From Russian Revolution To Shipping Revolution

Vessel management is a major part of the commercial shipping, and warrants an article in its own right. However, as a practical case study in how a single company mastered this kind of activity, a worthy example is that of Vlasov ships, otherwise known as V.Ships, based in the Mediterranean Principality of Monaco since 1984, and today run by its president, Roberto Giorgi. However, although v. Ships as a management agency was formed in 1984 following the split from its parent company Vlasov, it owes its existence to the creation of the Vlasov group many years previously by the company’s founder, Alexandre Vlasov, a Russian émigré.

Alexandre Vlasov (born 1880 in Novocherkassk, died 1961), and his son Boris Vlasov (born 13th March 1913 in Odessa, died 2nd November 1987 in Monaco) were the leading members of a Russian-originating family, and first moved to Italy before settling in Monaco, the family were ship owners, and controlled several shipping companies from 1925, as well as influencing the international maritime sector in general. Many ships have sailed with the group over the years, from 150-ton trawlers to the giant supertankers, and all the group’s ships have been identified by yellow funnels with a large letter “v” superimposed on the yellow background. Perhaps the most famous company within the Vlasov group has been the SITMar (Societá Italiana Trasporti Marittimi) Line, which was one of the pioneers of the modern- day cruise sector.

The company’s founder, Alexandre Vlasov, was born into a family of the ethnic group of Don Cossacks at Novocherkassk, on the river Don, some 30 km northeast of the city of Rostov. At the age of 13, he left his hometown and went to Odessa, the port city on the Black Sea. At the University of Odessa, he studied civil engineering and after graduation he worked as a sanitary engineer with the Odessa city council. In 1910, he married his wife, Vera, and three years later, his son Boris was born. In 1917, the Russian revolutions took place, and since the Vlasov family was by tradition anti- Bolshevik, he realised that he would have to flee from Odessa. Following the 1917 October revolution, he fled the Ukraine, and never returned to Russia. He managed to take his son Boris with him, although he lost contact with his wife in the turmoil of the revolution. He settled in the Romanian capital of Bucuresti (Bucharest) and was for some time employed in different trades, including used-car sales.

In 1925, Vlasov entered a business relationship with a Polish coal mining company and started to import small quantities of coal to sell in Romania. The venture was successful, and Vlasov began to sell the coal to countries further afield around the Mediterranean, especially Italy, which was at the time one of Europe’s largest coal importing countries. To transport the coal, Vlasov chartered ships from the Romanian company “Romania Prima Societate Nationale de Navigatione Maritima” (Romanian National Shipping Company), which was headquartered in Bucharest. In the late 1920s, Vlasov joined the company and rose to the position of junior partner. In 1933, he obtained from the Polish mining company the exclusive rights to sell the coal to the Mediterranean countries, and he duly expanded his business to Turkey, as well as being able to purchase outright the Romanian Shipping Company as his own property. In doing so, he acquired five ships of 4,000-5,000 gross tons. He kept the three newer vessels and sold the other older two vessels for two newer ships, namely the Prabova, Siretul and Oltul. In 1934, Vlasov registered the company with the name “Alexandre de Vlasov Societate Navigatione, and this company became the first of Vlasov’s own self-established shipping companies.

Also in 1934, Vlasov opened an office in the Italian city of Milan, the “Sindicato Combustibili Italiano” (Italian Fuel Company). He also expanded into Greece, and established the shipping company Scomar, derived from Société Commerciale et d’Armement Sa, with three cargo ships, and by the end of 1934 he had also established an office in Alexandria, Egypt under the name Ing Alexandre Vlasov, which later became the overseas Shipping & Coal Trade Co. Ltd. (Ovscot).

