Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company

Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company's flag

1910 postcard showing the Russian pavilion of the Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company at the Odessa Exposition

Nikolai Arkas, first director of ROPiT

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 was one of the biggest joint stock steamship companies in Imperial Russia. It was established in 1856 and ceased to exist in 1918 due to nationalization after the revolution in Russia.[1]

In 1858 the company obtained a 24-year contract for usage of the port of Villafranca Marittima, on the Mediterranean with the Kingdom of Sardinia.[2]

From 1863 to 1914 all Russian post offices in the Ottoman Empire were run by the ROPiT.

In 1901 it had a fleet of 72 steamships.[3] 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)
• Russian steamboat Askold (Аскольд) (1879, since 1886 till 1916)[4]
• 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.

See also

• Black Sea Shipping Company

References

1. (in Russian) ROPiT and Black sea fleet International Maritime Journal The Morskoy Flot (Marine Fleet) No.3, 2007
2. ST. PETERSBURG.; The Villafranca Affair--Industrial EnterPrises--Steam Navigation of the Duleper--Russian Peasants Described by a Russian--The Islands of the Nova--Presentation of the New Foreign Ministers, &c. The New York Times November 18, 1858
3. The Russian Mercantile Marine The New York Times December 22, 1901
4. "Askold" (in Russian). Интернет-сайт «Водный транспорт». Archived from the original on 2018-07-15. Retrieved 2019-04-09.