Vlasov (shipowner)

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Alexandre Vlasov (* 1880 in Novocherkassk ; † 1961 ) and his son Boris Vlasov (born March 13, 1913 in Odessa ; † November 2, 1987 in Monaco ) were the leading members of a shipowner of Russian origin, initially in Italy and later in Monaco - Family who had played a key role in shaping the international maritime economy with various shipping companies since 1925.

The 150- ton - trawl - trawler to the supertanker went so far more than 1,000 ships for the Group. The own ships were originally recognizable by a large "V" on the chimney; today the “V” can be found in the company name of the group of companies. The most famous of all the Vlasov companies was the Sitmar Line , which was one of the pioneers in international cruise shipping .

Origin and company formation

The company's founder, Alexandre Vlasov, was born on the Don , 30 km northeast of Rostov . His family belonged to the Don Cossack ethnic group . At the age of 13 he left his hometown and went to Odessa , the port city on the Black Sea . He studied civil engineering at the University of Odessa, and after graduating he worked as a plumbing engineer for the Odessa City Council. In 1910 he married his wife Vera, three years later his son Boris was born. Since Vlasov, according to his family tradition, opposed the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution , he had to flee Odessa in 1917 and never returned to Russia. He managed to take his son Boris with him, but lost contact with his wife in the turmoil of the revolution. He settled in the Romanian capital Bucharest and tried various businesses, including used car trading.

In 1925 Vlasov was able to enter into a business relationship with a Polish coal mine and began to import and sell small quantities of coal to Romania. The business developed promisingly and Vlasov began to supply countries around the Mediterranean as well, Italy in particular was Europe's largest coal importer at that time. To transport the coal, he chartered ships from the Romanian "Romania Prima Societate Nationale de Navigatione Maritima", which had its headquarters in Bucharest. At the end of the 1920s he was promoted to junior partner in this company. When he got the exclusive rights to sell in the Mediterranean countries from the Polish mine in 1933, he expanded his business relationships to Turkey and was also able to acquire the Romanian shipping company as property. Five ships, each with a tonnage between 3,000 and 4,000 tons, ran for Vlasov, of which he retired three of the older ones and acquired three newer ones: Prabova , Siretul and Oltrul . In 1934 the shipping company was registered under the name "" Alexandre Vlasov Societate de Navigatione "": Vlasov's first self-established shipping company.

In the same year Vlasov opened a branch in Milan , the "Sindacato Italiano Combustibili", from which the acronym Sitcom arose. He also expanded to Greece and founded the shipping company Scomar derived from "Societe Commerciale et d'Armement SA", the three cargo ships decreed and the end of 1934 there were in Egyptian Alexandria office "Ing. Alexandre Vlasov ”, later renamed“ Overseas Shipping & Coal Trade Co Ltd. ”, also called Ovscot .

But Vlasov did not only pursue his interests in the Mediterranean region. In 1936 he bought a cargo ship called Campden Hill from the ship broker Manuel Kulukundis in London and immediately founded the British company "Campden Hill Steam Ship Co Ltd." as operator of the ship. The fleet was immediately expanded to include the ships Sunstone and Pearlstone . In 1937 Vlasov sold Campden Hill back to the Japanese and founded two more British companies: Once as the ship owner, "The Alva Steam Ship Co Ltd.", for which he again built a fleet of three ships with the support of the company "Rethymnis & Kulukundis" had it built at British shipyards; their size was about 5,000 tons, the names were Lodestone , Gemstone and Starstone . He also founded the "Navigation & Coal Trade Co Ltd." as a ship broker and operator company.

Since Alexandre Vlasov was mostly in his Milan office anyway, he took the political changes in Romania as an opportunity to move with his family to Italy in 1938. In the same year, the various companies in Vlasov already transported around 2 million tons of coal, making it one of the leading "coal traders" in Europe.

