(NAVIBULGAR)

125 Years of Black Sea Shipping

This long established Bulgarian shipping company has had two periods of private ownership, firstly from 1892 to 1947, and secondly from 2007 to the present, as well as the long period of sixty years under Communist control from 1947 to 2007. A meeting was called on the last day of 1889 by six Varna entrepreneurs, namely Veliko Hristov, Yanko Slavchev, Petar Enchev, Ivan Manzov, Stat Paritsa, and Petar Popov, to determine the draft Articles of Incorporation of a new Bulgarian shipping company. This was presented a month later to the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance for approval, and the first meeting of the privately owned Bulgarian Steamship Company was held on 25th July 1892. The Bulgarian Parliament approved the statutes of the company at the end of that year to establish the new company in Varna. The newly elected Managing Board of Directors approved the purchase of the first two steamers on 15th August 1893, both built during the next few months on the Tyne by Wigham Richardson & Co. Ltd. as Boris of 869 grt and the clipper bowed Bulgaria of 1,108 grt with triple expansion steam engines by the builders.

These two new steamers operated between Varna and other Bulgarian ports and ports in the Eastern Mediterranean with both passengers and cargo. Three more steamers joined the company between August 1902 and 1906 as Varna of 1,820 grt from the Gateshead yard of Wood, Skinner, Sofia of 255 grt built back in 1882 by Murdoch and Murray on the Clyde, and Kyril of 509 grt launched as Devonia in 1903 at Hoboken, a suburb of Antwerp. Newly qualified Bulgarian Masters and Navigating Officers then replaced foreign officers on these new ships with Capt. Sava Manolov, Capt. Varban Chervenkov and Capt. Petar Abadzhiev taking command in 1907, with Mikhail Mateev as the first Chief Engineer of the company.

Balkan Wars

There had been human settlements at Stara Zagora in the Stara Planina mountains of Bulgaria as far back as 5,500 BC. In medieval times, Bulgars and Turks contested the coastal parts of modern Bulgaria, with usually the Turks controlling the ports and the Bulgars the hinterland. Wars had come and gone many times, including the April uprising against the Turks in 1876, which was barbarously suppressed by the Turks and led to an invasion by Russia in support of their fellow Slavs. The western powers intervened leading to the northern part of modern Bulgaria becoming independent, while the southern part became a principality under Turkish protection. Union of these two halves was only achieved after the First Balkan War in 1913 when Bulgaria joined with Greece and Serbia against the Ottoman Empire, but this was short lived as the Second Balkan War of 1913 saw Bulgaria disagree with her former Allies of Greece and Serbia over Macedonia and Bulgaria was defeated.

The crews of the Bulgarian Steamship Company vessels took a very active part in support of the Bulgarian Navy and Army during the two Balkan Wars of 1913. The steamer Tzar Ferdinand of 1,994 grt was delivered by the Orlando Brothers yard in Livorno in Italy during 1913 to help in these conflicts, and she could carry many troops and passengers in her long Bridge deck of length 105 feet, as well as ammunition and guns in her holds.

Bulgaria then joined the central European powers of Germany and the Austro Hungarian Empire in World War I. During the first two years of World War I, the Bulgarian Steamship Company vessels continued on their normal Black Sea and Mediterranean voyages. During the last two years of World War I, the company vessels were requisitioned by the Bulgarian Government and took an active part in the transportation of military goods, or as minesweepers and floating headquarter ships for submarine flotillas and the new warfare of naval aviation. As Bulgaria had not sided with the victorious Allies, she lost some of her territory at the Treaty of Versailles at Trianon in June, 1920.

Inter-War Years

Commercial trading by the Bulgarian Steamship Company resumed again in 1919, with a typical year of trading in the 1920s seeing 70,000 tonnes of cargo shipped and almost 30,000 passengers transported to and from Bulgaria and the Eastern Mediterranean. Passenger capacity was increased when the Italian steamer Carniolia of 2,941 grt was purchased in 1928 and renamed Bourgas and fitted with a Marconi radio transmitter. She had been built by the Lloyd Austriaco yard at Trieste in 1900 and carried thirty passengers. The fleet had grey hulls and white funnels with a black top, and flew the company quartered houseflag, with two quarters being white, and the others being red and green.

