House Flag of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company

The Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company (russian: Русское общество пароходства и торговли or ROPiT russian: РОПиТ, also referred as Russian S.N.Co.) of

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

was one of the biggest joint stock steamship companies in

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. It was established in 1856 and ceased to exist in 1918 due to

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

after the

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

in Russia. In 1858 the company obtained a 24-year contract for usage of the port of Villafranca Marittima, on the Mediterranean with the

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. From 1863 to 1914 all

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were run by the ROPiT. In 1901 it had a fleet of 72

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s. Company stock was listed on Saint-Petersburg Stock Exchange.

ROPiT fleet

*Svet (Свет) (1815) *Emperor Aleksander II (Император Александр II) (1858) *Veliki Knjaz Konstantin (Великий Князь Константин) (1858) *Oleg (Олег) (1859) *Lasar (Лазар) (1863) *Rostov (Ростов) (1867) *Imperatriza Maria (Императрица Мария) (1877) * (Аскольд) (1879, since 1886 till 1916) *Chuanpu (Хуанпу) (1882) *Tsar (Царь) (1883) *Metschta (Мечта) (1884) *Luch (Луч) (1886) *Odessa (Одесса) (1889) *Veliki Knjaz Aleksei (Великий Князь Алексей) (1890) *Blesk (Блеск) (1890) *Veliki Knjaz Konstantin (Великий Князь Константин) (II) (1890) *Veliki Knjaz Konstantin (Великий Князь Константин) (III) (1890) *Svyatoi Nikolai (Святой Николай) (1893) *Korolyevna Olga (Королева Ольга) (1893) *Emperor Nikolai II (Император Николай II) *Chtyr Dag (Чатыр Даг) (1896) *Diana (Диана) (1899) *Chikhachev (Чихачёв) *Alton (Алтон) (1901) *Meteor (Метеор) (1901) *Chersonese (Херсонес) (1903) *Ewrat (Евфрат) (1906) called EUPHRATE in FRANCE (based in Marseille after the beginning of the revolution (bolchevique). *Prince Yevgenia Oldenburgskaya (Принцесса Евгения Ольденбургская) (1903) *Emperor Nikolai I (Император Николай I) (1913) *Imperatriza Yekaterine II (Императрица Екатерина II) *Emperor Aleksander III (Император Александр III) *Emperor Pyotr Veliki (Император Пётр Великий) *Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich (Царь Михаил Фёдорович) (1914) *Tsarevich Aleksey Nikolayevich (Цесаревич Алексей Николаевич) (1914)

Passenger lines

The company also offered passenger rides. For example, weekly services on the routes "Constantinople-Smyrna-Piraeus-Alexandria, Constantinople-Odessa" - every fortnight the Bulgarian ports of Burgas and Varna were also called in - and "Constantinople–Sevastopol". By 1914 the ROPiT operated a direct line from Odessa via Constantinople to Alexandria and a round trip line and a "Macedonian line" there. Also Black Sea cruises were offered. So changed weekly the "Bulgarian-Anatolian line" from Odessa to Burgas, Constantinople and Trebizond to Batum and the "Anatolian Line" from Constantinople to Batum.

References

{{reflist Transport companies established in 1856 Defunct shipping companies of Russia Companies based in Odesa Transport companies disestablished in 1918

ROPiT fleet

Passenger lines

See also

References