Although he had to flee his homeland, he always remained very attached to his homeland and so he had already used an agent in Odessa when he founded the Milan "sitcom". His name was Luiggi Valazzi and was the son of an Italian academic who had emigrated to Odessa before the First World War and who headed the Odessa office of the Italian shipping company "Societa Italiana di Servizi Marittimi", better known as Sitmar . Around the same time as Vlasov, he had to flee Russia and went back to Italy. In 1931 the Italian government reorganized the country's many different shipping services and handed over the lines that Sitmar had operated to the "Lloyd Triestino". The company name Sitmar has not been used since then . When Vlasov moved to Italy in 1938, his Odessa agent Luigi Valazzi gave him the idea of ​​reviving this name. So on April 30, 1938 the “Societa Italiana Transporti Marittimi SpA” was founded, which became known worldwide under the acronym SITMAR . The company's headquarters were at 15 Via del Conservatorio in Milan, but there was also an office in Genoa . Alexandre appointed his son Boris, who had meanwhile completed his studies at the Polytechnic in Vienna , as president of the company, Luigi Valazzi became managing director.

Company development until the end of the Second World War

The first ships of the Sitmar shipping company came from the British "Campden Hill Steam Ship Co Ltd." spun off and registered under the Italian flag, it was the Sunstone and the Pearlstone , they were renamed Castelverde and Castelnuovo . The Castelbianco joined them as the third ship . At that time, the company's ships were visible on the black chimney with a large white  V .

In 1940 Alexandre Vlasov founded the "Alvion Steamship Corporation" in New York , but registered their ships in Panama. Furthermore, the “Compania Argentina de Navegacion de Ultramar SA”, or Canumar for short , was established in Argentina in 1941 . This received the ships Prabova and Oltrul, previously registered in Romania, as well as a subsidiary called “Compania Sud Americana de Export & Import”, known as Cosadex as the operator of two fishing trawlers.

When Italy entered World War II , the Castelbianco was in Argentine waters and since Argentina was officially neutral or sympathized with the Axis powers , the ship was safe in Buenos Aires. In 1941, however, the country sided with the Allies and Italian ships were confiscated.

The Castelverde operated in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the war and was used to supply supplies for the German Africa Corps under General Rommel . On February 14, 1942, she was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine HMS Unruffled at Cap Bon on the sea route between Naples and Tunis .

In 1943 Sitmar received two more ships that Italy had captured from France, one named Potenza , it sank off Marseille on August 20, 1944, the second named Caltanisetta sank near Viareggio in 1944.

Alexandre Vlasov himself retired during the war to a 5000  hectare farm near Alta Gracia in the Argentine province of Córdoba , which he had acquired when he founded Canumar . However, he did not cultivate the land himself, but rented it out in plots to local smallholders, successfully preventing the harmful effects of monocultural land use on this large land. Here he had to watch how he lost all of his ships in the course of the war, ultimately only the name of his corporate empire existed for a long time.

New beginning after the Second World War

Immediately after the end of the war, Vlasov began to build a new fleet and took advantage of the fact that there were now numerous disused standard warships for sale. In 1947 he acquired the ships Vassar Victory and Wooster Victory , both built in 1945 as troop transports of the "Victory" class with a fast steam turbine drive and therefore well suited as refugee ships.

The Vassar Victory was renamed Castelbianco immediately after its acquisition and placed under the Italian flag. In 1952 she was converted into a passenger ship and the tonnage increased from 7604 to 10139. Her new name was then Castel Bianco .

The Wooster Victory , which initially sailed under the Argentine and Panamanian flags, was re-registered in Italy in 1950 and was given the name Castelverde . In 1953 she was also converted into a passenger ship, enlarged from 7607 to 9006 tons and renamed Castel Verde .

Alexandre Vlasov also bought an American C3 ship in 1949, which he had converted into a passenger ship for 1,800 people, an unbelievable capacity for the time. The decor was luxurious, with suites, bars and salons, as well as a swimming pool. The ship was named Fairsea .

Later, all ships should Sitmar-line in their names, the "FAIR" to a yellow chimney with a large, dark blue  V .

