SS Lenin

Steamboat "Simbirsk" before renaming to "Lenin"
History
Soviet Union
Name	Lenin
Operator	Black Sea State Shipping Co
Builder	Schichau-Werke, Danzig
Yard number	832
Completed	1909
In service	1909 – 1941
Renamed	SS Simbirsk (until 1923)
Fate	Lost 27 July 1941
General characteristics
Tonnage	2,713 gross register tons (GRT) 1,356 net register tons (NRT)
Length	94.8 m (311 ft 0 in)
Beam	12.6 m (41 ft 4 in)
Height	5.7 m (18 ft 8 in)
Propulsion	1 × screw; 1 × 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)

The SS Lenin was a Soviet passenger ship, owned by Black Sea State Shipping Co, which sank in the Black Sea on 27 July 1941 with great loss of life.

History

Before the War, SS Lenin served as a passenger ship between the several Russian Black Sea Ports.

On 24 July 1941, she departed from Mariupol via Sevastopol to Yalta. Only 482 passengers had tickets, but many more passengers were allowed onto the ship. Also some 1200 soldiers of the Red Army reserves boarded the ship. She left Sevastopol for Yalta on 27 July, together with passenger ships Voroshilov, Gruzia and Navy Boat SKA-026. At 23:33 an explosion of unknown nature struck to ship and she sank within 10 minutes.

Only 43 crew and about 600 passengers were rescued. At least 49 crew and 900 passengers were lost, but the death toll could have been much larger. Estimates vary between 2,500 and 4,600 casualties. The reason of the sinking was probably a navigation mistake by Navy pilot lieutenant I.I.Svistun, who changed the route and sent the ship into a Soviet minefield. He was arrested and shot on 24 August 1941. Reports of a torpedo attack by a Romanian submarine were not confirmed by the Romanian Navy.

Still from the film Man with a Movie Camera showing the SS Lenin

Bibliography

• Wilson, Edward A. (1978). Soviet Passenger Ships, 1917–1977. Kendal, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-04-5.