Icebreakers of Russia Atomic shipbuilding

Arctic development

Main article: Development of the Arctic

Project 22220 Nuclear Icebreakers

Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers are the largest and most powerful in the world. They are needed to ensure Russian leadership in the Arctic. The length of the vessel will be 173.3 meters, width - 34 meters, displacement - 33.5 thousand tons. These icebreakers will be able to conduct caravans of ships in Arctic conditions, breaking through ice up to three meters thick. They will ensure the wiring of vessels with hydrocarbon raw materials from the fields of the Yamal, Gydan peninsulas and from the Kara Sea shelf to the markets of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

The main universal nuclear icebreaker LK-60Ya 'Arktika' of project 22220 was previously built at the 'Baltic Plant' (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation). Now there is the construction of two serial nuclear-powered ships' Siberia'and' Ural '. In August 2019, Rosatom and Baltzavod signed a contract for the construction of two more serial nuclear icebreakers of this project.

2024: Baltic Plant allocated 22 billion rubles for the construction of three icebreakers

The Russian government will allocate 22 billion rubles to Baltic Plant JSC (part of USC JSC). This was announced on April 3, 2024 by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, speaking with a report in the State Duma. Read more here.

2023

Rosatom has built the most powerful reactor for nuclear icebreakers

At the Zio-Podolsk enterprise (part of JSC, Atomenergomash Engineering Division), the Rosatom second reactor vessel for the new generation icebreaker Chukotka was manufactured. In December 2023, Rosatom announced the completion of the manufacture of RITM-200 reactors for the latest Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers. As the press service of the state corporation clarified, the Zio-Podolsk enterprise (part of Atomenergomash JSC, the engineering division of Rosatom) manufactured the second reactor vessel for the new generation icebreaker Chukotka. here More.

Financing for the construction of nuclear icebreakers reduced by 10 billion rubles

On October 12, 2023, it became known about a reduction in funding for the construction of new nuclear icebreakers in Russia by almost 10 billion rubles in three years. This is stated in the draft budget of the Russian Federation for 2024-2026.

As Kommersant writes with reference to this document, in particular, budgets for the following projects have been cut:

• lead heavy-duty icebreaker "Leader" (120 MW) - expenses reduced by 5.24 billion rubles;
• the third and fourth serial icebreakers of the Arktika type (60 MW) - by 0.56 billion rubles;
• the fifth LK-60 - by 2.36 billion rubles;
• sixth - by 1.36 billion rubles;
• Nuclear service vessel (used for refueling) - by 0.91 billion rubles.

The newspaper cites data according to which the amount of budget financing of the Leader for 2022-2027 - 99 billion rubles, the third and fourth LC for 2022-2026 - a total of 16.5 billion rubles, follows from the plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route until 2035, which was published in August 2022. The cost of an atomic technology vessel is 24.8 billion rubles, the fifth LK - 56.6 billion rubles, and the sixth - 61.3 billion rubles.

In June 2023, it became known that the construction of the Russian icebreaker Icebreaker-7 postponed for four years due to sanctions. The icebreaker will have to work for the seaports of the North-West Basin - in particular, in the Baltic Sea. The total cost of the project is 10.5 billion rubles, but at the moment its readiness is estimated at 1.38%: the keel has been laid.

Nadezhda Malysheva from Portnews, in a conversation with the publication, noted that one of the options for attracting investment in the construction of icebreakers is to search for private partners and investors. They can be companies from among shippers interested in ice wiring, which can attract money in Russian or foreign financial institutions, she said.^[1]

2020

Ice-resistant self-propelled platform "North Pole" was launched at the Admiralty Shipyards

In December 2020, Admiralty Shipyards JSC launched the North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform (LSP) of project 00903, which is being built by order of ^[2] Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet)^[3]

Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov congratulated the team of shipbuilders on another victory: "Today we are launching a unique ship. This ice-resistant self-propelled platform, which our scientific industry has long been waiting for, will study the Arctic Ocean. The company's team has always successfully fulfilled all the tasks assigned to it, and I am sure that this project will not be an exception. "

Alexander Buzakov, General Director of Admiralty Shipyards JSC, called today's descent a significant event not only for the enterprise's team, but also for Russian and world science: "Climate warming, exhaustion of natural resources have set new tasks in the study of the Arctic Ocean. By the joint efforts of the designer, scientists from the Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic, Roshydromet and specialists from the Admiralty Shipyards, this unique technical project was created, the implementation of which began almost two years ago. Today, our company has once again confirmed its competence in the construction of complex science-intensive vessels. "

The contract between Admiralty Shipyards JSC and Roshydromet was signed in April 2018. The ship was laid down on April 10, 2019. The construction of the order takes place as part of the implementation of the state program for the socio-economic development of the Arctic region of the Russian Federation.

