A passenger ship with great history, Vasilissa Olga was a British ship built at J. Laing shipyards in Sunderland, England in 1870. She was given the name Olga. She had a tonnage of 1,231 tons, a length of 76.7 m and a width of 10 m. She was owned by the St. Andrews Steam Co., Liverpool she was commanded by Captain Booth.
Regrettably Miramar has very poor information and nothing after her first name...
Olga was involved in the attempted rescue of Cleopatra back in 1877. Here is the complete storyIDNo: 5613033 Year: 1870
Name: OLGA Launch Date: 2.6.70
Type: Passenger/cargo Date of completion:
Flag: GBR Keel:
Tons: 1329 Link: 1525
DWT: Yard No: 165
Length overall: Ship Design:
LPP: Country of build: GBR
Beam: Builder: Laing
Material of build: Location of yard: Deptford Yard
In 1880, the ship was sold to Casa Lambrinidi S.A. and renamed Paris-Lambrinidi. The Casa Lambrinidi was a Romanian shipping company started by Epaminonda Lambrinidi in Bucharest and then also with offices in Marseilles and Paris.21st September 1877.
Cleopatra was reported as having left Alexandria in tow of the steamer Olga. I have seen the Olga variously described as a Tug, a Tug/steamer or a British Cargo vessel. Olga was a 1329 tons gross 251’x32’ 130hp British registered single screw cargo steamer launched on 2-6-1870 by J. Laing Ltd., at their Deptford Yard in Sunderland. ON60222. Owned by the St. Andrews Steam Co., Liverpool she was commanded by Captain Booth. Olga towed Cleopatra a quarter mile astern with a three and half inch steel cable manufactured by Messrs Newall. Cleopatra was crewed by Captain Carter and six Maltese seamen. Olga was contracted to tow the cylinder to Falmouth. Even at this stage it had been decided that the tow up Channel would be better carried out by a tug.
10th October 1877.
Olga and tow were reported by Lloyds, Lisbon, as having passed Sagres at 0540.
13th October 1877.
Cape Finisterre passed 1700, light Southerly wind.
14th October 1877. Posn 44.53N 7.52W. Wind NW fresh, rising to gale with heavy squalls and a fast rising sea.
1700. Cleopatra signals Olga ‘Heave-to’.
1800. Cleopatra seen to be listing.
1900. Cleopatra signals ‘Assistance required’. What had actually happened was that the ballast of railway lines had shifted in the gale and laid the Cleopatra almost on her starboard beam ends. Captain Carter and his crew entered the cylinder via a manhole and several times attempted to restow the rails to right the vessel but every time they began to bring the cylinder upright another heavy sea ruined their work. [This must have been a nightmare scenario, inside the cylinder in a full gale with railway lines constantly moving about]
2120. Cleopatra signaled ‘Foundering, send a boat’. Olga managed to launch a boat with a volunteer crew. Here again appear discrepancies. The Times of Friday October 19th 1877 names the men, but after each I have bracketed variations i have come across from other sources. William Austin [Askin] 2nd mate; Michael Burns AB, James Gardner [Gardiner] boatswain; James McDonald [William Donald] AB; , Joseph Benbow [Benton] AB; and William Paton [Patan] AB. The boat managed to reach Cleopatra but the crew were unable to catch ropes thrown to them and the lifeboat drifted away. It is assumed that it later swamped and sank as it or its crew were never seen again. This however was not known to Captain Booth who at 2300 attempted to signal Cleopatra to ask if the boat was still with them, but could not establish contact. [Cleopatra had attempted to launch her own boat, but once afloat it fouled the cylinders rudder yoke and was smashed,]
15th October 1877
0100. Olga noticed that Cleopatras mast had been cut away and heard shouts for assistance and that the boat had drifted away. Captain Booth now decided to slip the tow and try to put Olga alongside the cylinder, but could not hold position.
0200 An unsuccessful attempt made to float a line across by buoy.
0500 Another similar unsuccessful attempt made.
0630 A line was successfully passed, a boat launched and pulled across with it and Captain Carter and his crew successfully taken off.
0740 Olga left the area at full speed to look for her missing boat.
1230 After an unsuccessful search it was assumed boat and crew were lost and Olga left the area.
17th October 1877
2100. Olga arrived at Falmouth, reporting Cleopatra abandoned at 44.53N 7.52W, on her beam ends in a SW force 8 gale and that Olga’s 2nd mate and five hands had been lost.
20th October 1877
The Times reported that Captain Carter and his crew were leaving Falmouth for London, having completed all formalities. The Olga also left Falmouth about this time to deliver her cargo of grain to Liverpool.
The events above were now of course a matter of national interest and many letters to various newspaper editors questioned the sense of attempting the tow across Biscay at that time of year. A public subscription was opened for the widows and children of the six lost men. One sad fact noted was that a telegram was waiting at Falmouth for Olga’s missing 2nd mate informing him of the birth of his first child.
Lloyd's register shows her as transferring to a new owner in 1889 with the name Ernesta Foscolo although some legal documents call her Ernesto Foscolo.
Ernesta.tipp.jpg
In 1896 Ernesta Foscolo becomes the passenger ship Moldava in Constanta. The next year she finds herself in a major legal fight. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
As a result of this, in 1899 she gets back her old name.
She was sold in 1903 when she got her name Vasilissa Olga
Subsequent incarnations of Vasilissa Olga in the Greek seas were Vera and Panayiotis but I do not know when and how.
By 1930 she had been sold to Sovtorgflot, ie, the Soviet State Shipping Line of Odessa, Soviet Union and had become the Sotchi.
Sovtorgflot.jpg
She is still shown in the Lloyd records in 1945 belonging just to "USSR"