PORT FLEET to provide towing of the Aurora cruiser to a dockyard in Kronstadt
CJSC PORT FLEET owned tugs "Leonid Bochkov" and "Peterhof" will escort the cruiser "Aurora" to the harbor of Kronstadt Ship Repair Plant (Navy Plant) where the vessel will undergo repairs. The towing operation is scheduled for 21 September 21, 2014, 10:00 a.m.
The two tugs "Leonid Bochkov" and "Peterhof" feature the state-of-the-art and effective propulsion system, including Aquamaster nozzles that enable this class tugs to pivot 360 degrees, to perform towing/canting operations and to swiftly change its mode from pulling to pushing.
Pallada-class 1st rank cruiser "Aurora" was part of the Navy of Russia and the USSR between 1903 and 1948. The ship participated in the battles of Russia-Japan war, in the 1917 October Revolution, as well as in WWI and the Great Patriotic War. In 1948 the Aurora cruiser was permanently moored at Petrogradskaya Embankment of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). In 1957 the Aurora cruiser was assigned a status of a “museum ship” and became a naval museum, a subsidiary of the Central Naval Museum of Russia.
Currently, the Aurora cruiser is registered in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation as an object of cultural heritage of federal importance. The Aurora is now part of division of ships under construction and maintenance of the Baltic Fleet's Leningrad naval base as a "non-self-propelled berth-connected vessel". The vessel is still manned by an active crew of contract servicemen.