Orient Lines the scrapyard at Alang , India
TS Maxim Gorkiy was owned by whom from 2008 to 2009?
TS Maxim Gorkiy TS Maxim Gorkiy was , until 30 November 2008 , a cruise ship owned by Sovcomflot , Russia , under long-term charter to Phoenix Reisen , Germany . She was built in 1969 by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft , Hamburg , West Germany for the German Atlantic Line as TS Hamburg . In late 1973 she was very briefly renamed TS Hanseatic . The following year she was sold to the Black Sea Shipping Company , Soviet Union and received the name Maksim Gorkiy in honour of the writer Maxim Gorky , renamed to Maxim Gorkiy after collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 . On 20 August 2008 Maxim Gorkiy was sold to Orient Lines . She was due to enter service with her new owners on 15 April 2009 under the name TS Marco Polo II , but in November 2008 the relaunch of the Orient Lines brand was cancelled . On 8 January 2009 the ship was sold for scrap , and she was beached at Alang , India on 26 February 2009 . Although never used as such , the ship was originally planned as a dual ocean liner/cruise ship , for service between Hamburg and New York City as well as cruising . She was the first major passenger liner built in Germany since 1938 . On entering service for the Black Sea Shipping Company , she became the first four-star cruise ship operated under the Soviet flag . Several variants of the ships name were used through her career . Some sources refer to her with the prefix TS ( turbine ship ) instead of SS ( steamship ) , while her final name Maxim Gorkiy was also written as Maksim Gorkiy and Maxim Gorki . She should not be confused with any of the Soviet era cruise liners of the , the so-called poet or writer class , including the current . Concept and construction . The Hamburg Atlantic Line had begun operations in 1958 , operating the former Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Scotland as the first on a route connecting Cuxhaven , Germany to New York City . In 1965 the company decided to order a replacement for Hanseatic . In order to finance this , a new company German Atlantic Line was founded and shares of the new company were offered to past Hamburg Atlantic Line passengers . The unusual scheme was successful , and an order was placed for the new ship at Deutsche Werft , Hamburg in November 1966 . Before the ship was delivered , Deutsche Werft merged with Howaldtswerke to form Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft . The new ship , eventually named Hamburg was originally planned to operate both as an ocean liner and as a cruise ship , similarly to , under construction at the time . However , by the time Hamburg was delivered in March 1969 , German Atlantic Line ( as the whole company was known by then ) had abandoned liner service and Hamburg was used for full-time cruising . Additionally the first Hanseatic had burnt in September 1966 , and instead of replacing her Hamburg now entered service alongside the second that had been purchased from Zim Lines in 1967 . The ships interiors were modernized 1988 , however most public spaces were in the same configuration as they were when the ship was built until the end of her career . Service history . With German Atlantic Line . The new flagship of the German Atlantic Line , Hamburg , set on her maiden voyage from Cuxhaven , Germany on a cruise to South America on 28 March 1969 . She was the first major German-built passenger liner to enter service since 1938 . Until 1973 Hamburg was used for cruising around Europe and the Americas alongside the second Hanseatic . The operations of the German Atlantic Line were badly hit by the oil crises in 1973 . Additionally their sister company Home Lines had lost their in a fire earlier that year , and as a result Hanseatic was transferred to the fleet of Home Lines on 25 September 1973 as Doric . On the same day the second Hanseatic was sold , Hamburg was in turn renamed Hanseatic , becoming the third ship to bear the name . Her career under the new name proved short however , as already on 1 December 1973 German Atlantic Line ceased operations , the newest Hanseatic was laid up in Hamburg and placed for sale . Japanese Ryutsu Kaiun KK were interested in buying the ship , but that deal did not materialise . The Museum for Hamburg History displays a model of the ship in her SS Hamburg guise . With Black Sea Shipping Company . On 25 January 1974 Hanseatic was sold to Robin International , New York City , who immediately re-sold her to the Black Sea Shipping Company . Renamed Maksim Gorkiy , she was at the time the most luxurious ship to sail under the flag of the Soviet Union . Before the ship entered service for the Black Sea Shipping Company , she was chartered to a British film crew and used to portray the fictional SS Britannic in the disaster film Juggernaut . From the beginning of her career under the Soviet flag , she was often chartered to West German tour operators . In November 1975 an attempt was made to sink the ship . While she was being repaired at San Juan , two bombs were installed on board under the waterline . These were detonated later during the same month as the ship was approaching New York . The damage did not sink the ship however , and she was subsequently repaired at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Hoboken , New Jersey , United States . An incident of a different nature took place while the ship was inbound to New York on 18 September 1980 , when the port authorities declined the ships right to make port due to the Soviet Unions involvement in Afghanistan at the time . Instead of entering port Maxim Gorky was forced to lay at anchor outside Staten Island , while port ferries were used to bring her passengers to the city . With Phoenix Reisen . In September 1988 Maksim Gorkiy was chartered to Phoenix Reisen of West Germany for twenty years . Despite being in service for Phoenix , the ship maintained her mainly Soviet crew ( later Russian/Ukrainian ) and the Soviet Unions funnel colours . Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union she was painted in the new colours of independent Russia , not those of Phoenix Reisen . In 1989 Maksim Gorkiy made headlines twice . On around midnight on 19 June 1989 she hit an ice floe while on a cruise near Svalbard and begun to sink rapidly . All passengers and a third of the crew were instructed to abandon ship , while the Norwegian coast guard vessel Senja was dispatched to assist . By the time Senja arrived on the scene some three hours later , Maksim Gorkiy was already partially submerged . 