MS Adzharistan
MS Adzharistan was one of six Soviet s built for the Black Sea State Shipping Company during the late 1920s. The first pair were built in Weimar Germany, but the other four, including Adzharistan, were built in the Soviet Union and varied slightly from the German-built ships. A month after the [Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union] by the Axis powers in June 1941, she was destroyed by German aircraft.
Description
The Krim-class ships were built for the luxury tourist trade from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. The four ships built at the Baltic Works in Leningrad were slightly shorter than the pair built in Germany and displaced a little less at at deep load. They had an overall length of, with a beam of and a draught of. The Soviet-built ships had two decks and a depth of hold of.The Krim-class cargo liners had 518 passenger berths in three classes plus room for an additional 462 passengers on the decks. They had a cargo capacity of. The ships were assessed at,, and.
Adzharistan had a pair of six-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engines, each driving a propeller shaft. The Russki Diesel engines were rated at a total of and gave the ship a speed of
Construction and career
Adzharistan was originally named Adzharia and was renamed sometime in the 1930s. She was one of the four ships in the class that were constructed in 1928. After completion in 1930, the ship was assigned to its regional subsidiary, the Black Sea State Shipping Company by Sovtorgflot, the national merchant fleet, with its port of registry at Odessa.After the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 by Nazi Germany and its allies, Adzharistan was used for military tasks. After being damaged and set on fire by German aircraft on 23 July near Odessa, the liner was run aground and subsequently burnt out. The only German aircraft known to have attacked the Odessa area on that date were Heinkel He 111H bombers of II./Kampfgeschwader 27.