The North Pole LSP has the functionality of a research center and is designed for year-round expeditions in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean. The vessel is designed to conduct geological, acoustic, geophysical and oceanographic surveys; capable of passing in ice without involving an icebreaker, as well as receiving heavy helicopters of the AMT MI-8 type (Mi-17) on board. LSP will provide comfortable and safe working and living conditions for the crew and scientific personnel at the polar station at a temperature of up to -50 ° and humidity of 85%.

Admiralty Shipyards JSC has extensive experience in the construction of ice-class vessels. In 1959, the world's first nuclear icebreaker Lenin was built at the enterprise; in 1979, the research vessel Otto Schmidt; since the early 2000s: a series of five ice-floating tankers with a deadweight of 20,000 tons; arctic tankers "Mikhail Ulyanov" and "Kirill Lavrov" deadweight 70,000 tons; scientific expeditionary vessel "Akademik Tryoshnikov."

The main tactical and technical characteristics of the LSP: length - 83.1 m; width - 22.5 m; displacement - about 10,390 tons; PU power - 4200 kW; speed - not less than 10 knots; body strength - Arc8; autonomy in terms of fuel reserves - about 2 years; service life - at least 25 years; crew - 14 people; scientific staff - 34 people. The ice-resistant self-propelled platform "North Pole" is built on the class of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping: KM (*) Arc5 [1] AUT1-C HELIDECK-F Special purpose ship.

The Ministry of Transport of Russia has developed a procedure for forming plans to ensure transport safety of icebreakers

On December 4, 2020, a draft Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation "On Approval of the Procedure for Developing Transport Security Plans for Transport Infrastructure Facilities and (or) ships of the icebreaker fleet used for navigation along the sea routes, ships in respect of which the rules of merchant navigation and requirements in the field of protection of ships and port facilities established by international treaties of the Russian Federation^[1].

The document applies not only to the domestic icebreaker fleet, but also to ships that are subject to international rules of merchant shipping and requirements in the field of protection of ships and port facilities.

According to the draft Order, transport infrastructure entities are obliged to assess vulnerability, prepare transport security plans, and provide documentation to supervisory authorities. Public discussion of the document will end before December 11, 2020.

Earlier, the Government of the Russian Federation approved requirements for ensuring transport safety for vehicles of sea and inland water transport.

Nuclear icebreaker "Arctic"

The nuclear icebreaker Arktika, the first of the 22220 series, was laid down at the Baltic Plant 7 years ago. In addition to the Arctic, the series will include four more icebreakers: Siberia, Ural, Yakutia and Chukotka. The planned dates for their commissioning: 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2026. Also, the construction of the lead icebreaker "Leader" is being carried out, the commissioning of which is expected in 2027^[2] are^[3].

The construction of the lead icebreaker of the Leader project has begun. He was called "Russia"

Primorsky shipbuilding complex "Zvezda" has begun construction of the lead nuclear icebreaker of project 10510 "Leader." According to the report^[4], on July 6, 2020, the first cutting of metal for a promising vessel named Rossiya took place. According to the current plan, the built vessel will be transferred to the customer in 2027^[5]

The contract for the construction of the lead icebreaker of the Leader project was signed in April 2020. The Leader is being developed specifically to guide ships along the Northern Sea Route, the shortest sea route from Europe to Asia. In particular, the new icebreaking vessels will have to provide year-round wiring of gas carriers and tankers.

According to the project, the total displacement of the Leader will be 71.4 thousand tons with a length of 209 meters, a width of 47.7 meters and an altitude of 20.3 meters. The vessel will receive two nuclear reactors RITM-400 a capacity of 120 megawatts per shaft and a thermal capacity of 315 megawatts each. Four propellers will serve as propellers of the vessel.

The icebreaker will be able to reach speeds of up to 24 knots (44 kilometers per hour) in clean water and up to 12 knots on ice up to 2 meters thick. The vessel is designed for 40 years of service. Its crew will consist of 127 people. The autonomy of the icebreaker in terms of provisions will be 8 months.

According to the Leader project, it is still planned to build three nuclear icebreakers, the last of which will be transferred to the customer by the end of 2033. The construction of three icebreakers of the Leader project is provided for by the Northern Sea Route infrastructure development plan, developed until 2035.