350 passengers were evacuated from the lifeboats and ice floes by helicopters and Senja . Senja took on 700 people . They were taken to Svalbard and later flown back to Germany . Meanwhile , the crew of Senja had managed to stop Maksim Gorkiys sinking , by which time her bow had already sunk down to the level of the main deck . On 21 June Maksim Gorkiy was towed to Svalbard where quick repairs were made to make her watertight enough to survive a return to Germany for repairs . The ship sailed to Lloyd Werft , Bremerhaven under her own power and after repairs was back on service on 17 August 1989 . Maksim Gorkiy made news again in December of the same year , when she was used as a venue for an international summit between George H . W . Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev at Malta . On 26 July 1991 , while on a cruise to Svalbard a television exploded on board , injuring three people . In December of the same year the ship was re-registered to Nassau , Bahamas as Maxim Gorkiy . Following the collapse of the Soviet Union she was transferred to the fleet of Sovcomflot , who continued chartering her to Phoenix Reisen . Sometime between 2004 and 2006 Maxim Gorkiy finally received the green/white livery of Phoenix Reisen . Her long-term charter to Phoenix Reisen ended on 30 November 2008 , and Phoenix Reisen did not extend the charter due to the high fuel expenses of operating a steam turbine powered ship . The future of the ship remained uncertain for some time due to the new requirements of the SOLAS regulations coming into effect in 2010 , meeting of which would have required large-scale reconstruction for Maxim Gorkiy . On 20 August 2008 it was reported that the re-formed Orient Lines had purchased the ship . Orient Lines planned to rename the ship Marco Polo II and refit her to comply with the SOLAS 2010 requirements . She was due to enter service with her new owners on 15 April 2009 . However , on 19 November 2008 Orient Lines made a statement that the relaunch of their cruise operations has been delayed indefinitely due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . Following the termination of her charter to Phoenix Reisen in November 2008 , Maxim Gorkiy was laid up at Eleusis , Greece . In December 2008 plans were made to convert her into a static hotel ship to be permanently moored at Hamburg . In early January 2009 the ship was reportedly sold to the scrapyard at Alang , India for € 4.2 million . Despite the sale for scrap the ship remained laid up in Greece and attempts were made to purchase her for hotel ship use . In February 2009 the attempt to save the ship were reported to have failed , and she was beached for scrapping at Alang on 26 February 2009 . The ship was broken up in less than seven months after being beached . Design . Exterior . The basic hull design of Hamburg is a conventional , robust steel construction , with entirely flat decks amidship that slope slightly upwards towards the bow in a compromise between modern construction techniques and traditional design values . The superstructure adapted a clear , streamlined design in spirit of the modernism of the late 1960s . With usage as a cruise ships in mind , the ship was built with a mid-ship lido deck complex spanning two decks on the top of the ship . The upper level of the complex was extended all the way to the sides of the ship , allowing a view uninterrupted by lifeboats from the lido to the surrounding sea from behind the shelter provided by high glass screens . In addition to the lido deck , a large sports deck was designed behind the funnel . Perhaps the most distinctive individual exterior feature of the ship is her slim funnel equipped with a large saucer-like smoke deflector dish on the top , a design that has not been featured on any other ship in such a radical form . The futuristic funnel design in part earned Hamburg the nickname The Space Ship . Interior . The interior layout of Hamburg was based on an axial design , with a central passageway running through the ship on each deck . In order to accomplish this , the funnel uptakes had to be divided . The first notable passenger liner to have featured such a design had been another German ship , of 1914 . Spaciousness was an important factor in interior design , and the feeling of space in the interiors was another reason for the ships nickname as The Space Ship . A major factor in establishing this sense of space was the effectively designed galley , restaurant and crew mess complex located in the forward part of decks 4 and 5 . The galley was linked by direct vertical cores to service areas on the upper deck lounges , the whole design minimizing the space required for effective catering of the passengers and crew . This space-effective design also dictated that almost all public rooms are located at the front of the ship ( a notable exclusion being the theatre ) , while all cabins are located on the rear part of the three decks below the promenade deck . Due to being planned for liner service , Hamburg was designed with spacious cabins , most of which ( 306 out of 326 ) feature full bath-tubs , a feature not found on many ships built since . The deluxe cabins located on promenade deck additionally feature floor-to-ceiling windows and separate bedrooms and living rooms . Most of the public rooms on board the ship were retained in their original use since the ship entered service in 1969 , some—such as the Wolga Bar—retaining their original furniture until the very end . Decks . As Maxim Gorkiy . 1 . Unknown 2 . Sauna Deck – spa , swimming pool , sauna 3 . Crew spaces 4 . Restaurant Deck – restaurants , bar 5 . Neptun Deck – restaurant , inside and outside cabins 6 . Saturn Deck – information desk , inside and outside cabins 7 . Orion Deck – inside and outside cabins 8 . Promenade Deck – showroom , library , bars , winter gardens , shops , theatre , enclosed promenade , suites , sun deck 9 . Lido Deck – observation lounge , night club / disco , fitness center , chapel , open promenade , swimming pool 10 . Sun Deck – cafeteria , sun deck External links . - Phoenix Reisen official website - Orient Lines official website - Maxim Gorkiy at ShipParade.com ( archived link )