Khan Asparuh (ship, 1977)

**Khan Asparuh**
	The Khan Asparuh in the Georgi Dimitrov shipyard in Varna
Ship data
flag	Bulgaria
Ship type	Tanker
class	Project 606
home port	Burgas , Bulgaria
Shipping company	Navigation Maritime Bulgarians
Shipyard	Georgi Dimitrov shipyard, Varna
Build number	308
Keel laying	November 2nd 1974
Launch	March 24, 1976
Commissioning	3rd November 1977
Removal from the ship register	December 3, 2003
Whereabouts	In 2003 Alang scrapped
Ship dimensions and crew
length	244.51 m ( Lüa )
width	38.99 m
Draft	Max. 15.50 m
measurement	57079 GT
Machine system
machine	Cegielski - Sulzer - diesel engine
Machine ; performance	23,200 hp (17,064 kW)
Top ; speed	11.3 kn (21 km / h)
Transport capacities
Load capacity	96,795 dwt
Others
Registration ; numbers	IMO number 7346647

The Khan Asparuh (bulg. Хан Аспарух ) was a crude oil tanker built in 1977 for the Bulgarian state shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare . At 100,000 tons, she was the largest ship that was built or operated in Bulgaria . In 2003 it was scrapped in Alang .

Construction and technical data

During the closure of the Suez Canal from 1967 to 1975, shipping companies around the world relied on ever larger and more economical tankers for the journey between Europe via the Cape of Good Hope and the Arab countries. Against this background, the Institute for Shipbuilding in Varna designed the first construction of a 100,000-ton tanker in Bulgaria as Project 606. At the Georgi Dimitrov shipyard (since 2004: Bulyard ) in Varna, the keel was laid on November 2, 1974 under construction number 308, and on March 24, 1976, the launch as Khan Asparuh , named after Khan Asparuch (* around 641 ; † um 702 , ruler of the Greater Bulgarian Empire ). The further construction to completion took another year.

The ship was 244.51 meters long, 38.99 meters wide and had a draft of 15.50 meters. She was measured with 57 079 GT , the load capacity was 96,795 tdw . One of the Polish producers Cegielski manufactured under license 8-cylinder Sulzer - Diesel engine type 8RND-90 produced 23,200 horsepower and enabled a top speed of 11.3 knots .

Other ships in the class

The original plan was to build around 40 ships of this type for Bulgaria and export to Poland, but after the Khan Asparuh , only a second tanker was built in 1978. It was to be given the name Khan Krum ( Krum , 803 to 814 Khan of the First Bulgarian Empire ), but was sold to a Greek shipowner and commissioned as Olympic Star (IMO 7625251) in 1979 .

history

As the largest ship built in Bulgaria, the Khan Asparuh was also a political prestige project and was not allowed to be sold abroad. With the commissioning on November 3, 1977, the state shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare ( Navibulgar , actually Bălgarski Morski Flot or Български Морски Флот ) took over the ship with its branch shipping company for tankers, the Bulgarski Tanker Flot ( Bulet ). Home port became Burgas .

The ship did not initially operate regularly between Bulgaria and Asia. In 1975 the Suez Canal reopened, at the same time Bulgaria did not need such a large tanker and the Khan Asparuh was initially laid up . The ship was then leased to a French company for two years. Even if the ship was then brought back into service under the Bulgarian flag, its tonnage could not be fully utilized - the ship had too great a draft for the Bulgarian and Russian ports in the Black Sea .

The ship caused an international stir when the tanker left the Russian port of Novorossiysk on November 27, 2001 and a fire broke out on the ship. Six people were injured in the fire and the tape was extinguished. Two years later, the shipping company decided to decommission the tanker: the introduction of double-hulled tankers and the ban on single- hulled tankers from 2015 onwards left ships like the Khan Asparuh little leeway. On December 3, 2003, the Navibulgar struck the ship from her list and sold it for scrapping to the scrapping yards near Alang in India. Since then, the shipping company has no longer had a tanker.

literature

Bruno Bock, Klaus Bock: The red merchant fleets. The merchant ships of the COMECON countries , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-7822-0143-4 .
Ambrose Greenway: Comecon merchant ships , Kenneth Mason, Emsworth / Hampshire 4th ed. 1989, ISBN 0-85937-349-5 .