# River-sea ship china clay Cornwall to Baku, Caspian Sea



## Giles (Nov 18, 2009)

In a River-Sea book in 1980s/90s I read of a voyage by a river-sea ship with china clay from Cornwall to St Petersburg, through the canals behind Moscow down the Volga and into the Caspian sea, discharging at an Iranian port (not sure if it was Baku).

Does anyone know of the book or alternatively the name of the ship, loadport, tonnage, disport and whether it was a one-off trial voyage or whether it is an an established trade route (today) ?

Thank you
Giles


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## Billieboy (May 18, 2009)

Baku is on the Caspian sea. Don't know if it's Iranian, I thought it was Azerbaijan. As for those Cornish riverboats getting there; definitely they got everywhere, some said that the odyssey was written by a Cornish sailor! Never heard of, let alone read the book though.


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## Les Gibson (Apr 24, 2004)

Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan. Riverboats are regulars there with steel and other items. I was on seismic Survey ship 'Baki' which went down the Volga on the tides. She was an old Soviet spy ship and was converted in Sunderland. had 2 years based in Baku 1995-1997. with BUE Marine.


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## Runrig (Apr 13, 2008)

It was a Sormovskiy-type vessel that sailed with china clay from Fowey to Bandar Anzali in Iran in 1992. Sorry, I don't have the date. There were occasional similar voyages after that.

You will have read it in the book "Modern River Sea Traders" by Chris Cheetham and Max Heinimann, published in 1992.


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## Giles (Nov 18, 2009)

Runrig said:


> It was a Sormovskiy-type vessel that sailed with china clay from Fowey to Bandar Anzali in Iran in 1992. Sorry, I don't have the date. There were occasional similar voyages after that.
> 
> You will have read it in the book "Modern River Sea Traders" by Chris Cheetham and Max Heinimann, published in 1992.


Many thanks, that's the one.
--
Giles


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## sidsal (Nov 13, 2007)

Les Gibson and others:
Very interested in this thread. I have been for some time trying to find out how a 12000ton RO-RO ship, the Mercuri II, was photographed in the Keil Canal in 1992 and some few years later was lost in a storm on the Caspian Seawith some loss of life. There are one or two Brits living on the Caspian with whom I have been in touch thru SN. How did she get there????
Someone put me in touch with BUE Marine and they sent me photos of oil support vessels sent from Aberdeen. They sailed to Istanbul where their bridge was removed and placed on the afterdeck and then they were towed over to the Sea of Azov, up the Don - across by canal to the Volga and then down to Azerbaijan where they were put together again.
Amazing part of the world !!


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## buddy123 (Jul 23, 2009)

Could be the ''Port of Par'' which is busy exporting China Clay and has done for many years as Imerys Industrial Minerals basically takes up a large part of the port.


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