Mikhael Lermontov

On 16 February 1986 the 170 metre long Mikhael Lermontov, Russia's then most luxurious cruise liner, became one of the largest and most accessible diving wrecks of the modern era when she sunk under mysterious circumstances in the Marlborough Sounds. What possessed the local pilot of this 20,000 tonne Soviet cruise liner to swing the big liner into the narrow passage between Cape Jackson and the lighthouse over foul ground is still a mystery. Rocks ripped open her hull and five hours later she sank. All but one of the 740 passengers and crew escaped.

	The bar of the sunken Mikhael Lermontov
	More about this image

Today the $45 million cruise liner lies on its side totally intact in 36 metres of water, although this varies with the tide, and is on an approximate 10 degree slope. The Port bridge wing is only about 12 metres below the surface. Bottom visibility varies greatly from fifteen to sixty feet, depending mainly on the amount of recent rainfall in the area. The wreck is massive and still fully intact.

Experienced in superb or poor visibility, the over-riding impression that imprints on your mind is one of colossal size.

Specifications:

Displacement: 10,742 net registered tons, 20,027 gross tons
Builders: V.E.B. Mathias-Thesen Werft, Wismar, in the former German Democratic Republic
Launched: 18 March 1972
Length: 155 metres (578 feet)
Beam: 23.6 metres (77 feet)
Draft: 8.3 metres (27 feet)
Machinery: Sulzer Diesels, twin screw
Cruising speed: 21knots
Owners: Baltic Shipping Company
Port of Registry: Leningrad
Passengers: 700 one class
Named after: Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, the Russian novelist and poet who died during a duel at the age of 27