However, Vlasov’s interests were not solely limited to the Mediterranean area. in 1936, Vlasov ventured into the London based shipping market and purchased the cargo ship Campden Hill from the anglogreek shipping agent Manuel Kulukundis. as a result of this purchase, he established the Campden Hill Steamship Company Ltd. as the vessel’s operator, and then purchased two further vessels, the Sunstone and Pearlstone. in 1937, Vlasov sold the Campden Hill to Japanese interests and established another company under the name The Alva Steamship Company. With the support of Rethymnis & Kulukundis, which later went on to establish the company London & overseas Freighters Ltd., Vlasov ordered the construction of three new vessels from British shipyards, and these were duly named Lodestone, gemstone and Starstone, each of around 5,000 gross tons. at the same time, Vlasov also established the company Navigation & Coal Trade Co. Ltd., as ship-broking and corporate operators.

as Alexandre Vlasov mainly stayed in his Milan office, he took the opportunity to relocate his family to Italy following the political changes in Romania in 1938. That same year, Vlasov-owned companies were transporting around 2 million tons of coal, thus making Vlasov Europe’s leading coal merchant. although he had had to flee his native Russia, he was nevertheless attached to his homeland and set about the establishment of an agency in Odessa. The agency was established with the Italian Luigi Valazzi, the son of an Italian academic, in charge. Valazzi’s father had emigrated to Odessa before World War I, and also ran the Odessa office of the Italian company Societá Italiana di Servizi Marittimi. Valazzi, however, had also fled Russia at about the same time as Vlasov, and had returned to Italy. in 1931, the Italian government had reorganised the many different shipping services in the country, and several lines became part of the new Italian company Lloyd Triestino. Luigi Valazzi, who had relocated back to Italy in 1938, suggested the idea of the acronym Sitmar for the Vlasov shipping company in Italy, and thus the Societá Italiana Spa Trasporti Marittimi came into existence, known from then on as simply Sitmar. The headquarters of the company were at via del Conservatorio 15 in Milan, but it also had an office in the port of Genoa. By this time, Alexandre’s son Boris, who had completed his studies at the Vienna Polytechnic School, became president of the company, while Luigi Valazzi became managing director. The first ships to be operated by Sitmar were the Sunstone and Pearl Stone, brought in from the Campden Hill Steamship Co., and they were renamed Castelverde and Castelnuovo and were re-registered in Italy. They were duly joined by the vessel Castelbianco, and were repainted in funnel colours of black with a large while letter “v” (for Vlasov) superimposed on the black background.

in 1940, Alexandre Vlasov established the Alvion Steamship Corporation in New York, with the vessels registered in Panama under the flags of convenience system. a further Vlasov company, namely the Compania Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar Sa (CANUMAR), was established in Argentina in 1941. This company had previously been registered in Romania, and had operated the vessels Prabova, Siretul and Oltul, and the vessels Prabova and Oltul were duly transferred to the new argentine company. With the entry of Italy into World War ii on the side of Germany in 1940, the vessel Castelbianco was in argentine waters and could therefore safely retreat to the port of Buenos Aires, as Argentina was officially neutral, albeit a sympathiser for the axis cause. She remained idle there for several months, until Argentina entered the war on the side of the allied forces in September 1941, and as a result the Italian vessels laid up at Buenos Aires were confiscated, the Castelbianco eventually being taken over by argentine commercial shipping interests. The outbreak of war in September 1939 had quite serious implications for Alexandre Vlasov, who by this time had shipping interests in the UK, Italy, Greece and Romania. Italy had sided with Germany, which was fighting against the UK, while Greece and Romania were invaded by German forces in 1941 and remained occupied for most of the war. However, as Italy only entered the war in mid-1940, the Sitmar ships were still able to operate in the Mediterranean. The Castelverde continued to operate in the Mediterranean from 1940 onwards, and was used to supply materials to the German Afrika Korps commanded by general Erwin Rommel. However, on 14th February 1942, she was sailing between Naples when she was sighted by the British submarine HMS Unruffled off Cape Bon, Tunisia, and was torpedoed and sunk. in 1943, two other ships that had been seized by the Italians joined the Sitmar fleet, namely the Potenza (2,114 grt), originally built in the UK for French interests and named Auvergne, and the Caltanisetta (265 grt), originally built in the Netherlands for Dutch owners, and later renamed Tamise when transferred to French ownership. The Potenza joined the Sitmar fleet on 5th April 1943, but was sunk at the southern French port of Marseille on 20th august 1944. The Caltanisetta joined the Sitmar fleet on 19th May 1943, and was also sunk, this time at Viareggio, in 1944. By this time, Sitmar had lost its entire fleet, and existed in name only for the rest of the war. The British ships had fared slightly better. on 31st October 1940, the Starstone was damaged by German bombs but managed to survive the war, as did the Lodestone, and they remained with the Alva Steamship Co. Ltd. However, on 4th June 1942, the gemstone was sunk by a German surface raider, her captain and crew being transferred to a German supply ship and sent to Germany, where the captain and officers were interned in a prison camp for the rest of the war, while the rest of the crew were despatched on another prison ship to be interned in a Japanese prison camp.