In 1933, the French steamer Louis Fraissinet of 3,838 grt and 5,030 dwt was purchased together with her sister Felix Fraissinet to inaugurate a new Continental Line of the company to Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg, with the first sailing from Varna on 8th December 1933. The two French sisters were renamed Balkan and Princess Maria Louisa and had accommodation for thirty passengers and service speeds of twelve knots. German steamers were then purchased, the first on 2nd November 1935 being Eisenach of 4,159 grt and 6,510 dwt and renamed Rodina, and then two new steamers from German yards in 1937/38 in Chipka and Varna of 3,200 dwt and built by the Neptun yard at Rostock. These four hold, four hatch engines ‘midships steamers had two masts and ten derricks for cargo handling, and were very similar to many steamers in the fleet of Robert M. Sloman Junior with refrigerated capacity and accommodation for a dozen passengers.

During the last four years of the 1930s decade, company vessels carried 20% of Bulgarian imports by sea, and 21% of Bulgarian exports, with 216,000 tonnes of cargo and 37,670 passengers carried in 1938. In September 1940, the company owned nine vessels named Balkan, Bourgas, Bulgaria, Chipka, Evdokia, Princess Maria Louisa, Rodina, Tzar Ferdinand and Varna. Bulgaria was then strongly influenced by Germany and entered the war on her side in 1941, and joined in the occupation of Yugoslavia. All company vessels and their crews were requisitioned by the German General Staff during 1941/44, and all vessels were sunk in military actions in 1944 when Russian troops invaded the country. Georgi Dimitrov led a left wing revolution in 1944, and the Communists seized power, and a one party political system and republic was declared as a member of the Warsaw Pact of countries, as also happened in Albania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The monarchy was abolished in 1946, and Communist ideology had completely dominated Bulgaria by 1947.

The surviving employees of the Bulgarian Steamship Company were reemployed from June, 1945 in re-establishing water supplies and communications equipment. The first post-war steamer was taken over at the Copenhagen yard of Burmeister & Wain on 25th September 1946 as Rodina of 2,950 grt and 5,280 dwt but had been completed as Fornaes a year earlier. She had a fo’c’stle of length 34 feet, two masts and two sets of posts to serve four holds and four hatches, and a service speed of twelve knots from a four cylinder compound steam engine and low pressure turbine DR geared with hydraulic coupling. The private company also took delivery of two ships of dimensions 280 feet by 44 feet with a depth of 27 feet from the Tamise yard of Jos Boel & Sons. The first was completed as Christo Smirnensky in 1946, powered by a four cylinder compound steam engine made in Berlin, whereas Nikola Vaptzarov was powered by an eight cylinder 4SCSA Werkspoor oil engine when delivered two years later.

State Controlled Navibulgar

The company was nationalised on 13th March 1947 by the Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria, and merged with coastal steamers owned by other Bulgarian private shipowners in June 1947 to form the Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar). The State owned company took delivery of its first ship on 1st July 1947 in the former Empire Flamborough of 4,191 grt and 7,235 dwt, built by William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd. at Sunderland in March 1946 and traded for a year as Vindeggen for C. Ostberg of Norway. She had five holds and five hatches with a split superstructure and steam engines manufactured at Clydebank by John Brown. The State company then adopted a blue funnel with thin white, green and red central bands, the national colours of Bulgaria, with a similar houseflag.

A big expansion of the fleet was then made under Communist control, with vessels trading to Archangel and the White Sea for timber, and others employed carrying salt from Aden to Mozambique. On 11th November 1948, Navibulgar became the only Bulgarian shipping company allowed to trade in the Black Sea by taking over all other State owned or co-operatively owned vessels. The tonnage carried by company vessels trebled in five years from 329,000 tonnes in 1950 to over one million tonnes in 1955. By 1960, 25% of all Bulgarian imports were carried by Navibulgar and 31.6% of all exports.

