The motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov": details of the death

In February 1986, a shipwreck occurred in the strait bearing the name of Cook, off the coast of New Zealand: the sinking ship "Mikhail Lermontov" sank, on which there were more than seven hundred and fifty people. Fortunately, the number of victims was small. The catastrophe of the motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov" claimed the lives of only one crew member - the engineer of refrigeration plants Pavel Zaglyadimov. He worked in that compartment, which was flooded almost immediately after the accident. Eleven people were injured in various degrees of severity.

general information

The death of the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" occurred thirty years ago. Investigative measures for this disaster lasted more than one month, they were conducted not only in our country, but also abroad. However, until today there is no accurate picture of what happened. Was the catastrophe of the motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov" a tragic coincidence of circumstances, or its collapse - is it still somebody's evil intent?

This Soviet eight-passenger passenger liner was one of the most successful ships built under Project 301. It was designed for seven hundred and fifty passengers. The ship "Mikhail Lermontov" was built at the shipyards in Wismar in 1972. It was named after the great Russian poet.

On this liner in those years traveled only a few of the then elite. Photo of the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" was often printed in the Western press. It was for him abroad that ordinary citizens judged how the people live in the Soviet Union. However, for most of the population of our country to get on board it was impossible. However, it turned out that many ordinary inhabitants of the Soviet Union did not even realize that there is such a ship - Mikhail Lermontov.

Project 588

Very few people know that this chic liner in the USSR had a "colleague" with a similar name. It was built as part of the project under the number 588 and was part of the passenger fleet of the Volga River Shipping Company. The motor ship "Michael Lermontov", which was first called "Kazbek", traditionally served only Astrakhan tourists, performing multi-day cruises to Moscow and Leningrad. Unlike his more famous colleague, this river three-deck liner went into navigation for the last time in 1993, and in 2000 it was cut to pieces.

A successful propaganda action

In 1962, after the Caribbean crisis, when the international situation became noticeably warmer, the Soviet government took several steps aimed at bridging the West and the East. Soviet-Canadian relations began to establish the liner "Alexander Pushkin", cruising along this line. The motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov", in turn, was to learn the tours of the USSR - the USA. He was considered a successful propaganda project of the Soviet government. In fact, the ship carried out diplomatic work, successfully advertising our Soviet life in the West.

In New York, on the day of his arrival, more than five hundred journalists went on board to write the morning that the boat "Mikhail Lermontov" had marked the end of the Cold War with his whistles. Americans began to actively buy tickets for our liner. The motor ship, which became a serious competitor for many western cruise analogues, soon became known in the international passenger transportation market.

The atmosphere on the ship

When the American line was closed due to certain circumstances, the Ministry of Moraflot, paying attention to the large flows of passengers moving between England and Australia, sent the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" to the Southern Hemisphere. Photo of the ship "Mikhail Lermontov", who made seven round-the-world flights, could be seen in the press of different countries. He sailed from London, visited many of the most beautiful corners in the world and again returned to the English capital, though on the other side. It is said that the atmosphere on the liner was amazing. The ship seemed to be a small state, where the usual life was going on, they fell in love with him, got married and even died.

Ten days - a tour of "Mikhail Lermontov" - cost seven hundred US dollars. The English joked that living on this Soviet ship sometimes costs less than life on land. And it must be said that this fact did not like the western cruise companies, so they repeatedly made various provocations. And that's why there was more than one version that the ship "Michael Lermontov" sank off the coast of New Zealand is not by accident, but by someone's malicious intent.

Last Flight: Chronicle

On February 16, 1986, at three o'clock in the afternoon, a Soviet eight-decker chic liner came out of the New Zealand Picton. The motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov", the last flight of which was interrupted at the exit from the Queen Charlotte Strait, carried four hundred and eight passengers and three hundred and thirty crew members on board. After about an hour and a half the captain descended into his cabin. His place on the bridge was taken by the watchmaster, with whom were the second captain's assistant, the New Zealand pilot and two sailors. On the radio, passengers were told about local sights. At the request of the New Zealand pilot, the course of the vessel was laid closer to the shore. At half-past six the ship proceeded to the open ocean by a paved course.

