Name SS Gruzyia In service 1928 Length 116 m | Completed 1928 Out of service 13 June 1942 | |
Owner Black Sea State Shipping Co. Builder Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft A. G. | ||
MS Gruzyia was a Soviet passenger ship that was sunk by a German air raid in the Black Sea while she was travelling from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol with 4,000 troops and a cargo of ammunition on board.
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Construction
Gruzyia was constructed in 1928 at the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft A. G. shipyard in Kiel, Germany. She was completed in 1928. The ship was 115.9 metres (380 ft 3 in) long, with a beam of 15.6 metres (51 ft 2 in) and a depth of 5.8 metres (19 ft 0 in). The ship was assessed at 4,857 GRT. She had two diesel engines driving two screw propellers and the engine was rated at 3,000 nhp.
Sinking
On 13 June 1942, Gruzyia was travelling from Novorossiysk, Russia to Sevastopol, Ukraine with 4,000 troops and a cargo of ammunition on board when she was spotted by German aircraft. She was sunk by the German air raid after one of the bombs exploded in the cargo room where all the ammunition were stored, the explosion that followed killed approx. 3,500 men and sank the ship in the blink of an eye. Only 500 men survived the ordeal and were rescued later.
Wreck
The Soviets tried to salvage Gruzyia in 1949, but after the wreck surfaced, the salvors found a large number of unexploded gas shells and bombs in her cargo hold which had not exploded when the ship sank 7 years earlier. After deciding it was to dangerous to salvage the wreck, the salvors placed the wreck gently back on the sea floor.
However, the Soviets tried to salvage the wreck again in 1956 or 1960. But when she was being lifted to the surface, the ships weak structure after 14 years of exposure to the elements broke in two and sank to the seabed again. All attempt to salvage the ship and her cargo have been abandoned and her wreck and dangerous cargo still lay on the bottom of the Black Sea.