Prelude to Cruise

Prelude to “Queen Victoria” Baltic Cruise 2014

Queen Victoria

Having completed and thoroughly enjoyed a world cruise on “Queen Elizabeth” from January to May of this year, there was one other project, I would like to complete before popping off to the other place.

For this you will have to be informed of my family history and their maritime past.  On both my Mother’s and Father’s side all of the males were sea going.   My Grandfather on my mother’s side, I visited in 1964, while he was living with my Grandmother and Aunt in Albany, New York State, U.S.A. This being when I was sailing on my third ship, as I first went to sea in 1963.

I was named, Alexander in memory of my Father’s Brother, who was killed in action on a naval mine sweeper, near the end of the Second World War, while serving in the Mediterranean, and I visited his burial site in October 2012 at the Rome war grave cemetery.

Alexander, was also the Christian name of my Grandfather on my father’s side, who from an accident on board the ship “Sheaf Water” died the following day in a Leningrad Hospital and was buried in Leningrad on 22^nd June 1932.  This would be my mission to find my Grandfather’s burial site.

As “Queen Victoria” was doing a Royal Viking Cruise which took in St. Petersburg (Leningrad) with an overnight stop and two days in port, for me this was an ideal opportunity to re-visit Russia and achieve my goal.

Prior to joining the vessel, I had been busy carrying out research on the internet for probable sites. Enquiries at the Russian Embassy in London and the British Consulate in St. Petersburg had drawn a blank.  While emails to St. Petersburg’s port authority, ship’s agent, research University, water transport union, tour operator and two newspapers; not one of them bothered to even acknowledge receipt of the emails. 

  

My own research homed in on the island of Kotlin, 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of St. Petersburg which in the 1930’s, Kronstadt was reputed to be the main port for Leningrad.  Armed with maps of the island, locations of all cemeteries in St. Petersburg, the metro system, some bus information, a DK eyewitness travel guide, I was hopeful of achieving my goal.  Prior to leaving, I had also finished reading again the ‘Siege of Leningrad’, which tells the horrific story of the 900 days siege by the Germans in the Second World War and the devastation to the city and surrounding areas, this did not inspire me, as to what I might find.