Republican Quintet

摘要

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union operated the largest merchant fleet in the world, including an interesting assortment of passenger ships. These ranged from the four sisters of the 20,500gt Alexander Pushkin class to the small 4,500gt Mikhail Kalinin series of 19 ships built between 1958 and 1964, plus a few veterans thrown in for good measure such as the ill-fated Admiral Nakhimov of 1925 and Baltika, of 1940. As part of a modernisation programme, Odessa-based Black Sea Shipping Company (Blasco) took delivery of five identical vessels over a 24-month period between January 1975 and December 1976. All were built by Oy Waertsilae AB of Finland at its Turku Shipyard. In the intervening 30 years, the five vessels have had numerous changes of ownership and names and are all likely to remain in service for some time to come.