ODESSA, August 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Remembrance events for the victims of the Admiral Nakhimov shipwreck in the Tsemesskaya Bay near Novorossiysk have begun in Odessa. Clerics of various religions prayed for the dead in the Shevchenko Park and the seaport.
The Admiral Nakhimov had 1,243 people aboard and 423 of them died. Sixty-five bodies were never found.
A ship carrying the victims’ families went from Odessa to Novorossiysk on the traditional remembrance voyage on Sunday. The families will meet with Novorossiysk Mayor Vladimir Sinyagovsky and will visit the Tsemesskaya Bay on August 31. A church service will be delivered there and flowers will be laid on the water.
The Admiral Nakhimov was built in Germany in 1925 and initially called the Berlin. The Soviet Union acquired the ship in compensation for the WW2 damage. The ship was attached to the Soviet Black Sea Shipping Company in 1957 and spent 29 on the Crimea-Caucasus tourist route. The ship collided with the Pyotr Vasev dry cargo vessel at 11:20 p.m. on August 31, 1986, and sank very quickly.
The Admiral Nakhimov is still lying at the depth of 47 meters in the Tsemesskaya Bay. The radius of 500 meters was officially declared the area of the burial of the shipwreck victims. It is prohibited to drop the anchor, to dive or to do any other things that may disturb peace in that area.