At one time the Soviet-owned BLASCO fleet was among the largest passenger shipping lines in the world. It's roster included the old Cunard twins SAXONIA/CARMANIA and IVERNIA/FRANCONIA as LEONID SOBINOV and FEDOR SHALYAPIN as well as the "poet" IVAN FRANKO class, the MAXIM GORKIY (ex HAMBURG) and ODESSA (ex COPENHAGEN)

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The little 1973-built ODESSA was a very handsome ship with Knud E. Hansen's signature "saucer-topped" funnel. She spent a good deal of time in U.S.-based and later German-based cruise service. Laid up at Naples in the late 1990s, she was finally released and a large refit was undertaken but not completed before her owners mysteriously gave up and sold her for scrap.

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She arrived at Alang as SYDNEY in 2006. There was a limited amount of this handsome BLASCO crockery on board.