The fleet contained many vessels built in British yards e.g. Empire Welfare of 10,130 dwt built in 1944 by J. L. Thompson & Sons Ltd. and renamed Stefan Karadja, Empire MacKendrick a converted former ‘MAC’ aircraft carrier purchased in 1957 and renamed Vassil Levsky, Nordpol of 7,810 dwt built in 1949 by Hall, Russell for H. Kuhnles Rederi of Bergen and renamed Dobri Voynikov, the Watts, Watts tramps Willesden of 1961 and Woolwich of 1955 and both purchased in 1962 and renamed Georgi Sava Rakovsky and Luben Karavelov. The latter ship became the first Navibulgar vessel to complete a Round the World voyage on 23rd August 1963.

Romandie of 8,177 dwt was completed by the Burntisland yard in 1952 for Suisse Atlantique of Geneva and was renamed Gotze Delchev, and Brandanger of 9,425 dwt was completed by J.L. Thompson & Sons Ltd. in 1949 for Westfal-Larsen of Norway with refrigerated capacity and was renamed Peter Berron. The North Sands yard of John Crown & Sons at Sunderland completed Stancrown of 11,700 dwt in 1956 for Jack Billmeir and she was purchased in 1968 and renamed Smaragd and then Philip Totu two years later. Many other tramps and cargo-liners joined the company having been built for other owners at yards in France, Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Holland, Russia and other Warsaw Pact countries. French yards built Panayot Hitov, the former bulker La Pradera of Buries Markes Ltd. of 11,875 dwt, and Bacho Kiro, the former bulker La Sierra of 13,875 dwt, and Perseng, the former engines aft bulker Arthur Stove with four holds and six hatches of 14,450 dwt.

In 1961, when Navibulgar fleet strength had reached fifty vessels, three tankers of 15,550 dwt to 20,000 dwt were purchased second hand and renamed Maritza ex Bjorn Stange, Yantra ex Harwi, and Dunav ex Montana, and all had been completed on the Wear powered by four or six cylinder 2SA Doxford oil engines. By 1965, 54% of all exports from Bulgaria were being carried in Navibulgar vessels and 32% of all imports. Japanese yards built ten colliers of 13,300 dwt during 1966/68 as Belasitza, Buzludja, Ludogoretz, Murgash, Musalla, Oboriste, Ograjden, Osogovo, Plana and Vejen. Coastal vessels were not omitted, with an ‘S’ class of up to 3,000 dwt in Sliven, Sofia and Sopot in 1963/64.

A large fleet of 111 vessels was operating in 1970 composed of 65 deep-sea tramps and cargo-liners of up to 15,000 dwt and 46 coastal passenger and cargo vessels. The sixteen passenger vessels in the fleet had capacity for three thousand passengers, and the cargo fleet carried 14.5 million tonnes of cargo every year. The Georgi Dimitrova shipyard at Varna had built some of this large fleet in Sofia of 6,215 dwt in 1963, Preslav of 6,310 dwt in 1965, Verila, Veslets and Viden of 9,550 dwt in 1969, and smaller coastal vessels such as Klisura of 2,260 dwt. The berths of this yard were then extended to build the first trio of deep sea bulkers, launched in 1972 and completed in 1973 as Belmeken, General Zaimov and Vihren of 23,750 dwt.

Black Sea Cruising

The Balkanturist organisation of the State of Bulgaria began to operate Black Sea cruises from Varna to destinations in Ukraine and the Eastern Black Sea in the 1960s, as well as regular line voyages from Varna to Istanbul and Mediterranean ports. The purchased ship, renamed Nessebar, was a very interesting North Sea liner, the Saga of 6,687 grt completed for Swedish Lloyd in May 1946 for their weekly Gothenburg to London service. She in fact had been launched in 1940 and although fitted out she was laid up without her diesel engines installed. These four eight cylinder Gotaverken diesel engines drove twin screws via electro magnetic couplings and were installed six years later to give a service speed of 18 knots. She had good accommodation for 160 passengers in First Class, 80 in Second Class, one hundred in Third Class in four berth cabins, and a further sixty sleeping in a dormitory, usually students or those on a low income. Nessebar was named after an ancient town and one of the major resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in Bourgas province. It is known as the ‘Pearl of the Black Sea’ with its oldest part situated on a peninsula, previously an island, and connected to the mainland by a narrow man-made isthmus. Saga was sold in late 1956 to French Line and renamed Ville de Bordeaux for a service from Bordeaux to Casablanca, making her first voyage on 14th March 1957. She was switched in 1960 to the Marseille to North African ports of Bona, Philippeville and Oran service, and when Algeria became independent in 1964 she was sold to Navibulgar and renamed Nessebar, and in the summer months went cruising, but usually sailed on line voyages in the Mediterranean from Varna to Naples, Nice, Barcelona, Algiers, Malta, Alexandria, Beirut, Istanbul and home to Varna. She operated some longer Black Sea cruises towards the end of her career for Balkanturist until sold for scrap at Split, arriving on Christmas Day 1975 for breaking up by Brodospas.

