Now a familiar sight in both Arctic and Antarctic waters, the venerable and versatile expedition ship Ocean Endeavour is celebrating her 40th Anniversary in 2022. One of seven almost identical ships built for several Soviet Union shipping companies (including Dmitriy Shostakovich and Lev Tolstoy for the Black Sea Shipping Co), she was completed as Konstantin Simonov, after the famous Russian writer and poet.
Built for the Baltic Shipping Company and launched at Szczecin, Poland on 17 April 1981, she was subsequently outfitted and delivered to her owners in April 1982. was operated as a ferry/cruise ship and had a side-loadinglinked Leningrad (now St Petersburg) with Stockholm and Helsinki. In early 1988 she was rebuilt and refitted at Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany. The interior was modernised and a new, higher, stronger bow was added.
