A Diplomatic History of the Caspian Sea: Treaties, Diaries and Other Stories
G. Mirfendereski

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The Soviet refusal was not going to deter Reza Khan in his naval quest. Still in 1924, he ordered the commander of the army in northern Persia to produce locally several vessels for duty in the Caspian. A 70 ton , useless, and decript vessel belonging to the Lionozov enerprise and laying at anchor at Chimkhaleh near Anzali was pressed into service. A multinational creew made of various exparties, including Polish , German, and Russian seamen, undertook the rehabilitation of the vessel. Armed with the two guns that were brought from the arsenal in Teheran thhe SEFIDRUD was commissioned in Feb 1925 for security patrol and intedirection of contraband.

Stationed at Piri Bazar the SEFIDRUD‘s first major operation turned out to be the successful blockade of the Turkmen position neear Gorgan, whrere the Turkmens were fighting the Persian army. Upon return from this operation, the vessel was renamed the NAHANG, meaning „whale. Later , a 15-ton vessel , also belonging to the Lionozov enterprise was purchased by the Persian government , renamed the CHALUS, after a town in western Mazandran some 34 miles east southeast of Shahjsavar, Converted into a gunboat, the CHALUS, was commissioned in 1927 for patrol duty in the Caspian.


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In as official ceremony at Bandar Pqahlavi on 7 Sep 1946, the Soviet navy turned over five of the Iranian naval units. However misssing among them was the NAHANG, which had belonged to Lionozov enterprise and had been claimed by the Soviets as state property by virtue of their nationalization law. In the same month , the Soviets also returned to Iranian possession a number of other vessels , among which were the dreger MAZANDARAN, three cargo ship s with sails, and a tugboat. However , the Soviets did not return the tugboats ALMAS and MASHALAK, a floating crane , and the MAZADARAN's auxiliary boat, claiming thet all these units were sent to Russia for repairs [22]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2018 01:35AM by Andreas von Mach.