Varna is a beautiful coastal resort and port, known as the ‘Queen of the Black Sea Coast’, and has a city centre with fashionable architecture. Its history dates back to 500 BC and it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1393. After liberation from the Turks in 1878 by a Russo- Romanian invasion, the Western powers created the Principality of Bulgaria by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 as a buffer zone against further Russian expansion. Varna grew in size to become the third largest city in Bulgaria. The name Varna was given to the well known New York to Hamilton, Bermuda cruise ship Ocean Monarch of Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd., which was purchased while laid up on the Fal in August 1967 and with technical management by Navibulgar was able to begin cruising at the end of the year for Balkanturist as Varna. She had been launched by Vickers Armstrong Ltd. on 27th July 1950 as Yard number 119 at the Walker Naval Yard on the Tyne and made her maiden voyage on 3rd May, 1951 from New York to Bermuda after speed trials on 23rd March. She was of 13,654 grt on dimensions of 516 feet by 72.2 feet and was powered by Parsons geared turbines from the builders at a service speed of 18 knots via twin screws. She had accommodation for 414 passengers in First Class, mostly wealthy Americans who tipped the stewards well.

These wealthy American holidaymakers were replaced by passengers from Bulgaria and the Warsaw Pact countries, as well as Canadian passengers when Varna was used in her main role of overseas charter cruise ship. Varna wore the yellow funnel with a central red band of Navibulgar until laid up at Varna at the end of the summer cruising season of 1973, prior to this her lay-ups were seasonal during each winter. She was sold to Dolphin (Hellas) Shipping S.A., Greece in 1978 and transferred to lay up at Perama and renamed Riviera. She was intended to operate a series of fifteen day cruises from Venice from June 1979 in Trans- Tirreno Express colours but these did not take place and she remained laid up. She was chartered to SUR-Seereisen of Germany in 1981, but was gutted by fire on 28th May 1981 which broke out in the boiler room while she was lying at Ambelaki for modifications for the summer season under the name of Reina del Mar. She was towed to a position off Kynosoura but capsized three days later and sank on the port side.

Balkanturist also operated shorter Black Sea cruises along the Bulgarian, Roumanian and Ukrainian coasts using small passenger ships owned by Navibulgar such as Vasil Kolarov of 923 grt and completed in 1959, one of forty coastal passenger and cargo ships completed for Navibulgar in post-war years. Dimitar Blagoev of 1,061 grt was the last of these coastal passenger ships when completed at Varna in 1969, and she was still in service at the Millennium.

The new sail trainer Kaliakra was launched in Poland on 28th January 1984 by the Gdansk Shipyard. She is a black hulled three masted barquentine operated by Navibulgar but owned by the Bulgarian Maritime Training Centre for training seafaring apprentices from the St. Nikola Chudotvoretz Maritime School in Varna. She has taken part in many Cutty Sark Tall Ships regattas organised by the Sail Training International (STI) Association, as well as the centenary celebrations of the Bulgarian computer inventor John Atanasoff in January 2003. She has recently won many Black Sea and Baltic Sea races with her onboard professional crew of three and 34 trainees and a sail area of 1,080 square metres. She was sponsored again by Navibulgar in May 2014 for her participation in the SCF Black Sea Tall Ships Regatta hosted at Varna.

