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Mikhail Lermontov at Tilbury in 1983
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History | |
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Name: | Mikhail Lermontov |
Namesake: | Mikhail Lermontov |
Owner: | Baltic Shipping Company |
Operator: | Baltic Shipping Company |
Port of registry: |
Leningrad, ![]() |
Builder: |
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Yard number: | 129 |
Launched: | 31 December 1970 |
Acquired: | 18 March 1972 |
In service: | 21 April 1972 |
Identification: |
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Fate: |
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Status: | Wreck |
Notes: | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Ivan Franko-class passenger ship |
Tonnage: | 19,872 gross register tons (GRT) |
Displacement: | 4,956 tonnes deadweight (DWT) |
Length: | 175.77 m (576 ft 8 in) |
Beam: | 23.60 m (77 ft 5 in) |
Draught: | 7.80 m (25 ft 7 in) |
Depth: | 13.50 m (44 ft 3 in) |
Installed power: | |
Propulsion: | Two propellers |
Speed: | 20 kn (37.04 km/h; 23.02 mph) service speed |
Range: | 8,000 mi (13,000 km) |
Capacity: |
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Crew: | 347 |
Notes: |
MS Mikhail Lermontov was an ocean liner owned by the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company, built in 1972 by V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar, East Germany. It was later converted into a cruise ship. On 16 February 1986 she collided with rocks near Port Gore in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, and sank, claiming the life of one of her crew members.
MS Mikhail Lermontov, launched in 1972, was the last of the five "poet" ships: Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko, Alexandr Pushkin (now Marco Polo), Shota Rustaveli and Mikhail Lermontov, named after famous Ukrainian, Georgian and Russian writers (Ivan Franko and Taras Shevchenko being Ukrainian, and Shota Rustaveli being Georgian), built to the same design at V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar, East Germany. Mikhail Lermontov, born 1814 and died 1841, was known as the "poet of Caucasus."
MS Mikhail Lermontov was originally used as an ocean liner on the Leningrad—New York run. However, the Soviet government realised that there was more money to be made by converting it to a cruise ship, and the accommodation and facilities on board were significantly upgraded in 1982 to meet the expectations of western customers.