SS Albert Ballin

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

SS Albert Ballin pulling in to port on September 27th 1923
History
Weimar Republic
Name	Albert Ballin
Namesake	Albert Ballin
Owner	Hamburg-America Line
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Launched	16 December 1922
Maiden voyage	5 July 1923
Fate	Requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, 1940
Nazi Germany
Name	Hansa
Operator	Hamburg-America Line
In service	31 October 1935
Fate	Sunk 6 March 1945, Warnemünde
Soviet Union
Name	Sovetskiy Soyuz (translate as "Soviet Union")
Acquired	By salvage, 1949
In service	1953–1982
Renamed	1980, Tobolsk
Fate	Scrapped, 1982
General characteristics (1923)
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	20,815 GRT
Length	183.61m
Beam	22.18m
Speed	16 knots
Capacity	1650 passengers
Notes	Sister ship Deustchland

SS Albert Ballin was an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1923 and named after Albert Ballin, the visionary director of the Hamburg-America line, who had committed suicide several years earlier. In 1935, the ship was renamed Hansa on orders from the German government. Towards the end of World War II, she was employed to evacuate civilians during Operation Hannibal, and sank after hitting a mine. She was later raised and refitted by the Soviet Union and was finally scrapped in 1982.