VITYAZ, photographed at Singapore in March 1975 when operating as a training/scientific research vessel, has since 1981 been berthed at Kaliningrad a museum ship.

She was built at Bremerhaven in 1936 as MARS for Neptun Line. Damaged in December 1943 in an air raid on Bremen, MARS was briefly renamed EMPIRE FORTH at Copenhagen in May 1945 at Copenhagen but allocated to the USSR in 1946 and renamed EQUATOR.

Renamed VITYAZ in 1949, she was retired in 1979 and initially preserved at Leningrad. Since about 1981 she has formed part of the "Museum of the World Oceans" at Kaliningrad.