Object of the Month – July 2026

15.07.2026 15:45 Uhr

Passenger Ship "Adzhariya"

Our Object of the Month for July is the passenger ship "Adzhariya", built by the Mathias Thesen Shipyard in Wismar. The shipyard initially operated as a repair yard. Following the construction of slipways and a cable crane in 1952/53, new shipbuilding also became possible. This included passenger ships, which became the shipyard's flagship products. Initially, inland passenger vessels, known as "Bifa" for short, with space for 368 passengers, were built for the Soviet Union. The first ship, the "V. Chkalov", was launched on 18 July 1953 and delivered on 30 March 1954.

Alongside the inland passenger vessels, seagoing passenger ships were also produced. These were known as "small Seefa" or "Seefa 340", as they were designed for around 340 passengers. The first of these ships, the "Mikhail Kalinin", was launched on 25 May 1957 and delivered to the shipping company on 14 July 1958. This model represents the last of nineteen ships in the series, the "Adzhariya". She was launched on 30 November 1963 and delivered to the shipping company on 30 June 1964.
The ship was named after the Georgian Black Sea region of Adjara. The "Adzhariya"'s home port was Odessa. The ship sailed initially under the Soviet flag and, until she was scrapped in 1996, under the Ukrainian flag.

The "Adzhariya" was 122.15 m long, 16 m wide, and had a height to the main deck of 7.60 m. Her draught was 5.10 m. The ship had a volume of 5,261 GRT (around 15,000 cubic metres) and space for 314 passengers and 118 crew members. She had two restaurants, three lounges, a bar and a library. The diesel engines, built by VEB Dieselmotorenwerk Rostock under licence from MAN, produced an output of 8,000 hp (5,884 kW). Her speed was 14 knots, around 26 km/h. The ship's range was 4,200 nautical miles, equivalent to around 7,600 kilometres. The ship model was probably made by the Mathias Thesen Shipyard itself. Its previous owner, Hans Haase, who worked at the Wismar shipyard from 1967 to 2017, acquired it at a flea market in Rostock and restored it. The Technische Landesmuseum MV was able to acquire the model in 2023, together with two other ship models.