The German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was built by the Blohm & Voss shipyards in 1937 and served in various roles:cruise ship, hospital ship, floating barracks for naval personnel and finally evacuees transport ship. It had 25,484 tons and measured 208.5 meters in length, 23.59 meters wide, 56 meters high. As a cruise ship, it had 8 decks, a complement of 417 crew and 1,465 passengers. The ship had 4 diesel engines, 2 propellers and traveled at a maximum speed of 15,5 knots for a maximum range of 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km).
The German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was evacuating troops,civilians and officials from occupied Poland to Germany as part of Operation Hannibal. On January 30th 1945, it was sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13, a Stalinets-class submarine of the Soviet Navy, commanded by Soviet naval captain Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko.For this feat captain Marinesko received the Soviet Order of the Red Banner and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously, in May 1990).