[3] She was delivered to the Black Sea Shipping Company on 26 April 1966 and placed on cruise traffic.

Sometime during her Soviet Union career the Taras Shevchenko was rebuilt with a larger forward superstructure.

The Soviet Union broke up during this charter, and as a result of this the Taras Shevchenko was handed over to the state of Ukraine.

Following the end of the Jahn Reisen charter in 1995, she was transferred to Blasco UK and re-flagged to Monrovia, Liberia.

In June 1998, when she was about to depart on a three-week cruise, the ship was arrested in Piraeus, Greece due to the company's financial problems.