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

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

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

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

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

ASSEDO ex SHOTA RUSTAVELI

A good surprise very early in the morning, to find the ASSEDO at our stern about to enter Piraeus. It was 3rd October 2001 and those were my final photographs of the SHOTA RUSTAVELI / ASSEDO before she made her final trip to India and Alang.
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

ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY - retrato oficial

Após ter publicado as fotografias da reportagem que fiz a 5 de Abril da largada de Lisboa do navio oceanográfico russo ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY, resolvi adicionar esta imagem - a fotografia oficial do navio, e fazer alguns comentários acerca da estética no âmbito da construção naval. 

Diversos amigos e leitores desta página e da página associada no facebook, comentaram ser o ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY um navio bonito, opiniões com alguma carga nostálgica e tão relativas como afinal tantas posições sobre tudo e mais alguma coisa que nesta era de comunicação imediata se emitem. 

- O que é que afinal torna um navio "bonito"? 

- Os navios são concebidos como peças de arte com conceitos de beleza assumidos por si?

Pessoalmente, as imagens que registei do ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY em Lisboa proporcionaram um exercício de nostalgia, na medida em que, após ter começado a fotografar os navios e a actividade portuária numa perspectiva regular em Fevereiro de 1975, assisti ao início da presença de navios da então URSS em Lisboa, com a chegada do SHOTA RUSTAVELI ao cais da Rocha num Domingo (23 de Março de 1975) e logo a seguir, dos paquetes LATVIYA (cais de Alcântara, 1 de Abril de 1975) e IVAN FRANKO (cais da Rocha a 21 de Abril de 1975). 

Ao ver o ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY atracado na Rocha, veio de imediato à lembrança a recordação de outros tempos com a presença frequente dos navios de passageiros da URSS, e até me pareceu ver outra vez o MIKHAIL KALININ, apesar deste ser bem mais pequeno que o ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY. Mas era o mesmo estilo. 

A URSS construiu ao longo do século XX uma enorme frota de navios, militares, mercantes e de pesca, de que o ADMIRAL VLADIMIRSKIY agora com 41 anos, é ainda um vestígio vivo, apesar de ser o único sobrevivente dos seis gémeos originais construídos na Polónia entre 1974 e 1979. Eram navios bonitos, com equilíbrio de linhas de onde sobressaía o que se pode chamar uma elegância utilitária, com nítida influência da arquitectura naval italiana, mas sem a perfeição obtida pelos nossos parceiros mediterrânicos.

O que é que torna afinal os navios bonitos? Não há uma resposta absoluta, pois trata-se de uma apreciação subjectiva, quanto a mim direi que pelo aspecto e dimensões quase todos os navios impressionam positivamente, ao atraírem facilmente a atenção dos observadores, não fossem dos maiores objectos móveis construídos pelo homem. Claro que depois há os pormenores que podem marcar a diferença, mas a raiz do conceito de beleza acaba mais por estar associada ao tempo e à estética particular da época em que o próprio observador iniciou o seu exercício. No meu caso foi o início dos anos sessenta do século passado, daí a minha especial predilecção por navios como o FUNCHAL ou o LEONARDO DA VINCI, por exemplo, ao passo que para um grande Amigo já desaparecido, os navios mais bonitos eram os do primeiro quartel do século XX, em especial os britânicos saídos dos estaleiros Harland & Wolff - navios de facto lindíssimos - cujo último "exemplar" significativo foi o CANBERRA (1961-1997).

Mas na realidade há navios lindíssimos em todas as épocas, incluindo a actual, em que se estão a construir e projectar novas gerações de navios cada vez mais funcionais e amigos do ambiente. E os actuais gigantes não deixam de ser navios fantásticos, em especial de um ponto de vista do utilizador. Os navios de cruzeiros novos, por exemplo, muitas vezes apresentam uma escala difícil, mas o que oferecem aos passageiros é tão variado e original que o conceito de beleza acaba por assumir novas leituras. Fazem-se navios para serem bonitos? Sim e não. Adicionar elementos puramente estéticos à composição arquitectónica dos navios actuais custa muito dinheiro e cada vez mais esses exercícios são limitados a uma associação à "marca" da empresa armadora, como a chaminé ou as recentes decorações dos cascos, afinal seguindo as mesmas linhas que levavam noutras épocas os armadores a embelezarem as suas unidades com figuras de proa artísticas ou chaminés falsas suplementares. Enfim, mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se os olhares e as sensibilidades, mas a "verdade" é que não há navio mais bonito que o ainda nosso FUNCHAL. Do meu ponto de vista, claro, sei pelo menos de quem prefira a SAGRES, e por aí fora...

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. 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

NEW BOOK ON PASSENGER SHIPS

Maritime historian and photographer Luís Miguel Correia has just published another book: LISBON ON THE WORLD'S ROUTE Lisbon Cruise Ships.
A landscape format A4 size book with 123 photographs of 93 passenger ships in Lisbon, from the old mail liners and steamers to the newest cruise ships.
There are high quality images of the following ships: AIDAcara, AIDAdiva, ALCA, ALMANZORRA, AMADEA, ANDES, ANDREA DORIA, ANNA C, ARCADIA (2005), ARCADIAN, ARION, ARLANZA, ARTHEMIS, ASTOR, ASTORIA, ATHENA, ATLANTIS, AURIGA, AURORA, BLACK PRINCE, BOUDICCA, BRAZZA, BRITANNIC, CANBERRA, CARONIA (1949), CENTURY, CLAUDE BERNARD, COSTA CONCORDIA, COSTA EUROPA, COSTA MAGICA, CONSTELLATION, CRYSTAL SERENITY, DE GRASSE (I), DEVONIA, DUNERA, EAGLE, EMERALD PRINCESS, EMPRESS OF BRITAIN (1956), EUROPA (1981), EUROPA (1999), FLANDRE, FRAM, FRANCE, FUNCHAL, FYODOR DOSTOEVSKIY, GALAXY, GOLDEN PRINCESS (II), HANSEATIC (I), HIGHLAND BRIGADE, HIGHLAND PRINCESS, INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE, ISLAND STAR, KENYA CASTLE, L'ATLANTIQUE, LEGEND OF THE SEAS, LILI MARLEEN, MAKSIM GORKIY, MSC OPERA, MSC ORCHESTRA, NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS, NORWEGIAN DREAM, NORWEGIAN GEM, NOORDAM (1984), NYASSA, OCEANA, ORIANA, PACIFIC PRINCESS (I), PRINCESS DANAE, QUEEN ELIZABETH 2, QUEEN MARY, QUEEN MARY 2, REINA DEL MAR, ROTTERDAM (1987), ROYAL ODYSSEY (1964), SAGA ROSE, SAGA RUBY, SANTA MARIA, SEA CLOUD, SEA PINCESS (II), SERPA PINTO, SHOTA RUSTAVELI, STAR CLIPPER, STAR PRINCESS (II), STRATHNAVER, SUNWARD, SYLVANIA, THE WORLD, TRÁZ-OS-MONTES, UIGE, URUGUAY STAR, VERA CRUZ , VULCANIA and WIND SPIRIT.
The book tells the history and traditions of passenger shipping in Lisbon over the years. The book was launched at the Alcântara CruiseTerminal in Lisbon on 19th December and its publication was sponsored by the Port of Lisbon Authority. It was so successful that 80 per cent of the print run was sold in one week.
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

IVAN FRANKO-class funnels

The cruise ship MARCO POLO had her funnel repainted in the livery of new charterers TRANSOCEAN, of Bremen, alongside Lisbon on 11th April 2008, as seen on the first photo.

The second photo shows the funnel of the ASSEDO ex-SHOTA RUSTAVELI as photographed in Lisbon on 2nd July 2003.
Neither funnel looks like it was as built, but there have been more changes on the MARCO POLO...

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