SS Albert Ballin pulling in to port on September 27th 1923
History
Weimar Republic
Name	Albert Ballin
Namesake	Albert Ballin
Owner	Hamburg-America Line
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg
Launched	16 December 1922
Maiden voyage	5 July 1923
Fate	Requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, 1940
Nazi Germany
Name	Hansa
Operator	Hamburg-America Line
In service	31 October 1935
Fate	Sunk 6 March 1945, Warnemünde
Soviet Union
Name	Sovetskiy Soyuz (translate as "Soviet Union")
Acquired	By salvage, 1949
In service	1953–1982
Renamed	1980, Tobolsk
Fate	Scrapped, 1982
General characteristics (1923)
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	20,815 GRT
Length	183.61m
Beam	22.18m
Speed	16 knots
Capacity	1650 passengers
Notes	Sister ship Deustchland

SS Albert Ballin was an ocean liner of the Hamburg-America Line launched in 1923 and named after Albert Ballin, the visionary director of the Hamburg-America line, who had committed suicide several years earlier. In 1935, the ship was renamed Hansa on orders from the German government. Towards the end of World War II, she was employed to evacuate civilians during Operation Hannibal, and sank after hitting a mine. She was later raised and refitted by the Soviet Union and was finally scrapped in 1982.

Albert Ballin was built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, and served on the Hamburg-New York City route. In 1928, a tourist class was added. Originally built as a 16 knot ship, the engines were replaced in 1929, resulting in a speed of 19 knots. In 1934, she was lengthened by 50 feet, and speed increased again, this time to 21.5 knots.

In 1935, the new Nazi government ordered the ship be renamed Hansa (Ballin having been Jewish). Hansa's last Atlantic crossing was in 1939.

In 1945, she was employed to evacuate civilians from Gotenhafen during Operation Hannibal, and was due to accompany the overloaded MV Wilhelm Gustloff leaving midday on 30 January, but suffered mechanical problems before the ships had left the Bay of Danzig and had to anchor. Later, on 6 March during a further evacuation, she hit a mine off Warnemünde and slowly sank.

The wreck was raised and rebuilt by the Soviet Union around 1949, and renamed Sovetskiy Soyuz (Russian: Советский Союз; meaning Soviet Union), becoming the largest passenger ship operating under the Soviet flag. From 1955, she operated between Vladivostok and points in the Far East. Renamed Tobolsk (Russian: Тобольск^[1]) in 1980, she sailed under that name for almost two years before being scrapped.

• Stanislav Kurilov

• Bonsor, N.R.P. (1975), North Atlantic seaway : an illustrated history of the passenger services linking the Old World with the New in four volumes, New York: Arco, ISBN 978-0-7153-6401-7, OCLC 1891992
• Haws, Duncan (1980), The ships of the Hamburg America, Adler and Carr lines, Merchant fleets in profile, vol. 4, Cambridge: Stephens, OCLC 60073185
• Swiggum, S.; Kohli, M., TheShipsList, retrieved 2013-01-18

• SS Albert Ballin - History, Accommodations, & Ephemera Collection GG Archives