Vlasov chartered the three ships mentioned for the International Refugee Organization (IRO), the United Nations ' international refugee organization , as emigrant ships .

In 1950 Vlasov acquired another C3 ship, which had already had a checkered history (see main article Steel Artisan ), in order to use it as a refugee ship as well. But when the UN stopped the refugee trips in 1952, he had the ship converted into a transport ship called Castel Forte in 1952 .

The other ships went into service between Genoa and Australia or Central America, where they were mainly used for emigrant crossings. Already with these ships, a reputation was acquired that was to become characteristic of Sitmar : Excellent accommodation, catering and care for the passengers.

When in 1957 the demand for ship passages skyrocketed as a result of the wave of emigration to Australia, the Castel Bianco and the Castel Verde were sold to the "Spanish Line", where they ran under the names Begona and Monserrat until 1973 and 1974 respectively and were then scrapped. With the proceeds from the sale of the two ships, the Castel Forte of Sitmar was converted into a passenger ship by the Bethlehem Steel Company on New York's Staten Island . The new name of the ship was Fairsky , other ships of the same name were to follow.

Vlasov joined the ships Fairsea and Fairsky with Castel Felice , built in 1952 and called Kenya by the "BI-Line" , and the former troop carrier Oxfordshire , acquired by Bibby Line and later renamed Fairstar .

From these first beginnings, the Sitmar-Line developed into one of the leading companies in passenger shipping during the 1950s. She offered regular trips between Europe and Australia for both emigrants and holidaymakers and also served the tourism business from Europe to Central and South America as well as across the North Atlantic to Canada and the USA .

Rehabilitation of the fleet

In 1961 Alexandre Vlasov died and his son Boris took over the management of the group. He moved the company headquarters to Monaco.

There was a sharp break in the company's successful development so far in 1968 when it became clear that Sitmar would lose the charter contracts with Australia. To avert this, the shipping company bought the ships Charinthia and Sylvania , two of four sister ships built in 1956, from Cunard Line , but that could no longer save the situation. When a fire finally broke out in the engine room of the fair sea in 1969 , as a result of which the ship had to be scrapped, Vlasov lost the Australian charter contracts to the "Chantries-Line" in 1970.

It was an expression of great entrepreneurial foresight that Boris Vlasov now made the decision to completely convert the corporate strategy to the cruise business and to enter the strongly competitive North American market, because after 1974 the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company , also known as "P&O", When the world's oldest and largest shipping company founded the P&O Princess Cruise with the "Princess Cruise Line" founded in 1965 and made their ship Pacific Princess the star of the television series The Love Boat , the global cruise business expanded almost explosively.

As a first step, the Castel Felice were sold and the ships acquired by Cunard in 1968 were converted into cruise ships. The Carinthia was now called Fairsea , the Sylvania had already received the name Fairwind when it was acquired. Together with Fairsky and Fairstar , Sitmar now had four ships of its own in operation and thus acquired an excellent reputation in the international cruise scene in the 1970s and 1980s.

Boris Vlasov knew that the competition was enormous and so did the advances in shipbuilding. So new, more modern ships had to be integrated into the fleet. The first step was to sell the Fairsky in 1978 to replace it with a newer ship. The shipowner had planned a ship called the Empress of Britain , built in 1956 by Fairfield Shipbuilders in Glasgow , which was Britain's first fully air-conditioned passenger ship. The owner of this ship, the "Greek Line", had renamed it Queen Anna Maria , but had to sell it during the crisis of the 1970s, in which many shipping companies went bankrupt. However, Vlasov was left behind because the competition was faster: The sale went to Carnival Cruise Lines , one of Sitmar's arch rivals .

The next attempt at modernization followed in 1979 with the acquisition of the Portuguese Principe Perfeito , a ship built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited in 1960 , which has since been converted into an 820-passenger ship named Al Hasa . After being the subject of several bomb threats between 1976 and 1980, the "Fair Line", a subsidiary of Sitmar , acquired it and renamed it Fairsky . They wanted to convert it into a luxury cruise ship based on the American model. This conversion was supposed to result in costs of around 40 to 45 million dollars, whereby it was completely uncertain whether, despite such an effort, one would be able to meet the demand for cruise offers with such an old English ship, which had arisen with the success of Fairsea and Fairwind .

