Cruise liner “Taras Shevchenko” at Auckland, New Zealand, December 1973
Owner: Black Sea Shipping Co., Odessa (BLASCO) (Government of the U.S.S.R.)
Port of registry: Odessa
Builder: Mathias-Thesen-Werft, Wismar, East Germany
Gross tons: 20,027
Deadweight: 6,000
Length overall: 176.13 m
Max. draft: 8.167 m
Engines: 2 x 7-cylinder Sulzer diesels, total 21,000 b.h.p., by H. Cigielski, Poznan, Poland; twin-screw
Service speed: 20.5 knots
Completed April 1966
BLASCO & vessels taken over by State of Ukraine 1991 during break-up of U.S.S.R.
Vessel's ownership transferred to BLASCO U.K. 1995 & re-flagged in Liberia
Sold 1997 to Ocean Agencies, Ukraine
Arrested in Greece in June 1998. Moved to & laid up in Ilichiyovsk, near Odessa, the following month.
Put back into service 2003 under ownership of Antarktika J.S.C., Ukraine
Sold for scrapping 2004; renamed “Tara” for delivery voyage to India.