The Soviet Fishing Fleet
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
After WW II the Soviet Fishing Fleet started the fishing business in Shetland waters. In the 1960s the Russian vessels became more numerous. Most frequent visitors of the early days were Russian tankers which ferried freshwater from Lerwick to the trawlers and factory ships of the fleet at the open sea. Later on tugs and other supply vessels of the auxiliary fleet added to the sceene. Their trans-shipment of fish and stores was carried out with the approval of the British government.
In periods of bad weather especially the factory ships and the transport vessels looked for shelter in the firth between Fetlar and Out Skerries. In worsening weather conditions bigger parts of the fleet now including the trawlers as well gathered in Bressay Sound.
Although most of the ships had a regular base in their home port of Kaliningrad (Baltic Sea) they used to stay at sea for three or four years. That's why most of them looked always a bit rotten but in fact some of the most modern ships belonged to the fleet. Especially the factory ships and the mother ships of the auxiliary fleet which were developed and built by the MTW dockyards (Matthias Thesen Werft) in Wismar (former GDR, today AKER Shipyards Wismar) were at competable standards and sold and in operation worldwide.
At the height of the business the Soviet fleet engaged the following types of boats:
- Small trawlers like the SRT4240 fishing in coastal waters and within a distance of a daytrip around the factory ships.
- Big trawlers which went from Shetland as far as to south Greenland waters.
- Specialized factory ships of three different types:
i) Some fishing on their own and processing the own catch of white fish,
ii) some processing all kind of fish from the catch of the trawlers only,
iii) some producing fish meal from the "waste" of other factory ships and from by catch.
This type of fishing boats became famous as Russian Klondykers all around the world.
Within the auxilliary fleet there were:
- Both oil and water tankers,
- tugs to assist boats in distress,
- transport vessels to transfer catch and processed fish to the Russian ports, and
- the so called motherships, the biggest units of the fleet. These boats served two functions:
i) they provided storage capacity for supply goods to the fleet as well as for an intermediate storing of processed fish and
ii) served as "hotel ships" for trawler and other crews off duty providing more comfortable quarters and some recreational facilities.
In the later days of the business they showed their characteristic deckloads of timber which was sold from Scotland to Greenland. That enabled the fleet to buy at least some of the provisions from local shipping agents and allowed a more independent operation of the fleet.
The Russian were at first suspicious and they even refused assistance offered by Shetland boats to some of their vessels in distress. Shetland fishermen especially from Fetlar and Out Skerries officially complained about damages to their nets and other fishing gear due to the careless dumping of refuse by the Russian fleet and the Lerwick lifeboat was more than once called out due to the misunderstanding of the Russians' use of red flares for signaling.
All that was sorted out and over the years the Russians became more open minded and friendly if not seeming anxious to assist whenever and wheresoever possible. In fact smaller Russian tankers made emergency supplies of fresh water to the reservoir at Out Skerries in the hot and dry summers of 1968 and again in 1971. It is quite obvious that this development was a clear response to the assistance the Soviet fleet had got from Shetland people, boats and crews. Among a longer list of minor accidents on their boats the best known emergency and rescue actions were those of
- 1958 when the Lerwick lifeboat rescued three crew from the rocks of the Holm of Unst
- 1962 with 13 crewmen of the Soviet trawler Maia rescued with breeches buoy by 'Fetlar Auxiliary Coastguard' and
- 1967 when the small trawler SRT4240 wrecked at the Point of Skaw, Unst, with the whole crew and their private belongings saved by local coastguard.
The number of Russian vessels decreased rapidly after the UK had joined the European Community and the subsequent extensions of the Common Market fishing limits in 1977/1978. At the end of the development we see more and more fishing vessels from Poland and the former GDR coming to Shetland waters and making use of the Russian auxiliary fleet in the early 1980s.
Thus the former Soviet fleet became a more and more "international" fleet.
Additional Photographs
 Russian water tanker 'Kartaly' in Lerwick Harbour. |
 Russian and Polish trawlers |
 Polish transport vessel with barrels on deck |
 Soviet trawlers at Albert Wharf, 1968 |
 Soviet trawler 'Obra' at Albert Wharf, 1968 |
 Soviet Russian water tanker 'Orsk' and local boats LK 428 'Launch Out', St Vincent, and LK45 'Flourish', in the small boat harbour. 'Orsk' delivered water to Out Skerries in 1968 when their reservoir ran dry |
 'Sigulda' was one of the bigger Russian water tankers calling regularly in Lerwick, 1963. |
 Fleet of Polish fishing trawlers at Victoria Pier (SWI = Swinoujscie; SZN = Szczecin) |
 Eastern bloc factory ships anchored north of Bressay |
 Klondykers anchored south of Lerwick and the wreck of 'Pionersk' on the Ness of Trebister. |