Unexpectedly, the pilot was ordered to take the steering wheel to the left by ten degrees. The watch officer duplicated what had been said, and the liner, changing course, entered a very narrow strait between the Jackson Point and the Walkers Rock lighthouse. The second assistant to Captain Gusev was reported that there are visible surfs on the water.

When asked why the course was changed, the New Zealand pilot to the navigator S. Stepanishchev explained to the passengers that he could see the beauty of Cape Jackson.

At seventeen hours thirty-eight minutes the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" at a speed of fifteen knots sailed into the strait. Two and a half hours after leaving Port Picton, the ship so closely approached one of the cliffs that, according to the stories, it was possible to reach out and reach the branches of a tree growing on the rock of the cape. But at that moment the helmsman managed to reverse and turn around.

But suddenly the ship crashed into the underwater rock at full speed. The ship "Michael Lermontov", a photo from the bottom of which testify to numerous damages, received a hole of twelve meters in length. In addition, as a result of the accident watertight bulkheads were damaged. But the ship continued to go forward by inertia. Captain Vorobiev, who immediately appeared on the bridge, took control in his hands and decided to throw the liner on the sandbank, located in the Bay of Gore.

Anxiety

Passengers did not suspect anything at the time of the collision. They gathered in the music salon of the liner Mikhail Lermontov. A motor ship whose accident took the life of one person at seventeen forty-five already had a five-degree roll. Immediately, an alarm was announced. On the bridge, the captain was informed that the watertight doors had been closed. But it did not help. The water began to flow into the refrigerator compartment, into the sports hall, food pantries, a laundry and a printing plant were sunk. It began to seep through and badly locked waterproof doors into the engine room.

At six twenty, when the emergency group tried to close the locks, the ship's roll was already more than ten degrees. The captain had no choice but to order the rescue equipment. He was told by the bridge that the water had flooded the main switchboard, which supplied power. As a result, the main engines were stopped immediately, and therefore the electricity was lost. At seven o'clock ten minutes the roll of the ship reached twelve degrees, and so the captain ordered everyone to leave the engine room.

The crew immediately proceeded to evacuate all passengers. It was possible to save practically all. Many participants in the cruise, most of whom were in old age, had to literally stand in their hands. Later it turned out that among the survivors there is no Pavel Zaglyadimov - a refrigerated mechanic. According to eyewitnesses, during the accident, he was in the bow of the sinking ship and was something busy in his workplace. A version was put forward that he was stunned by a blow, and he died as a result.

Details of the loss of the ship

On the sixteenth of February 1986 it turned out to be cloudy. On the bridge in the morning were the captain of the ship V. Vorobyov and the New Zealand pilot Jamison from the port Picton. The professional qualities of the invited specialist were not in anyone's doubts. He was one of the three pilots who were granted a patent allowing the posting of large vessels along the waterways of the Fiordland, a New Zealand national park, cut by fjords, which the Tasman Sea is famous for . But it was this experienced and competent specialist who made a strange decision to conduct an eight-deck Soviet ship on a narrow strait between the stony bank and Jackson's cape. Later, during the investigation, Jamison stated that this happened spontaneously. He supposedly did not want to miss the opportunity to show passengers near the beauty of both Cape Jackson and its lighthouse from the north side of the entrance to the strait.

The technical side of the disaster

The death of the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" caused an ambiguous reaction. Many Western newspapers tried to make money on this tragedy, apparently, fulfilling someone's order. First of all, the reliability of Soviet ships was questioned, in particular, their insufficient technical equipment.
For example, the English "Times" claimed that even the lifeboats on the "Mikhail Lermontov" were so rusted that passengers could punch their bottom with their feet, and the warning lights were not on their vests.

