SC Atlantic, 10 July 2010

SC Atlantic

IMO 8325432
Built 1986, Stocnia Szczecinska im A. Warskiego Szczecin, Poland
Tonnage 12 798 GT
Length 139,55 m
Width 21,00 m
Draught 5,60 m
236 passengers
236 berths
344 cars (?)
540 lanemeters (?)
4 Sulzer diesels, combined 12 800 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
2 stern thrusters
Speed 18 knots

SC Atlantic is a cruise ship aimed at the Russian market (though to my knowledge she is currently laid up). She was built in 1986 for the Soviet Union's Fast Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) as Konstantin Chernenko. She was the last ship of the seven-strong Dmitriy Shostakovich -class to be built and was named after the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who had ruled the country for barely 13 months in 1984-1985. On completion the Konstantin Chernenko was placed traffic from Vladivostok to (at least) Japan and Korea. In 1986 she was renamed into Russ.

I have been able to discover very little information on the movements of Russ after the fall of the Soviet Union (though I admit I haven't been looking very actively). She appears to have stayed with FESCO until 1997, and at least in 1993 she is known to have been in the Baltic as she visited Helsinki at least once during that year. In 1997-1999 she sailed for LS Redereja on a Stockholm-Riga service under charter from FESCO. In 2000-2001 she seems to have served between Odessa and Haifa and later in the decade again between Vladivostok and Japan.

In 2010 the Russ was rebuilt in Italy as the cruise ship SC Atlantic for a new Baltic cruise service planned by the Russian company S-Continental. In July she entered service, doing cruises with the itenerary St. Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn-St Petersburg. These were apprently not a resounding success as already in the next month the service was amended into short cruises from St. Petersburg to Kotka in Finland. S-Continental's website still state the ship is operating on the four-city Baltic cruises, but the last I saw her (in February 2011) she was laid up in St. Petersburg. It remains to be seen if the ship will be reactivated for the 2011 summer season and what her route will be.

The photographs below show the SC Atlantic on her first visit to Helsinki under that name, moored at Katajanokka cruise quay on 10 July 2010. Click on the images to view full size.

Quite rusty on the port side... though she looks less worse for wear than when I saw her calling at Länsisatama four days before.

Boxy Soviet design at it's best. I wonder if there's a lifeboat drill going on or if they're actually using the lifeboat a platform for painting the ship? Because the crewmen standing there look like they're doing something to the hull...