Following the end of hostilities in 1945, Vlasov set about rebuilding his company and his fleet, taking advantage of the fact that there were many war-surplus vessels now available on the market at cheap prices. He had lost his business interests in Romania and Poland, as these countries had been overrun by Soviet forces in the latter part of the war and were by this time under Communist control. as a result, Vlasov, who now mainly resided at his argentine farm which he had purchased in 1940, decided to concentrate on his Mediterranean interests, and in 1947 he purchased two Liberty ships for his Greek-registered company and renamed them Ira and Olga. He then purchased a third Liberty ship and assigned her to the Alva Steamship Company, renaming her Coralstone. also in January 1947, Vlasov purchased four victory steamships, all of which were initially registered under the ownership of the Compania Argentina de Navegación de Ultramar Sa. Two of these vessels were cargo ships, and were renamed Argentina victory and Patagonia victory, but the other two had been adapted for use as troopships as the Wooster Victory and Vassar Victory. The Wooster victory remained laid up for the time being in the United States, but the Vassar victory (7,604 grt) sailed for the Adriatic port of Ancona, Italy, where she arrived on 19th July 1947. on 20th July, she was handed over to the Sitmar company and was renamed Castelbianco. Meanwhile, the Romanian ships Siretul and Prabova had been handed back to Vlasov by the Romanian authorities, and had been renamed omega and Tropicus respectively. on their transfer back to Vlasov ownership in September 1948, they were renamed Castelbruno (4,327 grt) and Castelverde (3,597 grt).

in 1949, Vlasov left Argentina to move to the United States, and he established a further company, the Navcot Corporation, in New York. By this time, the effect of the war on much of the European population was that they had become refugees, and required accommodation somewhere else in the world. To this extent the IRO (International Refugee Organisation) was established in Geneva, to deal with international refugee issues. Australia was one of the countries that decided to accept immigrants from Europe, especially considering that it realised that it was not going to receive the numbers of British immigrants that it had originally expected in 1945, and in July 1947, the country signed an agreement with the IRO to accept 4,000 refugees that year, followed by a further 12,000 in each subsequent year. The Australian government agreed to pay the IRO the sum of £10 towards the fare of each refugee, and in return the IRO would provide the means of transporting the refugees to Australia by ship. The IRO thus invited tenders from any interested shipping companies, and soon started to sign contracts with a variety of shipping companies from several nations. one of these companies belonged to Alexandre Vlasov, who assigned two vessels to this activity, namely the Vassar victory and Wooster victory, both of which had been converted into troopships.

The Wooster victory was refitted in 1948, with her machinery given an extensive overhaul and her accommodation significantly upgraded, to the extent that she could accommodate 900 passengers in relative comfort in segregated areas. She sailed on her first voyage from the Italian port of Genoa bound for Australia on 6th august 1948, arriving at Sydney one month later on 6th September, having already called at the Western Australian port of Fremantle. Early in 1948, Vlasov had also purchased the former escort aircraft carrier Charger, which had been originally built in the USA in 1939 for the Moore-McCormack Line as the Rio de la Plata, one of four passenger/cargo liners for the company’s services to the east coast ports of South America. However, in 1941, on the entry of the US into the war, she was requisitioned by the US government and was converted into an aircraft carrier. Under the US-UK Lend-lease agreement, she was transferred to the royal Navy and was commissioned as HMS Charger on 3rd March 1942. However, in December 1942, she was returned to US service and was renamed USS Charger, seeing further wartime service in the Pacific theatre of operations. Following the end of hostilities, she was purchased by Vlasov in 1948 and was extensively rebuilt as a passenger ship with accommodation for 1800 passengers, and equipped with suites, bars and lounges, and she was duly renamed Fairsea (11,678 grt). She duly departed the port of Napoli on her maiden voyage to Australia as part of the IRO contract on 11th May 1949, and she arrived at the port of Melbourne on 8th June via the Suez Canal, Aden and Fremantle.

