ASSEDO ex SHOTA RUSTAVELI

The ASSEDO with her funnel painted blue leaving Lisbon. As SHOTA RUSTAVELI she was the first passenger liner of the Soviet Union to call in Lisbon in1975.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

SHOTA RUSTAVELI in Lisbon (1983)

The Soviet cruise and passenger liner SHOTA RUSTAVELI of 1968 photographed berthed in 1983 at the Rocha Cruise Terminal, Lisbon with the tug ÁLA at her bow.
The Soviet Union passenger ship fleet was the largest in the world by the late 1970s and early 1980s. By then ships were used on regular service worldwide as well on popular charter cruises mostly operated by western operators, acting as Soviet Propaganda and hard western currency earners. By 1983 when this picture was taken, the URSS ships were by far the more current visitor cruise ships in Lisbon.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

The SHOTA RUSTAVELI in Lisbon (1984)

The Soviet passenger liner SHOTA RUSTAVELI arriving Lisbon early in the morning of 26 July 1984 on a summer cruise chartered to an Italian tour operator.
The fourth of five sisters of the RDA-built IVAN FRANKO-class, she was delivered with a black hull in 1968 and sailed mostly under charter to western cruising operators, like CTC (London and Sydney).
Although built to the same design, later the five sisters were slightly rebuilt in different ways and it was very easy to recognize each one...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

Paquete SHOTA RUSTAVELI no Tejo (1984)

O paquete soviético SHOTA RUSTAVELI fotografado a largar da Estação Marítima da Rocha em 23 de Agosto de 1984.
O SHOTA datava de 1968 e era a quarta unidade de uma classe de 5 navios construídos na RDA e entregues entre 1964 e 1972: a classe IVAN FRANKO, de 20.000 toneladas.
O navio tinha de início casco preto, e foi transferido para o registo da Ucrania com a liquidação da antiga URSS, uma vez que embora propriedade do Estado Soviético, era operado pela Black Sea Shipping Company, com base em Odessa. Mais tarde ainda navegou com o nome ASSEDO antes de ser desmantelado na India.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

A look at the ASSEDO

Two photographs of the Ukranian cruise ship ASSEDO on her first call to Lisbon under this name on 2nd July 2003.
Built in East Germany as the fourth ship in the IVAN FRANKO-class she sailed as SHOTA RUSTEVELI for many years until the colapse of the Soviet Union and the dispersion of their fleet of passenger and cruise ships.
Of the five IVAN FRANKO sisters, only the MARCO POLO ex-ALEKSANDR PUSHKIN remains in service.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia

SOVIET LINERS IN LISBON

From my early pictures' album, I particularly like those two images of Soviet passenger liners on their first visits to Lisbon: the SHOTA RUSTAVELI docking at the Rocha Passenger Ships Terminal on 23rd March 1975 on the first call ever of a URSS passenger ship to Lisbon; the LEONID SOBINOV docking at Alcântara also doing her first call since sold by Cunard to the Soviets in 1973.
The SHOTA RUSTAVELI was the fourth of five sisters of the IVAN FRANKO-class, and was built in East Germany in 1968. She was doing a round the world liner voyage and shared her berth in Lisbon with ITALIA's CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, then a regular visitor on her Mediterranean - Brazil - Plata service. Like most Soviet liners, the SHOTA RUSTAVELI looked in need of some attention to her hull, with rust and an image of neglect...
The LEONID hull was also far from pristine... She was doing a series of summer cruises for CTC Cruises of London, and I enjoyed her calls particularly, for she had been built as the original Cunarder SAXONIA in 1954, converted for cruising in 1963 as the CARMANIA and sold ten years later to the URSS "en block" with her sister FRANCONIA. Both ships visited Lisbon several times over the years although not very often...
When I started taking photos of passenger ships in Lisbon in February 1975, the Soviet Union had the largest fleet in the world. Most of the older ships had been taken over from Germany in 1945 and rebuilt. This original fleet was followed by several classes of new ships, including the MIKHAIL KALININ-class, formed by no less than 19 sisters, built in East Germany in 1958-1964, the IVAN FRANKO-class (five ships introduced 1964 to 1973) or the then brand new Finland-built five sisters of the BYELORUSSIYA class... The flagship was the MAKSIM GORKIY, the former German HAMBURG of 1969, who still visits Lisbon regularly and must be nearing the end of her working life, still in steam, still looking very German and modern-sixties...
Copyright photos and words by Luís Miguel Correia - 15 February 2007