MV Sovetskaya Latviya

MV "Sovetskaya Latviya" (Soviet Latvia, _ru. "Советская Латвия") was a transport ship operated by the Dalstroy concern of the NKVD. One of its main uses was to transport prisoners as forced labour in the Kolyma camps system.

Prior to Soviet ownership

The ship was originally christened "Childar" when launched in 1926. It was operated as a merchant vessel for several years by the Norwegian line Wiel & Amundsen Rederi A/S, based in Halden.

"Childar" ran aground on 4 May 1934 at the entrance to the Columbia River in the United States while en route to Cape Town, South Africa. Four seamen were killed in this incident. [cite news |title= Four Seamen Killed as Ship Grounds |url= http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=94522134&sid=6&Fmt=1&clientId=22222&RQT=309&VName=HNP |work= Financial |publisher= The New York Times |page= 33 |date= 1934-05-05 |accessdate=2007-10-11 ]

The ship was eventually was repaired at Porsgrunn and re-launched in May 1935 as MS "Aakre" by another Norwegian line, Rederi A/S Henneseid (Thoralf Holta).

In 1939, it was purchased by the Latvian United Shipping Company (Apvienotā Kuģniecības Akciju Sabiedrība), in Riga, Latvia, and renamed "Hercogs Jēkabs", in honour of Duke Jacob of Courland. It was planned that she would maintain a monthly cargo service between Riga and New York. [cite news |title= Latvian Ship Due Friday; To End Fifteen-Day Trip From Riga at Brooklyn |url= http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=93920405&sid=4&Fmt=1&clientId=22222&RQT=309&VName=HNP |publisher= The New York Times |page= 10 |date= 1939-05-29 |accessdate=2007-10-11 ]

In Soviet service

When Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, all merchant vessels were nationalised by the Soviet state, including "Hercogs Jēkabs". The ship was renamed "Sovetskaya Latviya" in 1942, around which time it entered service for the NKVD and Dalstroy.

It was struck from the Soviet register in 1967.

References

ources

* http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/norfleeta1.html
* Bollinger, Martin J., "Stalin’s slave ships: Kolyma, the Gulag fleet, and the role of the West", Praeger, 2003, 217 p., ISBN 0275981002