New ships

In this economic situation Boris Vlasov decided to take a step that his father had never taken: He started to build a new ship, because until now the Sitmar Line had only acquired and renovated relatively "old steamers".

The uneconomical project Fairsky (2) was stopped, but in order to keep the name Fairsky for the company, the ex- Al Hasa was given the name Vera and the Greek shipowner Giannis Latsis was given a new owner.

It was perfectly clear to the professional world that Sitmar's new ship would be named Fairsky . Otherwise, however, Vlasov had a few surprises in store:

  • First: He chose a French shipyard for his construction project, namely CNIM (Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Mediterranee) near Toulon.
  • Second: The ship with the hull number 1436 should be one of the largest cruise ships with 38,000 GRT , only the Oceanic was larger at 39,000 GRT and the Canberra at 45,270 GRT. But no sooner had construction started than the great "arms race" began, which still determines the cruise world today. The shipping company "P&O" announced that it wanted to build a ship that would set new standards: 45,000 tons, 1200 passengers, only outside cabins and cabins with private balconies on two decks. The name should be Royal Princess . Of course, “P&O” overtook the Sitmar Line with this project , which Vlasov did not want to accept. With ongoing production, the Hull was increased to 46,000 tons in 1436 , making it the absolutely largest passenger ship in the world at the time.
  • Third: Although diesel-electric propulsion has now almost become a matter of course in shipbuilding, Vlasov had his ship equipped with two converted steam turbines . Thus the Fairsky (3) was the last "steamer" in cruise history in the literal sense.

As before, however, an important pillar of the Vlasov companies was ship management, the companies involved in this were combined in 1984 under a holding company called the V.Group . With the profits generated here, Boris Vlasov was able to consistently push ahead with the renewal of the fleet, because the competing companies Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line already had fourth generation cruise ships with a tonnage of approx. 70,000 tons and 1000 cabins under development. On June 26, 1986, the shipowner signed a $ 153 million contract with the French shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique for the construction of a cruise ship for 1,600 passengers; the Hull number was B29 , after completion the ship should be christened Sitmar Fairmajesty .

At the same time, Vlasov negotiated with the Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani SpA , which, with its eight shipyards, is one of the most important shipbuilding companies in Europe. With 200 years of shipbuilding experience, “Fincantieri” was able to lay everything from fishing cutters to submarines, but had not built a passenger ship for almost 30 years. In this respect, Vlasov's intention to have a fourth-generation crusader built here was both a challenge and a great opportunity for the Italian company. Another special feature was that the Italian architect Renzo Piano could be won over to design the ship. A contract was signed for the construction of two ships worth $ 280 million each and "Fincantieri" built the ship with the Hull no. At the shipyard in Monfalcone . 5839 , Hull No. 5840 followed a year later.

Vlasov responded to the criticism of some EU countries that the Vlasov company had its headquarters in Monaco but was officially an Italian shipping company - which also meant tax advantages in the Fincantieri business - by founding an Italian subsidiary named Astramar based in Palermo. The latter was nominally the owner of the two Fincantieri ships, while Sitmar-Line acted as the lessee.

Fall and End of "Sitmar"

In the second half of 1987 the shipping company was at the height of its economic development. Of the four ships in service, the Fairstar was almost 100% full in service in Australia, the other three were well established in the American market. Three more state-of-the-art ships were under construction or in planning. The future of the company seemed secure for years.

In this situation Boris Vlasov died.

The surviving company management, including the Vlasov family, was apparently unable to cope with the loss of the manager; they quickly lost control of the company. As early as February 1988, the parent company Sitmar International had to sell a block of shares to an unspecified European investment group. Some marketing measures should modernize the image of the company: The well-known blue V on yellow funnel was replaced with the symbol of a swan, made of red and white lines of Sitmar- S . The same S-lines were carried horizontally on the fuselage. Furthermore, the company followed the trend emerging at that time to link the name of the shipping company with the ship's name, so the name of the ship Fairsea became the name Sitmar Fairsea or Fairwind became Sitmar Fairwind , etc. However, these more or less cosmetic measures were hardly economical Success.