The world's best nuclear icebreakers will make the NSR a transit corridor

The creation of the latest and most powerful icebreakers in the world will lead to a faster development of the Arctic transport corridor - the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This was announced in June by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at an operational meeting with Deputy Prime Ministers.

The prime minister is confident that the construction of a fleet of icebreakers "will more widely reveal the transport potential of the Northern Sea Route, increase the interest of international business in the new transit corridor between Europe and Asia and, of course, ensure the primacy of Russia in the Arctic, a strategically important region for us."

Mishustin recalled the implementation of a project to build a series of five nuclear icebreakers designed to work on the NSR. "All of them are truly unique, distinguished by powerful engines and versatility. They can be used in ice and in water on deep water and shallow water routes. No country in the world has such a thing, "the prime minister said.

"Baltic Plant" in May will lay the fourth nuclear icebreaker of project 22220

The Baltic Plant (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) will lay down the fourth nuclear icebreaker of project 22220 in May 2020, the shipyard said. The icebreaker will receive the name "Yakutia" and will become the fourth nuclear-powered ship of the series. The construction customer is Atomflot (an enterprise of the state corporation Rosatom).

The name of the new icebreaker continues the tradition of naming the sea vessels of Rosatomflot, according to which the names are chosen from the geographical names of the objects of the Northern Sea Route or repeat the names of the legendary Soviet nuclear icebreakers of projects 10520, 10521, which have already been decommissioned. The second icebreaker of the project (the first serial) - "Siberia" - the company laid down in May 2015, the third vessel (the second serial) - "Ural" - in July 2016. All three vessels, including the Arctic icebreaker, are to be commissioned by 2022. The fourth icebreaker of the series is scheduled for commissioning in 2024, the fifth in 2027.

Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers will be able to conduct caravans of ships in Arctic conditions, breaking through ice with a thickness of up to 2.8 m in the direction of movement. The two-landing design of the vessel will allow it to be used both in Arctic waters and in the mouths of polar rivers.

2019

Three icebreakers of the Leader project will be built in Russia

Until 2033, Rosatom Corporation will receive three icebreakers of the 10510 Leader project, the development of which has been underway since the beginning of the 2010s. According to Zvezda^[6]the first vessel will enter service in 2027. New icebreakers will be built at the Far Eastern shipbuilding complex Zvezda, the construction of which is being carried out by a consortium of Russian companies led by Rosneft.

The icebreaker of the Leader project is being developed specifically to ensure the passage of ships along the Northern Sea Route, the shortest sea route from Europe to Asia. In particular, the new icebreaking vessels will have to provide year-round wiring of gas and tankers, including those transporting hydrocarbon fuel to South Korea, Japan and China.

The construction of three icebreakers of the Leader project is provided for by the Northern Sea Route infrastructure development plan, developed until 2035. Earlier it was reported that the construction of the first icebreaker of project 10510 will begin in 2020.

According to the project, the total displacement of the Leader will be 71.4 thousand tons with a length of 209 meters, a width of 47.7 meters and an altitude of 20.3 meters. The vessel will receive two nuclear reactors RITM-400 a capacity of 120 megawatts on propellers and a thermal capacity of 315 megawatts each. Four propellers will serve as propellers of the vessel.

It is expected that the icebreaker of the Leader project will be able to reach speeds of up to 24 knots (44 kilometers per hour) in clean water and up to 12 knots on ice up to 2 meters thick. The vessel is designed for 40 years of service. Its crew will consist of 127 people. The autonomy of the icebreaker in terms of provisions will be 8 months.

Scientists from St. Petersburg will develop standards for nuclear shipbuilding

An important stage in the development of domestic shipbuilding will be the creation of a set of standards in the field of measuring large values ​ ​ of torque. The control and maneuverability of ships and aircraft, the energy efficiency of mining, mining, gas and oil pumping equipment depend on the accuracy of measuring this value. To develop these industries, it is necessary to increase the range of reproduction of a unit of force torque by at least 15 times from the existing capabilities in Russia today. For example, this is necessary for the implementation of such large projects as the Power of Siberia gas pipeline and the creation of a modern nuclear icebreaker fleet.

A prototype of the complex is planned to be created in 2021-2024. But the specialists of the department of linear accelerations, gravimetry and angle of VNIIM have already made a prototype of the future working standard and are preparing a technical assignment on an initiative basis.

The institute's specialists also contributed to the creation of the Arctic icebreaker. For several years, a method for calibrating solemers operating in nuclear-powered nuclear reactors was developed for the flagship vessel of project 22220.

As the Deputy Prime Minister of Iouri Borisov noted during the descent ceremony at the Baltic Plant, from project 22220 Russia begins a new stage in the development of the Northern Sea Route. The lead nuclear-powered ship "Arctic," serial "Siberia" and "Ural" will be able to conduct caravans of ships all year round, breaking through ice up to three meters thick. The icebreakers of this project are designed to transport hydrocarbons from the Kara Sea fields to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region.

Nuclear icebreaker "Ural" launched in St. Petersburg

On May 25, 2019, in St. Petersburg, at the Baltic Plant, a solemn ceremony of launching the second serial nuclear icebreaker Ural of project 22220 took place.

The ceremony was attended by Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Yu.I. Borisov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Western Federal District A.V. Gutsan, Acting Governor of St. Petersburg A.D. Beglov, General Director of Rosatom State Corporation A.E. Likhachev, President of JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation A.L. Rakhmanov, management of the Baltic Plant, FSUE UE ATATOMFLOT OT, and other representatives of the RF.

Ural was laid down at the Baltic Plant on July 25, 2016 and became the second serial universal nuclear icebreaker of project 22220. It was launched with the already installed RITM-200 reactor plants on board and almost completely equipped with an electric propulsion system.

According to the tradition of launching ships, the Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation E.S. Nabiullina became the "godmother" of the Ural icebreaker. The "godmothers" of the previous icebreakers of the series were the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation V.I. Matvienko and the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation T.A. Golikova.

At the end of the descent ceremony, A.E. Likhachev, General Director of Rosatom State Corporation, said that the construction of this series of nuclear icebreakers is expected to continue: Ural is the third icebreaker of the 22220 series. Today I would like to announce that the contract for the construction of two more project 22220 icebreakers will be concluded before the end of August this year. Now the preparation of an open competition for the construction of new icebreakers has begun. For the first time, an agreement for the construction of nuclear icebreakers will be concluded under a mixed financing scheme.

The total cost of two icebreakers will be about 100 billion rubles. 45 billion rubles will be allocated from the federal budget, the rest - own funds of ROSATOM State Corporation and funds of commercial banks. "

For reference:

On August 20, 2012, a contract was signed between Baltic Shipbuilding Plant LLC and FSUE Atomflot for the construction of the lead universal nuclear icebreaker LK60. The contract for the construction of two production nuclear icebreakers of project 22220 was signed between Baltic Shipbuilding Plant LLC and Rosatom State Corporation in May 2014. In total, under a contract with Rosatom State Corporation (FSUE Rosatomflot), the Baltic Plant is building three nuclear icebreakers of project 22220: Arktika, Siberia and Ural. The lead nuclear icebreaker Arktika was laid down at the Baltic Plant on November 5, 2013, and launched on June 16, 2016. The first serial icebreaker Siberia was laid down on May 26, 2015, launched on September 22, 2017.

Project 22220 universal nuclear icebreakers are designed to:

• independent navigation of vessels (including large-capacity vessels), leading caravans year-round in the Western region of the Arctic;
• icebreaking of vessels in shallow water areas of the Yenisei (Dudinskoye direction) and the Ob Bay;
• towing of vessels and other floating structures in ice and on clean water;
• assistance to vessels and rescue operations in ice and clean water.

The two-bed design of the vessels will allow them to be used both in Arctic waters and in the mouths of polar rivers. They have an important role to play in the project to implement year-round navigation on the Northern Sea Route. The maximum thickness of continuous flat soldering ice, overcome by an icebreaker in a continuous stroke at a speed of 1.5-2 knots, at full power, on deep water, is 2.9 meters.

The main characteristics of the nuclear icebreaker "Ural" project 22220:

• Length - 173.3 meters,
• Width - 34 meters.
• Ice penetration - 2.9 meters.
• Height - 52 meters.
• The minimum working draft is 8.55 meters.
• Displacement - 33.54 thousand tons.
• The assigned service life is 40 years;
• The deadline is 2022;
• Crew - 53 people.

1899: "Yermak": first Arctic icebreaker

On March 4, 1899, thousands of surprised people walked along the marina of Kronstadt. Despite the meter layer of ice, a huge ship called Yermak approached the town. For the inhabitants of Kotlin Island, the ice plowman was not a miracle - after all, the world's first icebreaker "Paylot" was designed by their fellow countryman Mikhail Britnev. But that car began to walk along the Gulf of Finland only at the end of April, when the ice became thin. Therefore, the appearance of an icebreaker in Kronstadt in early March caused genuine surprise among the townspeople - it was Admiral Makarov's finest hour. He achieved his^[7]

Just two years ago, in a memorandum to the manager of the Maritime Ministry, Stepan Makarov proposed creating a powerful icebreaker for sailing in Arctic waters. But his application was rejected. The admiral did not accept this. What he did would today be called a competent PR campaign. To familiarize the public with his project, the admiral prepared a series of lectures. One of them - "To the North Pole - ahead" - greatly interested journalists, and soon the whole of St. Petersburg was heard about his venture.

Among others, Dmitry Mendeleev became interested in the idea of ​ ​ building an icebreaker: an outstanding chemist subsequently, together with the admiral, participated in the development of the machine. A key figure in the project was Finance Minister Witte. Makarov and Mendeleev convinced him that the project would pay for itself. In November 1897, Witte familiarized himself with the king's project and received his approval. Just a year later, the icebreaker was completed at the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Newcastle.

A curious detail: during the construction of the ship, Makarov was concerned that when sailing in the ice, the icebreaker would receive holes and sink. Therefore, he produced a zinc model of the ship on a scale of 1:48 with exactly the same waterproof compartments in the bottom. All compartments had openings closed by plugs. During experiments in the bath, filling compartments 1 − 2 with water, Makarov was convinced that his fears were in vain. Therefore, when during the first trial voyage to the Arctic, the icebreaker received a serious hole, the admiral was calm. He knew the car was in no danger.

The icebreaker, which cost the empire 1.5 million rubles, almost instantly paid off itself. In the winter of 1899, during a snowstorm off Gogland Island, the newest battleship General Admiral Apraksin sat down. If not for the Ermak, the ship worth 4.5 million rubles would have received significant damage. Later, the icebreaker will repeatedly save a wide variety of ships.

Almost 100 people on board the Ermak worked as stokers. Technical details. "Yermak" chopped ice as well as modern icebreakers - climbed the ice field and broke it with its weight. The trim system helped the ship overcome especially thick ice. On the ship were two tanks - fore and aft, connected by a pipe. When the icebreaker got stuck in the bow tank, water was pumped from the stern at high speed - this helped it cut ice. The Yermak propellers were driven by three steam engines with a total capacity of 9000 hp. Boilers that generated steam worked on coal. Huge coal bunkers occupied half the length of the icebreaker: the autonomy of the voyage was 4,400 nautical miles, and the cruise speed on the water was 12 knots. It is curious that initially the icebreaker was equipped with a front propeller - this solution was used on ordinary foreign icebreakers. But in Arctic conditions, the screw quickly damaged and was replaced with a cone, with which it was possible to crush underwater ice.

A monument to the icebreaker has been erected in Murmansk, built around its genuine three-ton anchor. In St. Petersburg, the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic houses the helm of the ship, and in the Moscow Museum of the Navy - many items from the cabins of the Ermak company. Things continue to hold the spirit of one of the grandest machines of their time.

1864: Icebreaker "Paylot" M.O. Britnev

In 1862, "the owner of factories, newspapers, steamships" Mikhail Osipovich Britnev faced a problem that interfered with his business. This problem was called "winter" ref > Invented in Russia: A History of Russian Inventive Thought from Peter I to Nicholas II. Tim Skorenko. 2019.</ref>

In general, Britnev had many different enterprises: his own shipyard, a factory for the production of port equipment, a couple of banks, and in addition, he was regularly elected mayor in his native Kronstadt - that is, in all respects he was a prominent figure. Winter interfered with only one of his undertakings - the Kronstadt-Oranienbaum cargo line. In summer, goods were delivered by steamboats, in winter it was necessary to switch to sled teams, much less lifting, in the spring and autumn, when the ice was still thin, but already impassable for ships, the line stopped altogether.

And then Mikhail Osipovich came to the idea that this problem could be solved technically.

Mikhail Britnev did not invent the icebreaker as such. The world's first icebreaker, known as City Ice Boat No. 1 ("city ice boat No. 1"), built the Philadelphia company Vandusen & Birelyn back in 1837. It was a wheeled steamer with a reinforced bow and special weights.

The weights need to be said separately. Actually, up to Britnev, the main principle of the icebreakers was precisely the kettlebell. The icebreaker sailed to the ice border, and then heavy weights were dropped from special masts to the edge, the impact of which thin ice could not withstand. The steamer moved on, the weights went up and dropped again. As you might guess, the speed of such a ship was extremely slow.

There were other ways. For example, ice sleds are huge, 20-meter wooden boxes filled with stones. They were dragged by horses, and boxes were pushed through a furrow. Icebreaking ferries became the development of sleds - they were also dragged by horses, but the principle was used here differently. The ferry's stern was filled with cast-iron rubbish and its nose raised. Horses dragged such a ferry onto the ice, and he pushed it with his weight, again lowering onto the water (the sled should not fall into the water, as it would immediately drown).

Sometimes sharp knives and saws, special ice-cutting wheels and even something like a teething mouth that passed the cracked ice through itself and scattered behind were attached to the stem of ships. In general, the engineering genius did not sleep, but the efficiency of all the systems that existed at that time was approximately zero.

Mikhail Osipovich was not satisfied with this. He needed a ship capable of walking through spring ice at a more or less normal speed and at the same time remaining functional - carrying cargo or passengers. And then, from the depths of national Russian memory, Britnev extracted koch.

Koch is a sailing vessel widespread in the Russian North and Siberia since the Middle Ages. It was very simple - one deck, one mast, steering wheel, oars, initially even metal was not used, the ship was built exclusively from wood. The length of the koch ranged from 16 to 24 meters, it was light and had one feature - the original beveled bottom of the bow and a flat bottom. This allowed in a matter of minutes to pull the ship - even loaded! - on the ice. Thus, the koch could not "rub," as a rule, they managed to pull it out, and if the Pomors collided with the border of free waters, they simply dragged the ship onto the ice and then moved the fiber.

Britnev came up with the idea of ​ ​ crossing the koch and the icebreaker ferry.

The trial vessel was the small steam tug "Pylot." According to drawings made personally by Britnev, the nose of the Paylot was cut at an angle of 20 °. Now the steamer could creep onto the ice, and its mass was enough to break through the furrow. Actually, all modern icebreakers work on this principle.

"Pailot" in a new, icebreaking appearance made her first voyage on April 22, 1864. Of course, its mass was not enough to push through the harsh ice of the middle of winter, but it passed the thin spring and autumn covers without problems, increasing the navigation time by 6-8 weeks. The Paylot could carry cargo and passengers itself, in addition, ordinary ships passed through the canal it cleared.

After successful spring and autumn tests, Britnev proposed his idea to the court of the maritime department. At the same time, another similar system got into consideration there - the project of engineer Nikolai Euler, the icebreaker "Experience," which was later, in 1866, embodied in metal, taking as a basis the gunboat. But the nose of the "Experience" was a powerful steel ram to break through the ice, and on top were the kettlebell masts already familiar to us. Below the waterline, Euler provided something like mine compartments - the most stubborn and strong sections of the ice sheet were supposed to be shot. The tests of the "Experience" were also more or less successful. The ship passed through ice up to a meter thick, but passed in front of a two-meter hummock.

In November 1866, in the presence of officials of the maritime department, a solemn comparison of "Experience" and "Pailot" took place. What should have happened: not only did the Pylot go much faster, but the Experience was also tightly stuck somewhere in the middle of the intended route. And then the Russian bureaucracy showed its affection. The fact is that "Experience" was equipped with state money (although Euler himself contributed some amount), and "Pylot" was a purely private initiative. Despite the brilliant victory of the latter, the ram principle of operation was recognized as promising - however, the long-suffering "Experience" was converted back into a gunboat immediately after the competition.

But Britnev did not give up. He had one advantage over many other Russian inventors: wealth. In fact, it was such an Elon Musk of the mid-19th century.

Until 1870, the Pylot remained the only modern icebreaker-type vessel in the world. He walked between Kronstadt and Oranienbaum, bringing profit to the owner. Britnev was not too lazy to receive both Russian privilege and foreign patents on his system.

The winter of 1870/71 in Europe turned out to be monstrously cold. For the first time in many years, the water area of ​ ​ the port of Hamburg froze, and the Germans in panic acquired a patent for an icebreaker from Britnev for, in general, not a very large amount of 300 rubles. The conversion of an ordinary steamer into an icebreaker according to the Britnev system took just a couple of weeks, and shipping was restored in the winter right there. The second icebreaker in the world was the German Eisbrecher 1. The patent was sold several more times - to Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, USA. Inventors from other countries began to develop their systems and make various improvements to Britnev's idea. It was clear that the ideal formula of the icebreaker was found and it can be gradually improved without putting more dubious experiments with weights and rams.

