the poets is the B&W one below, showing M.S. Shota Rustaveli, docked with M.S. Achille Lauro and M.S. Odessa. As I explained in the M.S Odessa section, this is a classic, a memory.

Her October 2003 purchase by Alang shipbreakers as M.S. Assedo was very sudden and unforeseeable. It came as a big surprise for many people, including myself. She was working very succesfully in shipshape condition at the time. However, the price offered by the shipbreakers was good and the end was unescapable considering that it would have been more and more expensive to update this relatively old vessel for increasingly restrictive safety standards and more and more difficult to sell her as years pass. Even though I understand this managerial decision, this does not keep me from feeling sad as another familiar shape disappeared for good from the oceans of the world in the hands of Indian shipbreakers. Farewell Shota!

Links:

- Frederic Bartoli's M.S. Shota Rustaveli page.
- Onno Heesbeen's M.S. Assedo page.
- Christian Bricci's " A Tribute to M.S. Assedo", with pictures of M.S. Shota Rustaveli.
- Pierre Launay's M.S. Assedo.
- M.S. Assedo @ FaktaomFartyg.com.
- An October 2001 .pdf article from Ferrynews.com, announcing the return as M.S. Assedo.
- A June 2001 article from Lighthousetravel.com, about the problems before M.S. Assedo's first cruise.
- A May 1999 news article from the Ukrainian newspaper The Day, discussing the cheap selling prices for M.S. Taras Shevchenko and M.S. Odessa Sun, as well as M.S. Shota Rustaveli.

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

Other Pictures:

Pictures by Fatih Takmakli:

Postcards from My Collection: