Everything about Mikhail Lermontov Ship totally explained
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. She was later converted into a
cruise ship. On
February 16,
1986 she ran aground on rocks near
Port Gore in the
Marlborough Sounds,
New Zealand, and sank, resulting in the death of one crew member.
The Mikhail Lermontov
The
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 and Russian writers (Ivan Franko and Taras Shevchenko being Ukrainian), 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."
The crew were Russian, and a detachment of
KGB agents was placed on board. Initially, these agents shadowed the crew constantly, ensuring that there were no
defections, and to prevent "excessive fraternisation with foreigners". By the
1980s the atmosphere had grown more relaxed and the KGB no longer carried out such intense surveillance, though it's probable that the crew's cabins were still
bugged.
The
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 her to a cruise ship, and the accommodation and facilities on board were significantly improved during the
1970s.
Start of the Mikhail Lermontov's last voyage
On
February 16 1986, the
Mikhail Lermontov was cruising in New Zealand for the
CTC cruise company. On that day she left
Picton for the Marlborough Sounds, carrying mostly elderly
Australian passengers. The
harbour master of Picton,
Don Jamison,
conned the ship out of Picton. His presence, and his knowledge of the area, should have assured the safety of the
Mikhail Lermontov.
However, Jamison believed that the passage at
Cape Jackson was nearly twice as wide as it actually was, and that there were no dangerous rocks or reefs in the passage. Operating without a chart, Jamison proceeded towards Cape Jackson.
Hugging the shoreline to give the Australian passengers a good view of the area, Jamison continued towards the cape. About one mile from the cape, Jamison made the decision to take the
Mikhail Lermontov through the passage. A Russian officer tried to discourage Jamison, but the harbour master assured him it would be fine.
Disaster
At 5.37
pm, travelling at 15
knots, the
Mikhail Lermontov struck rocks about 5.5 m below the waterline on her port side. Water poured up into the decks, and the seriously damaged ship limped towards
Port Gore. Jamison hoped he could beach the ship to stop it floating out to sea.
Jamison beached the
Mikhail Lermontov successfully, but lowering the anchors to keep her there was impossible as the electricity in the ship had failed. As a result, the ship drifted into deeper waters. Water-tight doors were broken open by the pressure of the sea water gushing into the ship. The
Mikhail Lermontov was doomed.
As was common in the Soviet Union, the top priority in catastrophes was avoiding negative publicity, even at the cost of human life, hence no distress signal was sent to the local authorities, and rescue ships, seeing that the
Mikhail Lermontov was in trouble, were gruffly told that their assistance wasn't required. Luckily for the passengers, the rescue ships knew that their assistance
was required, and stood by to evacuate the passengers.
By 8.30 pm, many passengers were being loaded on to these rescue ships of their own accord, but the Russian crew refused to disembark. The passengers were put onto an
LPG tanker that was in the area, the .
As darkness set in,
Wellington Radio ordered all passengers to disembark as the
Mikhail Lermontov listed further to
starboard. Within 20 minutes of the last passenger being rescued, the ship had disappeared completely. Crew member Parvee Zagladimov died, while 11 of those rescued had minor injuries.
The Ship on the bottom of the sea
The
Mikhail Lermontov rests where she sank, lying on her starboard side at depths ranging from 25 to 30 m in dark, murky water. Popular with SCUBA divers, the site is served by local dive shops in Picton and
Kaikoura. It is possible to swim inside the ship, although care must be taken and guides familiar with the wreck are recommended. Three divers are known to have died while exploring the ship, including one diver whose body is still possibly trapped inside.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mikhail Lermontov Ship'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mikhail_lermontov__ship.totallyexplained.com">Mikhail Lermontov (ship) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
