Armenia ( Soviet hospital ship ) Armenia was a transport ship operated by the Soviet Union during World War II to carry both wounded soldiers and military cargo . It had originally been built as a passenger ship for operations on the Black Sea . " Armenia " was sunk on 7 November 1941 by German aircraft while evacuating civilians and wounded soldiers from Crimea . Estimates of the number of people who died in the sinking range from 5 , 000 to 7 , 000 or more , placing it among the worst maritime disasters in history . Career . The " Armenia " , built in 1928 at Baltic Shipyards in Leningrad ( now St . Petersburg ) , was one of four " Adzharia " - class passenger liners specifically designed for use on the Black Sea . They were the first passenger ships to be built in the newly formed Soviet Union . " Armenia " was a fairly fast , mid - sized vessel capable of carrying 1 , 000 tons of cargo as well as about 550 passengers in 1st , 2nd , and 3rd class accommodations . On short trips it could carry 4 - 500 more on deck . Its shallow draft ( 5 . 5 meters ) allowed access to the shallow - water ports of the Crimean Peninsula . Throughout the 1930s she and her sister ships - " Adzharia " , " Abkhazia " , and " Ukraina " - reliably ferried passengers , mail , and cargo between Black Sea ports such as Odessa , Mariupol , Sevastopol , Yalta , and Batum . Following the invasion of Russia by German forces on 22 June 1941 , the " Armenia " was requisitioned by the Soviet Navy for use as a transport and hospital ship . By late October 1941 the German Wehrmacht ' s 11th Army , under General Erich von Manstein , had cut off the Crimean Peninsula , laying siege to Sevastopol . For the Soviets , the only way in or out of the beleaguered city was by sea . In early November the " Armenia " , painted with the large red crosses of a hospital ship , was tasked with removing wounded Russian soldiers , medical personnel , and civilians from Sevastopol . Sinking . On the night of 6 / 7 November 1941 the " Armenia " took on thousands of passengers at Sevastopol , amid scenes of chaos ; although the city would end up withstanding the German siege for nine months , at the time , enemy seizure appeared imminent . Entire Soviet hospital staffs and civilian officials and their families were taken aboard alongside the thousands of wounded , bound for the town of Tuapse , 250 miles away on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea . After leaving port in the early morning hours of the 7th , " Armenia " ' s captain , Vladimir Plaushevsky , received orders to put in at Yalta , a few miles east of Sevastopol , where the already overloaded ship was to pick up yet more passengers . Here , no attempt was made at registering the embarkees ; wounded soldiers and civilians were simply crammed onto the decks . Plaushevsky was eager to get underway while darkness still provided some protection , but was ordered to wait for escorts to arrive . At 7am " Armenia " finally departed Yalta , accompanied by two armed boats and two fighter planes . The Germans and their Romanian and Italian allies had only a few surface vessels on the Black Sea ; as such , it remained essentially under Soviet control throughout the Second World War . However , in the earlier part of the war the Axis had complete air superiority . Over a hundred Soviet merchant ships were sunk , as were dozens of naval vessels . Only the most heavily armed and escorted ships could travel in daylight with reasonable hope of safety ; ships caught alone or in port in the western part of the Black Sea were almost guaranteed to be attacked . " Armenia " ' s status as a hospital ship was uncertain . Though her sides and top were painted with large red cross symbols , she had light anti - aircraft armament , had previously transported troops and military stores , and , on the morning of 7 November , was traveling with military escort , inadequate though it was . In any event , Hague Convention norms regarding the status of medical facilities were often ignored in the bitter conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union . At 11 : 30am , about 25 miles from Yalta , the " Armenia " was attacked by a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber of 1 . Staffel ( Lufttorpedo ) / KG 28 , which dropped two torpedoes . One torpedo missed ; the other scored a direct hit . The ship broke in two and sank within four minutes . Only eight people were rescued . Even by the lowest estimate of about 5 , 000 dead , the sinking of the " Armenia " remains the deadliest maritime disaster in Russian history . In terms of loss of life in the sinking of a single ship , it is often listed as third worst in world history , after the sinking of the " Wilhelm Gustloff " and the " Goya " , German refugee ships which were torpedoed by Russian submarines in the Baltic Sea in 1945 . The hulk of the " Armenia " has been located at a depth of 472m . All three of her " Adzharia " - class sister ships were also lost during the war .