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Russian sailing ship Kruzenshtern to take part in VE-Day celebrations in Sevastopol

AGADIR, April 06, 20:50 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s legendary sailing ship Kruzenshtern will call at the Crimean port of Sevastopol in early May to take part in the celebrations of the victory in WWII, the ship’s captain Mikhail Yeremchenko told Itar-Tass on Sunday upon arrival in the Moroccan port of Agadir.

“It will be a historic visit and the Kruzentshern’s first visit to Sevastopol after Crimea’s reunification with Russia,” he said. “The crew is longing to visit this famous Hero City. The crew and students will take part in the May 9 celebrations.” This year, he reminded, will mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Crimean peninsula and the entire Black Sea coast of the former Soviet Union from the Nazi.

“During our stay in Sevastopol, the ship will be open for guests,” Yeremchenko added.

In 2015, the Kruzenshtern will take an active part in the celebration on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory in WWII. According to the captain, she will sail along the Northern Sea Route, call at ports of the victorious countries.

This is the Kruzenshtern’s third visit to Morocco in the past two years. She visited Casablanca in the spring of 2012, and called at Tangier as part of her Olympic voyage in January 2014.

The Kruzenshtern, a four-masted barque, was built in 1926 at Geestemnde in Bremerhaven, Germany and was given the Italian name of the Padua (after the Italian city). She was surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1946 as war reparation and renamed after the early 19th century Baltic German explorer in Russian service, Adam Johann Krusenstern (1770-1846). She is now a Russian Navy sail training ship. Of the four remaining Flying P-Liners, the former Padua is the only one still in use, mainly for training purposes, with her homeports in Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg) and Murmansk. After the Sedov, another former German ship, she is the largest traditional sailing vessel still in operation.

The ship will leave Agadir on April 9 to head for France’s Sete, where she will take part in an international maritime festival.