SS Samara

The SS Samara was a steamship built in 1905 by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd., Newcastle upon Tyne, England, for the Russian Volunteer Fleet. She served primarily as a passenger and cargo liner operating between Odessa and Vladivostok, often transporting emigrants to the Russian Far East.

During World War I, the Samara was requisitioned by the Russian Navy and converted into an auxiliary cruiser. Details of her wartime service are relatively scarce, but she likely participated in patrol and escort duties in the Black Sea and possibly the Mediterranean.

Following the Russian Revolution, the fate of the Samara became somewhat unclear. Sources indicate she was briefly under White Russian control before eventually being seized by the Bolsheviks. Her later service under the Soviet regime is poorly documented, and the exact date and circumstances of her eventual decommissioning or loss are unknown. Some accounts suggest she may have been scrapped in the 1920s or 1930s, but conclusive evidence is lacking. The Samara represents a small piece of the history of maritime transportation and naval activity within the Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union.