Of course, all this fuss had nothing to do with reality. Proceeding from the Paris memorandum, established in 1982 to coordinate the actions of European countries to control the implementation of international standards for the safety of navigation by foreign ships, just a year before the death of the ship, in June 1985, in Hammerfest, it was checked by an international commission whose conclusion was unequivocal. The experts found that the ship was in good condition and issued a certificate. Moreover, in December of the same 1985, the liner passed another test, but already in Australia. The captain received a document on his hands that there are no remarks to the technical equipment.

And still: according to the same Paris memorandum, the corresponding services of the ports would simply not have released into the voyage any faulty vessel, including the ship "Mikhail Lermontov." As for rusty boats and faulty warning lights, there was a complete set of fiberglass boats or metal alloys of very high strength on the ship. Therefore, rumors of leaky lifeboats were not true. The signal lamps did not burn, because they start to glow only when they are in the water. Proceeding from this, it can be concluded that the version of the technical malfunction of the ship disappears.

Dangerous competition

In the GDR at the shipyards in the city of Wismar, Mikhail Lermontov was built for several years - a motor ship under which you can still read under the water: "The port of registry is the city of Leningrad and the Baltic Shipping Company." Equipped with modern equipment, this cruise ship immediately found itself at the forefront of all passenger ships of the Soviet Minmorflot.

The captain of the liner was the most experienced seaman Aram Mikhailovich Oganov, who did not go on that fateful flight for a good reason. The ship sailed around the world more than once. It was quite in demand among foreign tourists who willingly bought tours to travel exactly on this Soviet ship. The reason was not only cheaper than that of Western companies, the price of tickets, but also in a high level of service.

The version related to competition was also considered a consequence, not only in our country, but also abroad. The captain of Mikhail Lermontov said at the trial that he had received oral and written threats more than once, and incomprehensible incidents occurred to the ship more than once, until the discovery of a magnetic mine without a fuse on the bottom.

On the last voyage Oganov was on vacation. He believes that the loss of the liner was due to the pilot's fault. The place of death of the ship "Mikhail Lermontov" for many years working specialist should have been well known. In addition, according to the captain, the ship sank at a distance of eight hundred meters from the shore at a depth of only thirty-three meters. And such a death, according to Oganov, can not be accidental.

The Riddle of the Pilot

Jamieson disappeared from the field of view of the press immediately after being brought ashore on a rescue ship. And it appeared only at the very beginning of the investigation, organized by the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. He said that he was very tired that day because he had not rested for several days. In addition, as the investigation found out, the pilot only drank vodka and beer for an hour and a half before the release of Mikhail Lermontov at sea. It was not possible to prove his direct fault, and today Jamison is the captain of a small vessel carrying livestock from Wellington to Picton and back.

Homecoming

After the death of the motor ship "Mikhail Lermontov", the Russians refused passenger transportation in this region forever. Moreover, not a single cruise ship appeared on the coast of New Zealand for five years.

The sailors, who managed to save more than four hundred sinking passengers, were not waiting in their homeland with open arms. In the Soviet Union exhausted people rode almost under escort.

"Mikhail Lermontov": punishment of looters

A few months after the disaster, one of the masts of the ship, protruding from the waters of the Cook Strait, resembled a hand asking for help. And although the rise of this expensive vessel from the water could be fully realized, but in the USSR perestroika began, and therefore it was not until the ship drowned far in the other hemisphere. But before him got divers. The ship "Mikhail Lermontov" is still being robbed. Although it must be said that at the state level, work was also carried out: first, fuel was downloaded from its tanks, and then, like the Titanic, a ship's safe was raised from it, containing the jewels of rich foreign passengers. Gold and diamonds were returned to the owners, and a ship's bell was sent to Leningrad, which was cut off by scuba divers.

A luxurious liner, sunken off the coast at a fairly shallow depth, a year later began to rob local residents. Interestingly, there are rumors that the ship severely punishes uninvited marauders. Over the past few decades, around the "Michael Lermontov" three ducks died, whose bodies never found ...