Soviet Union Disaster At Sea

A freighter rams a cruise ship

At 10:30 on a mellow summer evening last week, Captain Vadim Markov ordered his aged passenger liner unmoored in the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. The 17,053-ton Admiral Nakhimov steamed out of the harbor, bound for Sochi, 115 miles to the southeast, with 1,234 souls on board: a crew of 350 and 884 tourists, all Soviet citizens, enjoying a late-season coastal cruise. A band was playing on deck, and some of the passengers danced beneath brilliant lights that reflected off the dark waters.

Just 45 minutes after it got under way, the pleasure trip turned to disaster. The 41,000-ton Soviet freighter...

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