In the meantime, the construction of the B29 ( Sitmar FairmMajesty ) began on March 5, 1988 in France as planned , but payment difficulties soon arose here too.

That was the big hour of "P&O". In order to assert itself against the competition from Carnival and Royal Caribbean, "P&O" was already considering merging with another cruise company. But it would have taken years to catch up on the lead in the tonnage used. But Sitmar , which had suddenly become a leader , had exactly the new building program that was sought and was already advanced. When it with the construction of B29 came to difficulties, succeeded at 28 July 1988 the P & O Chairman Lord Sterling, the heirs of Sitmar the company abzukaufen for the relatively low price of 210 million dollars and its subsidiary P & O Princess Cruises to integrate . With the 3 new super ships of the 4th generation, this suddenly became the top company in the industry. B29 was baptized as the Star Princess . Hull 5839 by Fincantieri was launched in 1989 and became the Crown Princess , later also known in Germany under the name A'Rosa Blu or AIDAblu . Hull 5840 , the sister ship, followed in 1991 as the Regal Princess .

Continuation of the company by the Vlasov heirs

After the sale of Sitmar Cruises , the Vlasov heirs consolidated the remnants of the shipping division in a subsidiary of the "V.Group" under the name V.Ships and concentrated entirely on the freight and tanker business. Some ships were owned by the shipping company, but the core business was ship management for other companies. The company was able to assert itself in this line of business and consolidate itself to the point where it could try to set foot in the cruise business again.

For this purpose, the company V.Ships Leisure SAM was founded in 1988 as a new "Leisure Department" and in 1993 Fairwind, which was formerly part of the group, was bought back by "Princess Cruises". Marketing of the ship in the travel market was entrusted to the German tourism company “Phönix Reisen” in Bonn. On August 18, 1993 the first cruise started under the new name Albatros . Until it was shut down in November 2003, numerous German holidaymakers had circled the world with the first-mentioned Albatros .

Also known German tourists, the ship Alexander von Humboldt , which between 2005 and 2007 also in the Charter of Phoenix travel was and V.Ships bereedert is. Keeled at the Okean shipyard near Odessa in 1989 and destined for the Navy of the Soviet Union , construction of the ship was discontinued when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. V.Ships bought the hull for the Swan Hellenic cruise line and had it completed into a cruise ship at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa. After an eventful history in recent years, the ship has now been given its original name Minerva and is in the charter of Carnival Cruise plc. abandoned, but revived by the former P&O chairman Swan Hellenic.

The cruise ship known under the name Seven Seas Navigator is also based on a new building that was started in 1991 at the Russian Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg for an ice-going research ship, but was not completed. In 1999 V.Ships bought the hull, had it completed by T. Mariotti in Genoa and chartered the ship to Radisson Seven Seas Cruises (since March 2006 Regent Seven Seas Cruises ).

Furthermore, V.Ships founded a subsidiary called Silversea Cruises in a joint venture with the Roman family Lefebvre, to which the Vlasov heirs belong . The founders pursued the vision of a completely new cruise concept that certainly corresponded to the intentions of the company's founders Alexandre and Boris Vlasov: passengers should be able to determine the start and destination of the cruise themselves (personalized trips), the equipment and implementation in the ultra Luxury segment. The T. Mariotti shipyard commissioned two ships, the new construction of which was carried out in cooperation with three shipyards. The hulls were manufactured by C N Visentini di Visentini Francesco & Cia , the deck superstructures were assembled by Mariotti, and the shipyard “Societa Esercizio Cantieri SpA” in Viareggio was hired for the interior work. The first of the two ships, named Silver Cloud , began its maiden voyage on April 2, 1994 from the Roman port of Civitavecchia , the sister ship Silver Wind followed a year later. The new concept was successful and more ships were built. At the end of 2018, the Silversea Cruises fleet consisted of nine ships.

