The ''Krim''-class

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

s consisted of six ships built during the late 1920s for service in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. The first two ships were built in Germany, but the rest were built in the Soviet Union. Four ships were sunk during the

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, while the other two survived the war.

Background

In 1928 the Sovtorgflot (Soviet Commercial Fleet) ordered two ships from the

Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

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and procured a license to build four more at the

Baltic Works The OJSC Baltic Shipyard (''Baltiysky Zavod'', formerly Shipyard 189 named after Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze) (russian: Балтийский завод имени С. Орджоникидзе) is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia and is part of ...

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The latter ships were virtually identical with their

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, but differed slightly in some respects. The ''Krim''-class ships were intended for service in the Black Sea with the Black Sea State Shipping Company.

Description

The German-built ships, and , had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads in ...

of , with a

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of and a draught of . They had two decks and a

depth of hold Depth(s) may refer to: Science and mathematics * Three-dimensional space * Depth (ring theory), an important invariant of rings and modules in commutative and homological algebra * Depth in a well, the measurement between two points in an oil w ...

of . The ships were assessed at , , and .Jordan, p. 376 ''Krim'' and ''Gruziya'' had a pair of six-cylinder,

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s, each driving a

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, and the engines were rated at a total of 1,163 nominal horsepower. Sources differ about their maximum speed, quoting speeds of or . The ship had a designed capacity of 450 passengers.Wilson, p. 20

Ships

Service

After completion, they were assigned to the Black Sea State Shipping Company with their port of registry at

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krim-class ocean liner Krim-class ocean liner Ocean liner classes Passenger ships of the Soviet Union World War II passenger ships of the Soviet Union