Navibulgar Bulk Carriers

In 1985, a large Navibulgar fleet of 125 vessels was being operated, including the first group of big bulk carriers. Two of the largest bulkers of the fleet, the sisters Bulgaria and Rodina of 52,975 dwt were built in 1978 by the Okean shipyard at Nikolayev, but the majority of the Handysize and Handymax bulkers had been built by the Georgi Dimitrova shipyard at Varna. This included nine geared bulkers of 38,000 dwt built between 1978 and 1986 and equipped with four cranes of 25 tonnes capacity. They have seven holds and seven hatches, and are ice strengthened with decks and holds strengthened for heavy cargoes. Forty bulkers were owned at the Millennium with an average size of 30,000 dwt, an average age of eight years, and an average service speed of 14.8 knots from eight cylinder two stroke B & W oil engines of 15,000 bhp. These black hulled bulkers with red boot topping, red cranes and bright yellow funnels with a central red band are familiar sights around the bulk ports of the world. The Port of Tyne, for example, has during the last decade discharged large cargoes of up to 55,000 tonnes of coal and biomass (wood chips) brought in by Navibulgar bulkers from the Baltic, Panama, Canada, Northern Norway and other parts of the world.

Millennium Fleet

The Millennium fleet of Navibulgar was a very large one at 105 vessels of all types, ranging from several crude oil tankers of up to 85,000 dwt to forty bulkers of up to 52,975 dwt, as well as general cargo ships, multi purpose vessels, ro-ros and small passenger ships. The big crude oil tankers were Khan Asparukh of 85,000 dwt built at Varna in 1977, and the sister tankers Mesta and Osam of 75,275 dwt built by the Kasado Dock Co. Ltd. at Kudamatsu in Japan in 1974, as well as smaller product and chemical tankers. Navibulgar had a turnover of $267.3 million during 2001, making it the fourth largest business enterprise in Bulgaria.

On 15th April 2002, the Varna Shipyard was acquired by Navibulgar for $16.1 million. The transaction secured around 800 jobs, some of them in ship repairing. The yard had been in administration for three months, and Navibulgar then completed two bulkers for itself during 2003/04, Balgarka of 41,425 dwt, followed by Trapezitza of 21,250 dwt on 14th December 2004. After this pair, Pirin, a sister of Trapezitza was delivered on 7th November 2007, Stara Planina of 42,704 dwt was delivered on 17th June 2007, and her sister Hemus was completed on 19th June 2008 by the Bulyard Shipbuilding Industry yard at Varna. The latter ship was named by employee Ms Gergana Markova, and her first Master was Capt. Nikolay Nikolov and her first Chief Engineer was Pavlin Yordanov.

Navibulgar Privatisation

The privatisation strategy of Navibulgar was approved by the Bulgarian Government on 19th January 2005, and it came to fruition during 2007/08. A Bulgarian and German consortium, KG Maritime Shipping, secured a majority 70% of the shareholding of the company, while the British Orient Holdings secured a minority 30% holding. KG Maritime Shipping planned to invest $500M in the company during the next ten years. This big Navibulgar international bulker fleet then secured ISM code and ISO certification from Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance to trade worldwide.

Six ice strengthened geared bulkers of 29,782 dwt were then delivered between 2010 and 2012 by the Shanhaigan shipyard in China for the company. They are equipped with three deck cranes of thirty tonnes capacity, and have the latest in navigation equipment and mooring systems. The bulkers, in the order of their completion, were Vitosha, Strandja, Belasitza, Osogovo, Lyulin and last but not least Rodopi on 6th April 2012. She was handed over to the company when she reached Europe in early June, and her funnel was proudly wearing the company logo on the red central band.

The major exports of Bulgaria are ores of all kinds, machinery, foodstuffs, tobacco, railway equipment, tractors, electrical equipment and textiles, while major imports are crude oil imported in Navibulgar tankers, coal, industrial equipment and chemicals. At the time of privatisation in 2007, Navibulgar also owned seven crude oil and product and chemical tankers, and eleven ‘tweendeckers for general cargo and tramping trades. The current Navibulgar bulker fleet is split into three sizes :-

38,000 dwt to 45,000 dwt
Hemus, Stara Planina, Balgarka, Bulgaria, Georgi Grigorov, Murgash and Rodina.

23,000 dwt to 30,000 dwt
Belasitza, Osogovo, Vitosha, Lyulin, Strandja, Rodopi and Verila. These are new Ice Class bulkers with sufficient hull design and strength and engine power to operate in winter Baltic Sea and Great Lakes conditions.

