Moscow University was ordered in February 1997. The ship was constructed by NKK Corporation, Tsu, Japan, at a cost of $42,260,000. Built as hull number 185, it was launched on 19 December 1998 and delivered to her owners on 26 March 1999. Moscow University is long overall, with a beam of. The ship has a depth of and a draught of. It is propelled by a 6-cylinder Sulzer 6RTA58T diesel engine of driving a single screw propeller, which can propel Moscow University at. Moscow University is allocated the IMO Number 9166417 and uses the call sign ELWE8.
History
Moscow University was built for Fancy Maritime SA, which is owned by Novoship Novorossiysk, Russia. The ship was managed by Novoship Ltd., but management was transferred back to Russia in 2008, when many London-based employees of Novoship Ltd. were made redundant. In December 2009, it was the first ship to leave Kozmino, Russia, with a cargo of oil. It was bound for Hong Kong.
Hijack and rescue
On 5 May 2010, Moscow University was attacked by Somali pirates some off the coast of Somalia. The crew locked themselves in the ship's radar room or engine room. The was sent to assist Moscow University. On 6 May 2010, the Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov arrived and fired two warning shots. The rescue operation then began when Marshal Shaposhnikov opened fire on the pirates with its cannons. Under the cover of this fire, a helicopter from the ship landed on the hijacked ship's deck and inserted Naval Infantry commandos on board, who quickly rescued the hijacked vessel. The entire crew escaped unharmed. One pirate was killed and 10 detained during the operation. Later, the pirates were set adrift in an inflatable boat – without weapons or navigation equipment – some from the coast. According to sources within the Russian Ministry of Defense, they did not reach the coast and likely died at sea. The pirates' disappearance has raised speculation that they were in fact executed by the Russian commandos, particularly in the light of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's comments that "We'll have to do what our forefathers did when they met the pirates".
