Kruzenshtern (ship)

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The Kruzenshtern (Russian: Крузенштерн) is a Russian four masted barque and tall ship that was built in 1926 in Wesermünde (Bremerhaven, Germany), under the name Padua. She was given to the USSR in 1946 as war reparations and renamed after Adam Johann von Krusenstern. The Kruzenshtern is one of the four remaining Flying P-Liners and still in use, mainly for training purposes, with her homeport in Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg). After the Sedov she is the largest traditional sailing vessel still in operation.

Originally she was a cargo ship, used among other things to ship construction material to South America, returning with saltpetre. Later she transported wheat from Australia. The maiden voyage from Hamburg to Talcahuano (Chile) took 87 days. In 1933/34 she took a record-breaking 67 days from Hamburg to Port Lincoln in South-Australia. Until World War II she made 15 long trips to Chile or Australia.

The painting on the side suggests the presence of cannons, but that is an illusion (the Flying P line thought that painted gunports deterred pirates). In 1946 she was given to the USSR and from 1955 used as a training vessel by the navy. From 1959 to 1961 she was anchored at Kronstadt near St Petersburg, where she was outfitted with two engines. In 1966 she became property of the Ministry of Fishery, which uses her for training purposes to this day.

The Kruzenshtern takes part in many international regattas. After the fall of the USSR funding became a problem, so passengers are taken aboard for that purpose. In 1995/96 she made a trip around the world in the trail of her namesake. She again circumnavigated the globe in 2005-06 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Krustenstern's circumnavigation.[1] Image:Kruzenshtern at Sail Bremerhaven.jpg

The ship was used in three German films — Die Meuterei auf der Elsinore (1935); Herz geht vor Anker (1940) and Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (1944), as well as a number of Russian and Soviet films.