Britnev himself converted two more tugboats, "Airut" and "Nash," into icebreakers in the 1870s, and later built two specialized icebreakers at his shipyard - "Boy" (1875) and "Bui" (1889), all to expand shipping in the Gulf of Finland. In addition, during Britnev's lifetime in Russia, the Oranienbaum Steamship Company built two more icebreakers - Luna and Zarya with 250-horsepower engines (Paylot initially had a capacity of only 60 horsepower, and after conversion - 85). Mikhail Osipovich also used traditional methods - in especially difficult places where the Paylot could not cope, workers cut through the ice with pickaxes. It's ridiculous, but other Kronstadt merchants tried to compete with Britnev by driving steamboats after his icebreakers through cut-through channels. True, it was a small business, and Britnev was not particularly worried.

Crawling on Ice: Russian Koch

Almost every nation has its own, only its own historical type of vessel. Among the Aleuts and Eskimos - kayak, among the Welsh Korakl, among the Turks - Kocherma, among the Swedes Turuma, etc. The appearance of these ships is due to specific geographical and socio-economic factors of the development of the people or state. So, in the Russian North in the XI-XIII centuries, due to the urgent need to overcome ice obstacles, ^[8]appeared in ^[9]

At different times, specific types of sailing ships were created in Russia. For example, there was a scampaway - nothing like a high-speed galley of the Peter's era, a dinghy boat - the river predecessor of gunboats, pauses - a small vessel for transferring goods from large river ships. But we will pay attention specifically to koch, because it had a significant impact on northern shipping and, importantly, subsequently became the engineering basis for the icebreaker.

Northern ice

Ice has always been a problem of Russian shipping. Most of our sea borders have always come out to the White and Barents Seas, to the Arctic Ocean. All these waters are covered with an impenetrable crust of ice in winter, which makes navigation very difficult. And the survival and economic situation of the inhabitants of the Russian North, especially the Pomors, directly depended on shipping in the old days. Pomors are not a separate ethnic group, like, say, Evenki, but a sub-ethnic group of the Russian people. The term "Pomeranians" in relation to the Russians who settled on the Pomeranian shore of the White Sea - between the Kem and Onega rivers, began to be used from the 15th century, but people in those places lived from the high Middle Ages. They came there primarily from the Novgorod lands, and therefore the Pomeranian dialect strongly resembles Novgorod, although it acquired its own characteristics in hundreds of years. The main fishery of Pomors was fishing (as well as the extraction of fur, walrus fang and fat), because the extension of the shipping season has always remained the most important task. It is clear that they could not have an icebreaker in any way: the technological development of mankind then did not allow anything like that. Therefore, koch appeared.

Why do I need koch?

Its main task is to resist compression in the ice At the borders of the shipping seasons, going to sea becomes extremely risky, since a ship sailing on seemingly free water could get trapped and be lost by ice blocks. This problem still exists today: since the most famous such incident - the tragedy of the Chelyuskin icebreaker in 1934 - more than 1600 (!) Cases of ice mashing of ships in the northern seas have been recorded. More than 200 ships could not get out on their own, and about 40 of them died altogether.

When compressed, the main thing is not the strength of the vessel, but the time of rescue. The fact is that for ice, the ship's hull, that paper, they crumble it regardless of design. But the more competent the building is designed and the more it is, the more time the team has to save. I will quote an interview for Expert, Doctor of Technical Sciences, ship designer Alexander Novosyolov: "When a ship is captured in the Arctic ice captivity, it is subjected to very powerful pressure on the hull, which can be compared in kinetic energy with the impact of a 20-ton meteorite flying at a speed of 5000 km/h. In practice, we know that such space objects leave a funnel on the surface of the earth with a diameter of several kilometers and about 200 meters in depth. "

The wooden corps could not resist such power. There was only one solution: to give the vessel such a shape that the ice did not clamp it, but squeezed it to the surface, from where it would be possible to leave, dragging it to the slave behind him.

How the koch works

The name "koch" comes from the dialect Novgorod "kots" - a fur coat, which is associated with the double skin of the vessel, strengthening its sides and protecting it from ice pressure and simply from shocks.

First of all, koch was very simple and light: single-masted, single-deck, 16 to 24 mW long and up to 6.5 meters wide, completely built of wood without the use of metal elements. In the 16th century, more complex varieties appeared: with two masts, with metal parts and bracket fasteners, nails.

