Mayakovsky 1950
Marker: recorded wreck position (Modern).
Key facts
| Name | Mayakovsky | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1950 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Modern | derived from year |
| Ship type | paddle steamer | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nearest coast | Latvia | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 56.9444, 24.1008 | Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0) |
About the wreck
On August 13, 1950, the paddle steamer Mayakovsky (named for Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky) sank at around 12:00 pm local time due to overloading of the vessel with too many people. The vessel's capacity was 150 people, but at the time of the disaster there were 421 people on board. Mayakovsky sank in the Daugava River that bisects Riga, not more than 15 metres (49 ft) from the present day site of the Stone Bridge. A total of 147 people died, including 48 children. It was the deadliest peacetime disaster in Soviet Latvian history. At the time, Latvia was a republic within the Soviet Union, under the rule of Joseph Stalin, and news of the disaster was not published in the state-controlled press. On August 19, 2011, almost 20 years after the breakup of the Soviet Union and Latvia regaining its independence, a memorial plaque was dedicated at the Stone Bridge (the Akmens tilts) in memory of the victims.
Location
- Recorded position: 56.9444, 24.1008 (Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Latvia
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Mayakovsky (ship) (revision 1360621325), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
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