author martin bollinger reports that during the ship's soviet career there is ample evidence that "dzhurma" was used on gulag routes between 1936 and 1950. as a part of the dalstroy fleet, the ships «ягода» (later renamed «дальстрой»), «кулу», «джурма» transported prisoners from vladivostok, endpoint of the transsiberian railway, across the sea of okhotsk to kolyma via nagayevo port, which was the port of magadan city. travel time to magadan was about 6 to 14 days; trips to the arctic were seasonal as during the winter the sea froze over. a steamer would make about ten trips a year. conditions were horrendous, and many people did not survive the trip.