By this time, Vlasov was operating three ships on the Australian emigrant runs, namely the Castelbianco, Wooster victory, and Fairsea. in 1950, the Wooster victory was re-registered in Italy under Sitmar ownership, and in 1952, the Castelbianco was extensively refitted as a pure passenger ship, with her gross tonnage increased from 7,604 grt to 10,139 grt. The Wooster victory followed in 1953 when she too was converted to entirely passenger operations, and her gross tonnage was increased from 7,607 grt to 9,006 grt, as well as her name being changed to Castelverde. During this period, the company was gaining a reputation for its quality of service, with excellence in passenger accommodation, catering and overall passenger care.

In 1952, the vessel Castel Felice (12,150 grt) entered service with Sitmar. She was the former liner Kenya, which had originally been owned by the British India Line prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, when she was requisitioned by the British government and was converted into an infantry landing ship, first as the Hydra and later the Keren. Following the end of hostilities, she was sold to the Ministry of Transport in April 1946, but in august 1948 she was laid up in the Holy Loch, on the Firth of Clyde. Early in 1949, the Vlasov group started negotiations to purchase her, but during this period, on 19th February, Keren broke away from her moorings during a storm and she was badly damaged and partly sank. once refloated, she was taken to Glasgow to be repaired and reverted to her original name Kenya. She was finally sold to Alva Steamship Co. of London, but remained laid up at Rothesay Bay, having been renamed Keren once again and then back again to the name Kenya later that year.

In 1950, she was registered in Panama for the Alva Steamship Co. and was renamed Fairstone. However, she was again renamed Kenya in June 1950 and was registered in Italy by Sitmar Line in October that year. in March 1951 she once again became the Keren, but this would be the last time she took this name. on 15th October 1951, she was towed to Falmouth where reconstruction work started. She departed under tow on 10th March 1952, bound for Antwerp, where further reconstruction work was carried out. Finally, in august 1952 she was towed to Genoa, where she received her final refitting from her owners. as a result of this reconstruction, both her profile and interiors had been radically changed. She sported a new, shortened funnel, a new raked bow had been fitted, and her promenade deck was extended fully aft. Her main masts were removed, and a new mast had been erected atop the bridge, as well as the addition of King posts and derricks. Her interiors were completely remodelled, with many new cabins added to her former hold spaces. in her new condition, she could accommodate 1,400 single class passengers.

With a bright new look, the overall white-painted Castel Felice departed Genoa on 6th October 1952, for her maiden voyage to Australia, arriving in Fremantle on 1st November. She then departed for Melbourne, arriving there on 5th November and finally into Sydney on 7th November. Upon her return to Genoa, she was transferred to the Italy-South American route, which commenced in January 1953. in 1954, she made several voyages to Canada and the United States, and later that year she made her second voyage to Australia.

Later, all the ships of the Sitmar Line, had “Fair” in their name, along with a yellow funnel with a large, dark blue “v”.

In 1950 Vlasov acquired another C3- ship, the Steel artisan, which already had a chequered history behind it. it had also been used as a refugee ship, but when the UN stopped the refugee trips in 1952, Vlasov took over the service using a rebuilt US aircraft carrier attacker, renaming her Castel Forte. in 1957, with the wave of emigration to Australia which caused a surge in the demand for ship passages, the Castelbianco and Castelverde were sold to the Spanish Line, and the proceeds were used to finance the reconstruction of the Castel Forte as a passenger ship. She was duly renamed Fairsky, and was later joined by the vessel Fairsea. another addition to the fleet was the former Bibby Line troopship Oxfordshire, which was duly renamed Fairstar.

