Interesting facts

  1. 1866 – port of Ruse is busy only in the spring and the summer because of the fogs, cold, heavy snowing and icing of the river which prevent the shipping in the late autumn and winter.
  2. After the defeat of Bulgaria in The War between the Allies (The Intern-allied W.) the country had to destroy its river fleet. In July 1913 the citizens of Ruse go to the river bank to watch the commanders sink down the ships. The people are watching in grief and the young men who had to join in the autumn the fleet as sailors are crying aloud. The port of Ruse is left with no ships.
  3. In 1915 – 1916 the Belgium owners of the Sugar plant conclude a contract with the Port Management. They build a modern quay wall in the shore area next to the plant. Here for the first time in Bulgaria are used electrical portal cranes for transshipment.
  4. In 1926 the ship “Iskyr” (property of port Ruse) is the first Bulgarian ship which passes the tests and gets First category International class. This gives her the right to cross the Sulina channel.
  5. Newspaper “Transport voice”, 14th ed., 1931: “...from all the workers in the port the labor of the stevedores is the heaviest. Carrying all day long the cargoes from the Danube traffic, they have become alike medieval slaves. Everyone who begins to protest gets fired ... Until 1925 the chief stevedore used to take one part of every stevedore group’s earnings and except from that a half of its own. If a stevedore earns 150 leva, the chief stevedore gets 6 times of 150 lv., which equals 900 leva, plus 1.5%. The total grant for the chief stevedore is 1125 lv.”
  6. «In 1934 the rules and organization of work and payment in the port lack any justice or elementary humanity. Every appointment was done only under the condition that the person pays the membership fee to the ruling political party. It applies mostly for the Radical party, the Bulgarian Agricultural People’s Union etc. »
  7. In 1933 – 34 the transshipment of a vessel in port Ruse costs 20 – 30 lv./ ton, in port Varna – 76 lv. and in Bourgas – 85 lv. The average weekly salary of a stevedore in Ruse is 20 – 25 lv., and in Bourgas, where the cargo is getting less, it is about 10 – 15 lv. per person, giving that there is only one working day during the week.
  8. The conditions for acceptance of a worker in the port required the candidates to be young, strong, stout and to be able to carry weight of 200 kilograms on their backs.
  9. The earthquake on 04.03.1977 causes unexpected difficulties. The quay wall of port Ruse-west collapsed with 80 to 150 sm. and the folded rails had to be cut.
  10. Until 1975 were organized regular water ski competitions for the cup of the Management of the ports. Later they developed to a republican level. The personnel of the complex took first places in sports like: rowing, swimming, track-and-field athletics, football, volleyball, handball, table-tennis, chess, bridge.

Information is used from “Mirror to Europe” - L.Tsanev, D.Vjatovski, Varna 1988.

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