15,000 dwt to 23,000 dwt
Sakar, Plana, Midjur, Trapezitza, Vola, Pirin, Kom, Bogdan, Persenk and Perelik.

Bulcon Container Service

The BULCON container service from Black Sea and Mediterranean ports to U.K. and Continental ports was established on 1st May 1983. At first, ‘tweendeckers such as Luben Karavelov, which had recently been the first Navibulgar ship to pass through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific and was trading regularly between Varna and Cuba, were used. Three part container vessels of 1,034 TEU capacity and 13,800 dwt were purchased from Nedlloyd in 1996 as Nedlloyd Musi, Nedlloyd Marne and Nedlloyd Maas and were renamed Rousse, Plovdiv and Sofia respectively. They had been built at Wismar by the Mathias Thesen Werft yard and were ice strengthened with a service speed of 16 knots from five cylinder Sulzer diesels of 10,800 bhp. They were equipped with one 40 tonne and two 25 tonne cranes, and had service speeds of 16 knots from five cylinder two stroke Sulzers of 10,810 bhp.

At the time of privatisation in 2007, Navibulgar had nine container ships of up to one thousand TEU capacity, offering a weekly box service between the U.K., Northwest Europe, Scandinavia to both the west and east Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. They included the trio of Aleko Konstantinov, Geo Milev and Peyo Avorov of 15,500 dwt with a container capacity of 920 TEU in five cellular holds and a service speed of seventeen knots from six cylinder two stroke B & W oil engines of 13,100 bhp, with this trio built at Varna in 1985. The former Nedlloyd trio of Plovdiv, Rousse and Sofia were sold off in 2012, as were the last trio of multi purpose vessels of around 8,600 dwt named Smolyan, Teteven and Varna. This last trio had been built at Gijon or Varna with three holds and three hatches served by two 40 tonne cranes, and had a service speed of 14 knots from eight cylinder two stroke B & W oil engines of 6,080 bhp.

RO-RO and Other Services

Navibulgar first managed ro-ros in 1982, when the Kockums built sisters Scandinavia and Ariadne were purchased by SOMAT (So Mejdunaroden Automobilen Transport), a Bulgarian transport group. The pair were built in 1980, and had an unfortunate third sister Zenobia, which capsized on her maiden voyage and sank two kilometres off Larnaca in Cyprus on 7th June 1980. The remaining pair were renamed Tzarevetz and Trapezitza and managed by Navibulgar and operated under the MedLink brand on Mediterranean services. During their six year Bulgarian ownership, they also undertook charters in the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Sea before being sold to Sealink British Ferries in 1988. They had berths for 175 drivers, and trucks were loaded and unloaded through two stern doors and ramps, and a service speed of 21 knots was achieved from twin seven cylinder Sulzer diesels manufactured by the Sumitomo Heavy Industries Group in Japan.

The pair were then converted into passenger/car ferries in a £50 million contract with Bremer Vulcan and Lloyd Weft, emerging as the English Channel ferries Fantasia and Fiesta in 1989/90. I crossed from Dover to Calais on both Fantasia and Fiesta and found them to have excellent top deck space and passenger facilities. Fantasia later became P & OSL Canterbury for P. & O., Alkmini A for Greek owners and is still in service with Polferries of Poland as Wawel. Fiesta later became Seafrance Cezanne for SeaFrance Ferries until she was broken up in October 2011 at Alang in India. Two large Navibulgar black hulled twin funnelled rail wagon ro-ros, Geroite na Sevastopol (Hero of Sevastopol) and Geroite na Odessa (Hero of Odessa), currently operate across the Black Sea from Varna to Poti and Batumi in Georgia, and also via Ilichevsk in the Ukraine to Poti and Batumi. They have capacity for 108 rail wagons and one hundred trailers, with vehicles accepted up to 40 tonnes in weight, 4.2 metres in height and 22 metres in length. They operate under the Ferrysped trade name and offer an important and useful service for passengers, trailers, rail wagons and containers from Eastern Europe to the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and other Trans Caucasus regions, as well as to Iran, Afghanistan, Northern Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia. The pair were completed in June 1978 by the Norwegian yard of A/S Framnaes Mek Verksted and have service speeds of 19 knots from twin ten cylinder two stroke B & W oil engines of 8,800 bhp. They were fitted with portside rear quarter ramps to their lower decks in 2001 to increase the number of trucks that can be carried.