From these beginnings, the Sitmar Line developed into a leading company in passenger shipping during the 1950s. it offered regular trips between Europe and Australia, both for immigrants and for leisure travellers and served as the tourism business from Europe to Central and South America and across the North Atlantic to Canada and the United States. Alexandre died in 1961, and Boris Vlasov and his son took over the management of the group. He moved the company headquarters to Monaco. From then on, there was a clear turning point in the business development of Vlasov. in 1968, it became clear that Sitmar would lose the charter agreement concerning passenger shipping to Australia. To avoid this, the company purchased the Cunard liners Carinthia and Sylvania, two of four sister ships built in 1956. in 1969, following a disastrous fire in the engine-room of the Fairsea which led to her scrapping, Vlasov lost the Australian charters to the Greek Chandris Line. Boris Vlasov decided to concentrate on the cruise business and entered the very competitive North American market. The Carinthia received the name Fairsea, while the Sylvania was renamed Fairwind. Together with the Fairsky and Fairstar, these vessels maintained an excellent reputation for quality and reliability.

The former Carinthia received a massive rebuild in Trieste, under the name Fairland, but she departed on her maiden voyage with the name Fairsea proudly painted on her bow and stern. Later she became the P&O Princess Cruises Fair Princess, a successful US and Australian cruise ship. in 2000 she was sold to become what turned out to be a failed and much troubled casino cruise ship, the China Sea Discovery. However, she was eventually laid up and in august 2005 she was sold for $4.2 million to Indian breakers and was broken up at Alang in 1996.

Boris Vlasov knew that the competition was massive, as was progress in shipbuilding techniques. He realised that he would have to develop new, more modern vessels for the fleet. The Fairsky was sold in 1978, and she was replaced by the Portuguese vessel Principe Perfeito, renamed Fairsky in 1979. She was sold to John Latsis in 1982, and was replaced by a new ship, also named Fairsky, delivered in 1984. The Fairsky was built for Sitmar by Chantiers Navales et Industrielles de la Mediterranée, La Seyne Sur Mer, near Toulon, in 1984, and was yard number 1436. Unusually for a new ship of this kind, she was powered by steam turbine machinery, the last large turbine passenger ship built. She became the Sky Princess in the Princess fleet, and replaced the Fair Princess in the Australian market in 2001, renamed the Pacific Sky. a new ship, the Sitmar Fairmajesty, was built in 1986, followed by the ocean village 2 and the Pacific Dawn, both built at the Italian Fincantieri yard at Monfalcone, but they never sailed for Sitmar.

The Pacific Pearl is the sixth cruise ship of the P&O Cruises Australia brand. She was built by the French company Chantiers de l’Atlantique at their shipyard at St. Nazaire, the same yard that built the famous liners Normandie, France and Queen Mary 2, and was launched in 1988 as Sitmar FairMajesty. originally ordered for Sitmar Cruises, she was sold and first entered service with Princess Cruises as the Star Princess in 1989. From 1997 to 2003, she served in the P&O Cruises fleet as arcadia. She was renamed ocean village in 2003 when the brand was established. ocean village was the sole cruise ship of the ocean village brand after the ocean village 2 became the Pacific Jewel. She has now been transferred to P&O Cruises Australia and has been renamed Pacific Pearl.

The criticism by some EU countries that Vlasov was based in the Principalilty of Monaco but was officially an Italian shipping company led Vlasov to establish an Italian subsidiary called Astramar, based in Palermo, Sicily. This company was nominally the owner of the Sitmar’s two vessels built by Fincantieri, while Sitmar was seen as the lessee of the vessels. in reality, Vlasov controlled all the operations and leasing of the vessels. in 1984, Vlasov had already established a holding company, v. group, separate from the main part of the Vlasov shipping empire, and this name was to become the main name of the company in its later years, indeed embracing much of what was the original Vlasov shipping business. in the second half of 1987, the shipping company was at the peak of its economic development. of the four ships which are currently in service, the Fairstar was nearly entirely employed on the Australian service, while the other three vessels were well-established in the American market. Three other ships were in the latest development stages in construction or planning, and the company’s future appeared to be assured for many years ahead. However, this was not to prove the case. The company’s popularity was waning, and in 1988, Boris Vlasov died. His loss proved extremely difficult for the company, and very soon the family lost the overall operational control of the company. in February 1988, the company sold a sizeable block of shares to an unspecified European investment group, and at the same time, the company emblem on the funnels of the vessels was changed to a symbol of a swan composed of red and white lines. at the same time, names of the vessels were changed to Sitmar Fairsea and Sitmar Fairwind, Sitmar Fairstar and so on, but in general these were only cosmetic changes. The construction of the vessel Sitmar FairMajesty in France was beset by financial difficulties as the company’s financial situation worsened. Sitmar Cruises was put up for sale in 1988, and it was eventually sold to P&O for US$210 million, other than the vessel Sitmar Fairstar, which was managed separately from the company’s Australian office. Sitmar Cruises was duly integrated into P&O Princess Cruises.

