Murmansk
STS Sedov was owned by whom from 1991 to 2017?
STS Sedov STS Sedov ( ) , formerly Magdalene Vinnen II ( 1921–1936 ) and Kommodore Johnsen ( –1948 ) , is a four-masted steel barque that for almost 80 years was the largest traditional sailing ship in operation . Originally built as a German cargo ship , Sedov is today a sail training vessel , training cadets from the universities of Kaliningrad , Saint Petersburg and Astrakhan . She participates regularly in the big maritime international events as a privileged host and has also been a regular participant in The Tall Ships Races . History . Magdalene Vinnen II . Sedov , originally named Magdalene Vinnen II , was launched at Kiel , Germany in 1921 by the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft for the shipping company F . A . Vinnen & Co . of Bremen , one of the largest German shipping companies at the beginning of the 20th century . The shipping company initially objected to have an engine installed in the ship , but the ship yard ( with backing from a Government committee ) successfully argued for an engine , making the ship the first sailing ship with auxiliary engine designed to modern principles . Magdalene Vinnen II was at the time the world’s largest auxiliary barque and exclusively used as a cargo ship with a crew that was partially made up of cadets . She sailed on her maiden voyage on 1 September 1921 . Her voyage took her from Bremen via Cardiff , where she took on coal , to Buenos Aires . Despite bad weather , the journey from England to Argentina with holds full of coal took just 30 days . Magdalene Vinnen II carried all sorts of cargo : apart from coal , she took timber from Finland , wheat from Australia , pyrite from Italy and unit load from Belgium . The four-masted barque made two voyages around Cape Horn to Chile . Until her last voyage as Magdalene Vinnen II in 1936 , the ship sailed to Argentina , South Africa , Australia , Reunion and the Seychelles . Kommodore Johnsen . On 9 August 1936 , Magdalene Vinnen II was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen and renamed Kommodore Johnsen . The new owner modified her to a cargo-carrying training ship . More accommodation was provided , as the ship , apart from her permanent crew , was to have a complement of 50 to 60 trainee officers on each journey . Sedov . She came under Russian state ownership after the surrender of Germany — on 20 December 1945 , the British handed over the ship to the Soviet Union as war reparation . In the Soviet Union , she was converted into a sail training vessel of the Soviet Navy . Renamed Sedov after the Arctic explorer Georgy Sedov who died during an investigation in the Arctic in 1914 , she was used as a training ship of the Navy from 1952 to 1957 . She made several friendly visits to South America and Africa during this period . From 1957 to 1966 she was used as an oceanographic research ship in the North Atlantic . During these voyages , the Soviet Navy also used her for training of young cadets . In 1966 when she was transferred to the reserve in Kronstadt , formally under the civil ownership of the Ministry of Fisheries . In the 1970s , she was only infrequently used as a training ship , sailing in the Gulf of Finland . In 1981 , Sedov reappeared after renovation which had new features added such as a glass-domed banquet hall with a stage and a movie theater . Based at the Baltic Division of Training Ships in Riga she embarked cadets from schools of navigation of Kaliningrad and Murmansk . After the declaration of independence of Latvia in 1991 , she left Riga for Murmansk , transferred to the Murmansk naval school with the city of Murmansk ensuring her management and maintenance . On 20 June 2013 , Sedov was in collision with the Kraweel Lisa von Lübeck off Texel , North Holland , Netherlands . Both vessels put into Den Helder . Sedov has regularly been targeted by unpaid creditors of the Russian Federation such as Nessim Gaon ( of now defunct Swiss group NOGA , an anagram of Gaon ) and also by French holders of defaulted Russian bonds ; in 2002 Sedov was forced to precipitously and unexpectedly leave Marseilles in the dead of night to avoid being served a writ by AFPER ( French association of holders of Russian Empire bonds ) the following morning . For over a year French holders of defaulted Russian bonds were warning they were going to reorganize and export their claim to Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions , more friendly to private citizens than the French . In May 2008 , in the wake of British-Russian tension , Sedov was instructed by Moscow not to dock as planned at Southend-on-Sea . The September 2008 visit to Falmouth , the starting point of FUNCHAL 500 race to Madeira , also seemed to be in jeopardy . In 2011 Sedov celebrated her 90th anniversary . In 2012 Sedov started her first voyage around the world of more than 13 months . The voyage ended on 20 July 2013 at Saint Petersburg , Russia . In 2017 , Sedov changed her home port to Kaliningrad and she is managed by the Kaliningrad State Technical University .