There are a total of seven Navibulgar passenger ferries and ro-ros operating in the Black Sea, and they were busily employed in connection with the Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014. Two of these are the ro-ros Dobrudja and Trakia of 10,430 dwt completed in July 1987 by the Hijos de J. Barreras yard at Vigo. Some 55 trailers and 500 TEU of containers roll over their quarter stern ramps each voyage for destinations across the Black Sea. They are equipped with two container cranes of 36 tonnes capacity for lo-lo operation, and has a service speed of 14 knots from an eight cylinder four stroke B & W oil engine of 6,100 bhp. Bulpride is another ro-ro that was previously in the fleet, she was the former Stena Prosper completed in 1980 as Jolly Bruno for Ignazio Messina SpA of Genoa by the Bergens A/S yard with a lane length of 1,300 metres and capacity for 162 trailers. The ro-ro Serdica was the former Domino of Ellerman Wilson Line, built in 1972 by the Langvik yard at Sarpsborg along with her sister Destro to replace the well known passenger ferry Spero on the Hull to Gothenburg service.

Recent Developments

The bulker Murgash of 41,675 dwt was purchased in May 2014 and had been built in 2006 as Yard number 512 under the same project as Balgarka (Yard number 510) by the Varna Shipbuilding yard. She had been completed as Talon Li and was then renamed Furtrans Bulk until 2011 and was purchased as Wanderlust. Navibulgar now trades four large bulkers of this 42,000 dwt series in Hemus, Stara Planina, Balgarka and Murgash. The larger bulker Bulgaria of 52,500 dwt under the command of Capt. Krasev Blagoev rescued five fishermen in distress in the Pacific off the coast of Chile on 13th May 2014 after their fishing boat sank. Four Navibulgar bulkers were broken up during 2013 including Malyovitza of 25,600 dwt built in 1983, leaving a deep sea fleet of 22 bulkers and one container ship.

Navibulgar currently owns a number of overseas subsidiaries including the Balkan and Black Sea Shipping Co. Ltd. in London, which was formed in 1966 and acts as the company’s commercial manager and broker. Other subsidiaries include Navimed Italia in Italy, Bulspain in Spain, as well as affiliates in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Singapore. Two thirds of the fleet is Bulgarian flagged with the remainder under the flags of Malta and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Navibulgar has a large Chartering Department with a turnover in the region of one billion dollars, with staff employed in Varna working closely with the brokering staff of the Balkan and Black Sea Shipping Co. Ltd. in London, and other brokers in Hamburg. The Operations Department has fourteen staff in Varna with extensive experience in the operation of large bulkers and other types of shipping.

Navibulgar has various national obligations to the Bulgarian State e.g. three salvage tugs, including Perun of 1,164 grt built in 1977, are owned by Navibulgar for towage and salvage in the Black Sea as well as internationally, and several other tugs for harbour towage in the Port of Varna, and two fast motor launches for fire fighting and ship supply in the Port of Varna. Research vessels, survey craft and patrol boats are also managed for the Bulgarian Government.

Navibulgar was awarded the port concessions for the new Burgas Port Terminal West and Burgas Port Terminal East during 2011/13. Burgas is seventy miles south of Varna, and the main Black Sea port of Bulgaria. Burgas Port Terminal West is 64 hectares in area and offers six berths with a total length of 1.1 kilometres and a water depth of 11.0 metres. Burgas Port Terminal East is 42 hectares in area and offers deep berths with a total length of 1.5 kilometres and a water depth of 15.5 metres. Burgas Port is a major port for general cargo, dry bulk, liquid bulk and container terminals. It took over the former port of Pomorie, standing on the river of the same name, and built on the site of the ancient city of Anchialus. Although Pomorie has lost its commercial importance, it remains noteworthy as a spa specialising in curative black mud, and also has a salt industry.

The Bulgarian flag has three equal horizontal stripes of white, green and red. Navibulgar head office is at Primorski Bulevardul in Varna, and its vessels call frequently at Varna and Bourgas, handling all types of shipping operations, and will most probably continue to call during their next 125 years in shipping.