Sedov
She came under Russian state ownership after the surrender of Germany — on December 20, 1945, the British handed over the ship to the Soviet Union as war reparation. In the Soviet Union, she was converted into a sail training vessel of the Soviet Navy. Renamed the Sedov after the Arctic explorer Georgy Sedov who died during an investigation in the Arctic in 1914, she was used as a training ship of the Navy from 1952 to 1957. She made several friendly visits to South America and Africa during this period. From 1957 to 1966 she was used as an oceanographic research ship in the North Atlantic. During these voyages, the Soviet Navy also used her for training of young cadets. In 1966 when she was transferred to the reserve in Kronstadt, formally under the civil ownership of the Ministry of Fisheries. In the 1970s, she was only infrequently used as a training ship, sailing in the Gulf of Finland.
In 1981, the Sedov reappeared after renovation which had new features added such as a glass-domed banquet hall with a stage and a movie theater. She was now based at the Baltic Division of Training Ships in Riga. She embarked cadets from schools of navigation of Kaliningrad and Murmansk. After the declaration of independence of Latvia in 1991, she left Riga for Murmansk, transferred to the Murmansk naval school with the city of Murmansk ensuring her management and maintenance.
Sedov has regularly been targeted by unpaid creditors of the Russian Federation such as Nissim Gaon (of now defunct Swiss group NOGA, an anagram of Gaon) and also by French holders of defaulted Russian bonds; in 2002 Sedov was forced to precipitously and unexpectedly leave Marseilles in the dead of night to avoid being served a writ by AFPER (French association of holders of Russian Empire bonds) the following morning.
For over a year French holders of defaulted Russian bonds have been warning they were going to reorganize and export their claim to Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions, more friendly to private citizens than the French.
In May 2008, in the wake of British-Russian tension, Sedov was instructed by Moscow not to dock as planned at Southend on Sea. The September 2008 visit to Falmouth, the starting point of FUNCHAL 500 race to Madeira, also seems to be in jeopardy.
In 2011 "Sedov" celebrated her 90th anniversary. In 2012 "Sedov" started her first voyage around the world of more than 13 months.