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The Oceanographic Ship Vityaz

by Colin Levings 2019

Vityaz

The oceanographic research ship Vityaz at Vancouver BC (Photo from the Dick Hekkert collection and ShipSpotting.com.)

The oceanographic research ship Vityaz, now a museum ship in Kaliningrad, Russia (at the Museum of the World Ocean (world–ocean.ru), is an iconic oceanographic research vessel that sailed under the flag of the Soviet Union for 30 years (1949–1979). Based in Vladivostok, the ship was a floating laboratory for the Institute of Oceanology, USSR Academy of Sciences and mostly worked in the Pacific Ocean.

The Vityaz scientists carried out investigations off the coast of British Columbia in 1958 and 1969. In 1958 during the International Geophysical Year her scientists sampled oceanographic variables such as temperature, salinity and currents off the west coast of Vancouver Island. She visited Vancouver during that trip. In 1969 a portion of her 45th cruise took the ship off the west coast of Haida Gwaii.

The biologists on board sampled animals living in very deep water (2500m–2600m) and identified new species of tube worms. In May 1969 the Vityaz again stopped in Canada, visiting the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo as well as Vancouver. There were 65 scientists of various oceanographic disciplines aboard her on this cruise. During these stops Canadian and American scientists exchanged scientific information with Soviet colleagues, somewhat unique discussions considering this was during the Cold War. Data from the Vityaz sampling off the British Columbia coast are archived in Fisheries and Ocean Canada data sets and are published in scientific journals.

The ship’s particulars (after conversion to a research vessel) (details from the Wikipedia)

The Vityaz was built in 1939 by Deutsche Schiff und Maschinenbau AG, Bremen, Germany as Mars for the Neptun Line, Bremen. She served with the German Kriegsmarine during the Second World War and was seized by the United Kingdom in 1945. She was renamed as Empire Forth for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was allocated to the Soviet Union in 1946 under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement and renamed as Equator and later renamed as Admiral Makarov. She was renamed Vityaz in 1949. When recorded in 1945, the ship was 101.50m (333 ft) in length, with a beam of 14.50m (47ft 7in). She had a depth of 4.72m (15ft 6in) and a draught of 5.84m (19ft 2in). She was assessed at 2,471grt, 1,821nrt. After conversion to a research vessel her length was 109.44m and her beam was 14.56m. Gross tonnage is 3248.

The Vityaz was propelled by two two–stroke single cycle, single action diesel engines, which have seven cylinders of 24 7/16 inches (62 cm) diameter by 45 1/4 inches (115 cm) stroke driving twin screw propellers. The engines were built by Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel. They are rated at 3,000hp. She was capable of 14 knots (26 km/h).


To quote from this article please cite:

Levings, Colin (2019) The Oceanographic Ship Vityaz. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Vitayz.php

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Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

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Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

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