Koch could move both under sail and on oars. Its hull was egg-shaped, and the lower part of the nose was beveled at an angle of 20-30 °, which made it possible to quickly pull the ship onto the ice. The shape of the bottom prevented the koch from tipping to one side and was relatively easy to tow, roughly like a sled. Because of this, the koch had a very low draft - only 1-1.5 meters, practically it was a large boat capable of swimming in shallow water. To prevent the keel from being damaged by the fiber, the so-called false keel protected the outer part of which could be easily replaced without disassembling the ship. The koch team consisted of 10-15 people, the ship could take on board up to 25 tons of cargo or fifty passengers. Later varieties of koches had an even greater carrying capacity, about 40 tons.

Initially, kochi were built only by Pomors, but as the Siberian lands were conquered and ports and cities were founded there, kochi spread more and more widely in the Trans-Urals. They were actively used in river shipping, since the shape of the ship made it possible not only to quickly pull it onto the ice, but also to dock to almost any shore without additional devices - koch simply "went" to land. Anchors symmetrically located on both sides of the hull, in addition to the main purpose, were used when moving the koch by the fiber.

One of the important features of this vessel was its speed. During the day, koch could pass in a wind and in the absence of serious ice obstacles - up to 200 kilometers, that is, its average speed was about 4.5 knots (8.3 km/h), which is a lot for a compact sailing vessel.

Under Peter I, the Kochi almost ceased to exist. During the reform of the fleet on December 28, 1715, the king ordered to abandon the previous principles of shipbuilding and make ships exclusively according to the drawings brought from Europe. Moreover, at first he ordered to completely renew the fleet in just two years, but then he was resigned and allowed to leave the old ships for the time being, but to build only according to new principles. Koch was saved by the fact that the tsar simply could not control most of the Russian North - there people lived according to their own laws and were connected with the capital mainly economically, and not legally. Therefore, both Pomors and Siberians ignored the Peter's decree. Koch was better than European ships for sailing in cold waters.

As Russia moved east, the Kochi began to appear in the Kara Sea, but, in addition, spread to the West - to the Norwegian and Greenland seas. Over time, they began to be equipped with a leather pair themselves to avoid icing, and this allowed the sailors to climb even further north.

The construction of which was usually a family affair, and many details were created for future use. Shipbuilders who had many orders always had a good supply of ready-made bottoms and masts, which made it possible to make ships at very high speed if necessary. The case was profitable, it cost koch expensive, up to 300 rubles (for comparison: a medium-ranking official in Moscow then received about 30 rubles a year). According to approximate estimates, by the end of the 17th century, more than 7,000 kochey were walking in the northern seas at the same time.

An interesting story is connected with the now defunct West Siberian city of Mangazey, founded in 1600 by a royal decree on the site of an spontaneously vased Pomeranian port. From Mangazei, Siberians organized a sea passage through the so-called Yamal Wolf - this route made it possible to get with goods directly to Arkhangelsk or even further and trade with foreigners directly, bypassing the tsarist bureaucracy and taxes. Only koch could pass this way, since the land section of the route for other ships was impassable. Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov in 1619 forbade the use of the Mangazey sea route under penalty of death and established custody in the Yamal volost area, since he had no opportunity to control the Siberians and Pomors. This led to the fact that the inhabitants of Mangazei began to leave the previously prosperous city, and as a result it was abolished by royal decree in 1672.

Koch became the basis of the modern icebreaker, which was first invented and built in 1864 by the Kronstadt shipowner Mikhail Britnev.

Fridtjof Nansen, designing the famous "Fram," a sailing and motor schooner for polar expeditions, studied all types of northern ships and eventually used the koch principle when developing the hull. "Fram" successfully made three expeditions to the North and South Poles under Nansen, Sverdrup, and Amundsen. Today, this ship is on display in a museum specially created for him in Oslo. If you exaggerate a little, then we can say that "Fram" is not a schooner at all, but a modernized Pomeranian koch.

In 1987, in Petrozavodsk, a group of enthusiasts accurately recreated the classic koch, calling it, respectively, "Pomor." Over the next few years, the Pomor was a little like the White and Kara Seas, and then made a famous voyage all the way to Canada through the Chukchi Sea. Today "Pomor" is not in the museum of the club "Polar Odyssey" and, alas, is gradually destroyed. Also, copies of historical cats are stored in the Krasnoyarsk Museum of Local Lore and in the museum of the Druzhba reserve in Yakutia.

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