ANTON CHEKHOV river cruise vessel

[aukepalmhof]

The inland cruise vessel ANTON CHEKHOV or also given as ANTON TSCHECHOW was built for Russian Government account and paid by petrodollars.
Built under yard No 713 by the Österreichische Schiffswerften AG Linz at Kronneuburg, Austria for Volga River Shipping Company in Nizhny.
04 November 1976 keel laid down as on of the type Q-056.
17 July 1977 launched as the ANTON CHEKHOV, named after the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, one sister the LEV TOLSTOV.
Tonnage 5,400 grt, dim. 115.6 x 16.7 x 2.8m. (maximum draught).
Powered by three diesel engines 2,700 hp, three shafts, speed 26km/h.
Accommodation for 198 passengers and 104 crew.

She had to be towed under the low Danube bridges and her superstructure, wheelhouse and funnel was removed to pass this obstacle, and 300 tons of water ballast was needed on board to lower her far enough to pass the bridges After passing the bridges she was reassembled at a yard in Romania where also the delivery of the vessel took place.
After delivery she would be used in Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei River.
She had to much beam to pass the Belomor cannel, and she had to make a 13,000 km journey to reach Krasnoyarsk, first via the Black Sea and Volga River to Leningrad then via the Baltic and around Norway to the Barents Sea arriving 7 September in Dudinka on the Yenisei River.
Till 2003 used in the service between Krasnoyarsk and Dikson on the Yenisei River.
October 2003 transferred to the European part of Russia, where she is used as a cruise vessel between Moscow and Rostov-on-Don with stops at Uglich, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kosmodemyansk, Cheboksary, Kasan, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Starocherkassk and Ristov-an-Don. Also makes regular cruise voyages between Moscow and St Petersburg
During her career is she a few times modernized.
She is now managed by the Orthodox Cruise Company, Moscow.
2011 In service. Homeport Nizhny Novgorod.

Austria 1990 9s sg2236, scott1512.

Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov_(1978)