The Sitmar FairMajesty had been launched and named for Sitmar Cruises, but was still being fitted out when Sitmar was taken over by P&O in 1988. She was subsequently renamed Star Princess when she commenced operating for P&O’s Princess Cruises division in 1989. in 1997 she was transferred to P&O’s Southampton-based UK fleet as a replacement for the venerable Canberra, which was scrapped that year. appropriately, she was refitted for her new role at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, which had also built the Canberra. She was renamed arcadia, in honour of an earlier P&O liner of the same name that served the UK-Australia route, and a new Princess Cruises ship took the name Star Princess.

Following the sale of Sitmar Cruises, the Vlasov family put what was left of the shipping division into a subsidiary of the v. group under the name v. Ships, and concentrated entirely on the cargo and tanker business. Some vessels were still owned by the shipping company, but the core business was ship management for other ship owning companies. a new leisure subsidiary was created in 1993 called V. Ships Leisure SAM, but was eventually transferred to the German tourism company Phoenix Reisen, based in Bonn. v. Ships/v. group, under its President, Roberto Giorgi, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2009.

Since its formation, the group has increased the range of ship management and related services offered to the shipping (www.vships.com), leisure (www.vshipsleisure.com) and offshore industries and has expanded its network of offices to become a leading maritime outsourcing group of companies. v. group’s primary customers are ship and other asset owners who deploy their assets worldwide. These assets include tankers, bulk carriers, gas carriers, chemical tankers, FSOs/FPSOs, containerships, cruise ships, ferries and super yachts. v. group has grown primarily through organic growth but also by selected acquisitions. The latter include BGI in 1999, Acomarit in 2001, Martinoli in 2004, UMC in 2005, RC Consultants in 2006 and ITM in 2009. a significant minority stake in v. group is owned by senior management shareholders with the majority of shares owned by OMERS Private Equity, the private equity arm of the Canadian pension fund.

V.Ships’ core ship management and manpower services are managed by three operating divisions, namely v. Ships Ship Management, v. Ships Leisure and Manpower Services, which are supported by a corporate executive team. These three divisions are outlined below and work in close association with two divisions, namely v. Ships Marine Services and v. Ships Capital, which provide a broad range of related commercial, technical, operational and financial services.

V.Ships is the world’s largest supplier of ship management services to a fleet of over 1,000 vessels. The managed fleet comprises a broad range of vessel types including the three main asset classes, namely tankers, bulk carriers and containerships, plus many specialised vessels including offshore vessels.

V.Ships Leisure (www.vshipsleisure. com) is the only passenger ship service provider to combine integrated deck and engine management with hotel services. its service portfolio also includes cruise ship conversion and the management of refurbishment projects.

Manpower Services is the largest supplier of marine personnel globally with over 24,000 either ashore or at sea and provides manpower solutions for a wide range of marine operations. Emphasis is placed on providing a ‘lifetime of careers’ to our sea-going staff to ensure that opportunities are offered to those people who wish to secure office based employment in one of the many v. Ships activities.

The company has undergone huge and significant changes since its early days as Vlasov. These changes reflect the overall global changes in the shipping sector, but v. Ships has been able to find a niche as a major ship management company, specialising in all aspects of vessel management. as the world’s major ship management company, it has every right to be proud of its existence and its illustrious history.