443 
The training fleet was expanded in December 1965 with the addition 
of two more sailing vessels: The Georgii Sedov and the Kruzenshtern. 
Both were built in Germany in 1921 and 1926, as part of prewar 
World War II Germany’s clipper fleet,?? and were incorporated into 
the Soviet hydrographic fleet after 1945 as war booty. 
Shortly thereafter, three additional old sailing vessels were acquired: 
the Ivan Mesiatsev, the Kondor, and the Professor Rudovits. These 
vessels, built in Finland during 1950-51 to pay Soviet war reparation 
claims, were much smaller (about 120 feet long) than those seized 
from Germany. 
By 1966, the entire Zapryba fishery training fleet (12 vessels) was 
composed of four medium-side trawlers and eight sailing vessels. 
Trainees from the secondary and higher fishery schools in Leningrad, 
Riga, and Tallin thus received some at-sea experience, but had not 
been trained in the more practical aspects of high seas navigation 
and fishing. The obvious answer was to supply the training fleet with 
modern vessels of the same type that the students would operate 
after their graduation. 
In 1968, the large refrigerated transport, Nikolai Zytsar, was 
launched from Riga shipyards in Latvia. The vessel was delivered 
to the Zapryba to serve as both a transport and a training vessel. 
Her equipment included an extra charthouse and several laboratories 
to train the students in navigation, fish-processing, and mechanics. 
This was the first training fish carrier in the U.S.S.R. The idea of 
combining a productive vessel with training facilities soon became 
the rule in the Soviet training fleets. 
The largest step in the modernization of the training fleet took 
place in May 1969 when Zapryba took delivery of the Ekholot,** 
a stern factory trawler constructed by the Burmeister and Wain 
shipyards in Denmark. The vessel was specially fitted out as a training 
vessel, but retainéd all of the catching and processing capacity of 
regular factory stern trawlers. The Ekholot was one of five identical 
production-training vessels built by this Danish manufacturer. The Ek- 
holot is a stern trawler that can process fish into finished products, 
including fishmeal and oil. The vessel also has deep-freeze and 
refrigerated holds and is an ideal training vessel. Navigators, radio 
operators, technicians, mechanics, fishermen, and processors can all 
be trained aboard her. There is a classroom for instruction, a library, 
and a seminar room with equipment for the training of navigators. 
The vessel is 102.7 meters long and 16 meters wide and is now 
based in Riga, captained by R. L. Danilov. 
In May 1973, East German shipyards completed the construction 
of another trawler-training vessel, the Kursograf, which was delivered 
to Zapryba. This vessel is basically a variation of the Atlantik class 
stern trawler. It is now based at Riga and has training facilities similar 
to the Ekholot. A third vessel of this type, the Diplot, joined the 
Zapryba fleet shortly thereafter. 
One other vessel, the Zenit, deserves mention. Although it is offi- 
cially a training vessel for merchant seamen, fishery trainees ap- 
parently also take part in her cruises for training as navigators and 
33 Each was 376 feet long 
34 The word means ‘“‘echosounder”’ in Russian. 
