96 I World of Ships I Paddle Steamers
engines taking steam from oil fired boilers.
K.M. Stanyukovich, built at Budapest
in 1957, is under restoration by a private
Russian owner at the Gorodetsky Yard, near
Nizhny Novgorod on the River Volga. A new
boiler has been supplied by Master-Watt,
and photographs show the vessel almost
completely stripped for renewal.
A737 diesel conversion T. Dostoyevsky has
been badly damaged by fire but still exists.
Cabin accommodation was available over
two decks for 250 passengers, while for day
sailings the total went up to 350, the 71.4m
vessel coming under the jurisdiction of the
Russian River Fleet Ministry.
Two exceptions were steamers allocated
to the Hungarian and Romanian fleets as
Budapest and Bratislava. The former had a
narrow escape from sinking when she was
holed after running aground near Hainburg
when returning from a trip to Vienna in 1977.
Repaired to resume trips from spring 1978,
she continued to make annual appearances
until suffering a boiler failure 1986. Although
sold to a private owner, an expected
renovation never materialised.
Bratislava (1958) was also used on
Romanian State-operated overnight trips until
withdrawal in 1975, and functioned briefly as
a hotel ship before being gutted by fire and
declared as total loss during the following
year. Krasnoyarsk, one of the youngerfunctions, and entertainment can be provided
before; in summer, she can be chartered for
cruises along the Dniepr. Other paddle vessels
reported to still exist include:KRASNOYARSK • Built in 1887 by Tyumen
factory at Kurbatova for businessman
Alexander Sibiryakov, the vessel had the
distinction of welcoming Crown Prince
Nicholas (later the last Tsar) in 1891 and then
carried Vladimir Lenin into exile in 1897.
With a length of 56.2m and a beam of 8.25m,
she was converted for use as an oil barge in
1927 and laid up in 1960. Now a museum ship
at Krasnoyarsk, the point deep in Siberia to
where Lenin was taken, she is out of the river
at Yenisey, but lies only feet from the waters
on which she once sailed and is reportedly
open to the public for a small entry fee.
N. V. GOGOL • Preserved at Archangel,
the paddle steamer N. V. Gogol was built at
Novogorod in 1911 for service on the North
Dvina river, with a triple expansion engine
generating 380hp. Put through an internal
renovation costing R40 million in 2010-11, she
returned to service in 2012 with a seven-night
June tour followed by a three-night trip from
Archangel for the Pomor Tours Company.
BYSTRI • Built in 1955 at the Lenin Shipyard
in Kiev, Bystri was the last of her type in Volga
service when a campaign started in 1966 to
preserve her for a Polytechnic Museum. ItABOVE Built in 1911, N. V. Gogol survives at
Archangel, promoted by a local tour company.ABOVE Borcea dates from 1914 and is now owned
by the Serbian Ministry of Education.ABOVE Once Yugoslavia’s royal yacht, Krajina is
reported to survive half sunk near Belgrade.THE TYPE 737 STEAMERS
Most vessels in the 737 series came with a single
funnel aft of the paddles, although Budapest
and Bratislava had twin stacks mounted side
by side. Budapest completed the whole series
when she was delivered to the Hungarian
Council of Trades Unions (SZOT) in 1963 and
with Bratislava, in the then Czechoslovakian fleet
since 1958, was also used on state-operated
overnight trips with berths for 250. It was never
easy to keep track of the vessels which went into
Russian service, although the following list of
names and building dates was widely circulated
in the 1980s, many of the series bearing namesof Communist Party or Government figures.
The steamers were: A. A. Finogenov
(1954), A. Korneychuk (1956), A. Makarenko
(1955), A. Maliskin (1955), Al. Polesaj (1955),
Ark. Gujdor (1955), B. Khmelnitsky (1954),
Barnaul (1958), Biysk (1958), Blagoveshensky
(1959), Bor Gerbator (1954), Dems Bedny
(1954), Dobrolyubov (1957), Dostoyevsky
(1956), Dzambul (1957), E.Bogriky (1956),
G.Grensky (1956), General Kirszanov (1954),
H. Vishievski (1954), Irkutsk (1959), Ivan
Franko (1954), J. Galon (1956), J. Krilov (1954),
J. Petrov (1954), K.Trentopv (1954), Kazan
(1958), Khabrovsk (1959), Krasnoyarsk (1959),Leskov (1957), M.Sibriak (1957), Mayakovsky
(1953), Maxim Gorky (1952), Matrosz (1956),
Nikitin (1957), Novosibirsk (1948), Nekrasov
(1953), Omsk (1959), Pav Bazhov (1954), Perm
(1958), Petrozavosk (1949), Pisemsky (1957),
Pomlavovsky (1957), Petr Pavlenko (1953),
Prishvin (1957), Rybinsk (1958), Sz. Akimov
(1955), Sz. Jsez Lenyir (1955), Sz. Roupak
(1956), Serafimovich (1953), Sverdlovsk (1958),
Tomsk (1958), Turgenev (1953), Ufa (1958),
V.Gusev (1955), V. Shishkov (1953), V.Stavsky
(1956), Vl. Arseniev (1955), Vladivostok (1952),
Vsevolod Vishievski (1953), Z. Pridavlin (1954),
Zhukovsky (1957).members of the 737 class dating from 1953,
has undergone a major renovation having
been out of service since 2007. She arrived
at her new home port Yakutsk on the River
Lena in September 2014 from Kiryensk and
is reported to be operated by Lenaturflot, the
area’s main river passenger services company.
According to Russian enthusiast site http://www.
infoflotforum.ru, other Type 737 vessels still
in existence could include Blagoveschensk, out
of service since 2005 at Kiryensk, Russia, but
with reports of a reconstruction in progress;
Ryazan, said to be in a dilapidated condition,
as is Aleksandr Polezhaev at Samara, Russia;
Sergey Alymov, which appears to be on dry
land 50ms from the river bank near Saratov,
Russia; little is known about Yaroslav Galan,
reported at Ufa, Russia; while Radischev
appears to be out of the water in a shipyard on
Zhukov island in the Dniepr at Kiev, Ukraine,
but is in poor condition.
The 1956-built T.Dostoveskiy survived into
the present century but in 2008 suffered a
major fire. Another survivor, built at Obuda,
Hungary, in 1953 was deployed on sailings
between Kiev and Kherson in the Ukraine
as Nekrasov until decommissioned in 1976.
Damaged by fire in 2002, she was substantially
rebuilt and re-engined under the current
name of Bogdan Khmelnitskiy to operate as
a hotel ship based in Kiev. The banquet room
and restaurant are open for private hire for13 Paddlers_ashore_NL.indd 96 17/04/2018 09:28