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A Scarce B Deck Life Jacket - Mikhail Lermontov, a massive…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Auckland
Date:
19-Apr-2010
Lot No.
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Description:
A Scarce B Deck Life Jacket - Mikhail Lermontov, a massive cruise liner which sunk in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986. Ms Mikhail Lermontov was an ocean liner owned by the Soviet Union's Baltic Shipping Company, built in 1972 by V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar, East Germany. She was later converted into a cruise ship. On February 16, 1986 she ran aground on rocks near Port Gore in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, and sank, resulting in the death of one crew member. On February 16, 1986, the Mikhail Lermontov was cruising in New Zealand for the Ctc cruise company. On that day she left Picton for the Marlborough Sounds, carrying mostly elderly Australian passengers. The Harbour Master of Picton, Don Jamison, conned the ship out of Picton. Jamison believed that the passage at Cape Jackson was nearly twice as wide as it actually was, and that there were no dangerous rocks or reefs in the passage. Operating without a chart, Jamison proceeded towards Cape Jackson. Hugging the shoreline to give the Australian passengers a good view of the area, Jamison continued towards the cape. About one mile from the cape, Jamison made the decision to take the Mikhail Lermontov through the passage. At 5.37 pm, travelling at 15 knots, the Mikhail Lermontov struck rocks about 5.5 m below the waterline on her port side. Water poured up into the decks, and the seriously damaged ship limped towards Port Gore. Jamison hoped he could beach the ship to stop it floating out to sea. Jamison beached the Mikhail Lermontov successfully, but lowering the anchors to keep her there was impossible as the electricity in the ship had failed. As a result, the ship drifted into deeper waters. Water-tight doors were broken open by the pressure of the sea water gushing into the ship. The Mikhail Lermontov was doomed. As was common in the Soviet Union, the top priority in catastrophes was avoiding negative publicity, even at the cost of human life, hence no distress signal was sent to the local authorities, and rescue ships, seeing that the Mikhail Lermontov was in trouble, were gruffly told that their assistance was not required. Luckily for the passengers, the rescue ships knew that their assistance was required, and stood by to evacuate the passengers. By 8.30 pm, many passengers were being loaded on to these rescue ships of their own accord, but the Russian crew refused to disembark. The passengers were put onto an Lpg tanker that was in the area, the Mv Tarihiko. As darkness set in Wellington Radio ordered all passengers to disembark as the Mikhail Lermontov listed further to starboard. Within 20 minutes of the last passenger being rescued, the ship had disappeared completely
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Memorabilia: Transport - Nautical