The V.Group or V.Ships group of companies was one of the world's largest providers of ship management services in 2011. At that time, the group managed a fleet of over 1,000 ships, had 60 offices with 1,600 employees worldwide and over 24,000 sea-going people. In July 2011 the group was sold to a Canadian private equity investor.

literature

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In English

Remarks

  1. According to Art. 91 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea , ships have the nationality of the state whose flag they are entitled to fly. They are entered in the shipping register of the flag state and the legal system of that state applies to them
  2. HMS Unruffled in the English language Wikipedia
  3. In 2004 this farm still existed and was run by the eldest grandson Alexandre Vlasov.
  4. ^ "C3" is a type of ship standardized by the United States Maritime Commission , of which a total of 465 pieces were manufactured between 1940 and 1947, especially for armament purposes.
  5. Since entire families traveled on the emigrant ships, the shipping company organized special care for the children, employed trained nurses to look after the toddlers and ensured that the baby food was manufactured under medical supervision. The adults were given the opportunity to take part in English language courses during the crossing.
  6. The Fairsky (1) made her first voyage on June 26, 1958 in Southampton with 1461 passengers on board, she went to Australia. Until 1977 the ship ran mainly on this route and was known throughout Australia.
  7. The "BI-Line" is a British-Indian shipping line.
  8. 1968 the ship was christened Fairland ; a symbolic name for an emigrant ship. But this name seemed unsuitable for a cruise ship and so the old traditional name Fairsea was revived.
  9. Even today, numerous former passengers rave about their cruises with the Sitmar ships in various Internet forums
  10. The General Steam Navigation Company of Greece, a shipping company founded by Basil Goulandris in 1939 for transatlantic voyages from Greece, operated under the name "Greek Line". The company went bankrupt in 1975.
  11. CNIM has been building ships since 1856; 1982 built the shipyard for the Italian MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) the cruise ship Melody built
  12. This ship was actually built, christened by Princess Diana and put into service on November 1st, 1984. It has been running under the name Artemis since 2005 .
  13. This shipyard is still working, but under names such as Alstom Marine shipyard , Aker Yard France or STX Shipbuilding Co . This is always the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard , which has had different owners or shareholders in recent years. At the end of 2008, the following ownership structure was in place: the Korean shipbuilding group STX holds 50 percent of the shares, 33.35 percent is held by the French state, which with this partial nationalization of the shipyard has secured the blocking minority and thus also the right to have a say (after all, this shipyard is the only one in France on which the fuselage of an aircraft carrier can be laid down), the remaining 16.65 percent is held by the industrial group Alstom.
  14. Piano achieved world fame in the architecture scene with the construction of the Center National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris , Potsdamer Platz in Berlin , the terminal of Osaka Airport and other spectacular designs
  15. In retrospect, the construction of these ships turned out to be the initial spark for “Fincantieri”, because in the following ten years the two ships became popular cruise ship travelers' favorites. And not only because of their size, but also because they set new standards in terms of the spaciousness and generosity of the public ship's facilities. Environmentally relevant technologies such as waste and wastewater treatment were also new and later even became the industry standard in cruise ship construction. With the reputation that these ships have acquired, “Fincantieri” has become one of the market leaders in cruise ship building.
  16. Jeffrey Sterling, Baron Sterling of Plaistow in the English language Wikipedia
  17. M / S Crown Princess , in faktaomfartyg.se , accessed May 25, 2019
  18. After the takeover by “Princess Cruises” the ship ran under the name “Dawn Princess”.
  19. Albatros : today as RMS Sylvania on the English Wikipedia
    Not to be confused with the 1973 on the Finnish Wärtsilä -Werft built Royal Viking Sea , which is currently also the name Albatros wears and as the second ship of that name for the German company Phoenix Travel is on the way .
  20. ^ Seven Seas Navigator in the English language Wikipedia