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SS Albert Ballin
SS Albert Ballin.1923
SS Albert Ballin pulling in to port on September 27th 1923
Career (Germany) Flag of Weimar Republic (jack)
Name: Albert Ballin
Namesake: Albert Ballin
Owner: Hamburg-America Line
Builder: Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Launched: 16 December 1922
Maiden voyage: 5 July 1923
Career (Germany) Kriegsmarine Jack
Name: Hansa
In service: 31 October 1935
Career (Soviet Union) Flag of the Soviet Union
Name: Sovetsky Soyuz (translate as "Soviet Union") (1949-1980)
Name: Tobol'sk (1980-1981)
Fate: scrapped 1981
General characteristics (1923)
Tonnage: 20,815 gross tons
Length: 602.4ft
Beam: 78.7ft
Speed: 16 knots
Capacity: 1650 passengers

SS Albert Ballin was an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1923 and named after Albert Ballin, visionary director of the line who had committed suicide several years earlier.

Ss.albert.ballin.passenger

Passenger manifest for the SS Albert Ballin, September 27, 1923.

1923 Porcelain Medal for the Maiden Voyaqge of the SS Albert Ballin from Hamburg to New York via Southampton.

1923 Commemorative Porcelain Medal for the Maiden Voyage of the SS Albert Ballin from Hamburg to New York via Southampton.

Albert Ballin was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, and served on the Hamburg-New York City route. In 1928 a tourist class was added. Originally built as a 16 knot ship, the engines were replaced in 1929 resulting in a speed of 19 knots. In 1934 she was lengthened by 50 feet, and speed increased again, this time to 21.5 knots.

In 1935 the new Nazi government ordered the ship renamed to Hansa (Ballin having been Jewish). Hansa's last Atlantic crossing was in 1939. In 1945, she was employed to evacuate Gdynia, but on 6 March hit a mine off Warnemünde and sank.

The wreck was raised and rebuilt by the Soviet Union around 1949, and renamed Sovetsky Soyuz (Russian: Советский Союз; meaning Soviet Union), becoming the largest passenger ship operating under the Soviet flag. From 1955 she operated between Vladivostok and points in the Far East. Renamed Tobolsk in 1980, she sailed under that name for only a year before being scrapped.

References[]

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