In November 1897, the government allocates money for the construction of an icebreaker, and a commission headed by Admiral Makarov begins to develop specifications. The commission included D. I. Mendeleev, engineers N. I. Yankovsky and R. I. Runeberg, F. F. Wrangel and others.
The icebreaker was laid down in Newcastle on the stocks of the English company Armstrong Whitworth in December 1897 by order of Russia. It was the first ship of its kind in the world capable of forcing heavy ice two meters thick. "Ermak" was launched a month later than the contract period and, after factory tests, was put into operation.
On February 19, 1899, the commercial flag was hoisted on the ship (“Yermak” was assigned to the Ministry of Finance and military navy did not enter). On February 21, the icebreaker returned to her homeland, solid ice was waiting for her in the Gulf of Finland (that winter, the ice in the bay was unusually heavy, up to a meter thick). On March 1, they reached the ice edge. For some time, the icebreaker moved very easily at a speed of 7 knots, but the ship stopped near Gogland Island: the ice field turned out to be too heavy, it had to be bypassed. On March 4, the ship arrived in Kronstadt. The ship was greeted with special triumph: a confluence of people, a military band, a high reception.
But already on March 9, the icebreaker left for her first task - news came of 11 steamers jammed in the Revel area. The ships were successfully rescued and escorted to the port. On April 4, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the Yermak, having easily broken the Neva ice, stood near the Nikolaevsky bridge in the capital of the empire.
On May 29, 1899, the Yermak again left Newcastle to the north - on its first voyage to the Arctic Ocean. Svalbard was reached, the mechanisms of the machine were tested in the difficult conditions of the Arctic.
The identified shortcomings were eliminated in England within a month (the front screw was removed, the hull was strengthened). On June 14 of the same year, the Yermak again went on a polar voyage. The crew of the ship, headed by S. O. Makarov, carried out a large scientific work for the study northern ice, oceanography, ocean fauna. Once, having stumbled upon hummocks, the ship received a hole, which was repaired, but the ship could no longer continue intensive research and returned to England for repairs.
Icebreaker "Ermak". Nose replacement. England 1900. 
A commission was created to analyze the causes of the incident, the result of which was the decision to operate the icebreaker only in the waters of the Gulf of Finland. Here, in the winter of 1899-1900, Yermak managed to save the cruiser Gromoboy, which ran aground and was covered with ice between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt.
He took an active part in the rescue of the battleship General-Admiral Apraksin, which ran aground near Gogland Island. During this action of "Ermak", for the first time in the world, the invention of the Russian scientist Alexander Popov, the radiotelegraph, was used. Thanks to the connection of the ship's radio station with the coast (Kotka), a group of fishermen carried away on an ice floe was saved.
During Russo-Japanese War"Ermak", having overcome the ice in the port of Libava, led the squadron of Rear Admiral Nebogatov to clean water, opening the way for her to Far East. During the first 12 years of operation, the icebreaker spent more than a thousand days in the ice.
On November 14, 1914, the icebreaker was enrolled in the Baltic Fleet and continued to escort ships and vessels in the Gulf of Finland. When in February 1918 the German troops approached Revel, the icebreaker took all ships capable of moving out of the port and brought them to Helsingfors.
Soon, in the campaign from Helsingfors to Kronstadt, the Yermak, together with other icebreakers, led 211 warships, auxiliary and merchant ships through the Gulf of Finland. The head of the campaign and at the same time the sea of the Baltic Fleet - the caperang Shchastny thereby saved the entire combat core of the Baltic Fleet. For participation in the "ice campaign" "Ermak" was awarded the honorary revolutionary Red Banner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Happy shot.
After that, the icebreaker returned to civilian service and in 1920-1930 provided transportation of goods in the Baltic, the Arctic and the White Sea.
The powerful icebreaker Ermak was built by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co.. according to the project developed by Admiral Makarov, the newspaper writes "The Graphic". In Kronstadt, where the ice begins to form already in late autumn, you can often see crowds of people watching the arrival of the icebreaker, accompanying him on a sleigh, but small Finnish horses can not keep up with Yermak.
Designed by an outstanding Russian scientist and naval commander S. O. Makarova, the icebreaker was laid down in 1897 by order of Russia on the stocks of the English company Armstrong, in October next year launched and in February 1899, heading to Kronstadt, went on its maiden voyage.
It was the first ship of its kind in the world capable of forcing two-meter-thick heavy ice. Steel double-deck single-mast linear icebreaker.
For the first time, Makarov expressed the idea of creating a polar icebreaker to his friend Professor Maritime Academy F. F. Wrangel in 1892, when Nansen was energetically preparing for a historic voyage. As a statesman, Makarov understood that a ship capable of actively working in the ice was a vital necessity for Russia, since the lengthening of the Arctic navigation would immeasurably expand trade opportunities and economic ties of the huge northern power.
As a military leader and naval commander, the admiral was well aware of how important it was for Russia to have a sea route connecting the eastern part of the country with the western one and at the same time completely lying within the territorial waters of the Russian Empire.
Makarov's innovation was reflected not only in the fact that he offered high-quality new type vessel and provided for a steam engine of gigantic power at that time (10,000 horsepower), but also in the fact that, contrary to generally accepted opinion, recognizing only wooden ships suitable for navigation in the Arctic, he insisted on building a steel icebreaker.
At first, Makarov hoped to attract interest of a purely humane nature to his offspring. Nansen goes to the Arctic on an extremely risky journey, how it may end, no one knows; so it is necessary to build an icebreaker so that, if necessary, send it to help an expedition in trouble, and maybe even to search for it. The admiral tried to enlist the support of the Siberian merchants, to seduce them with the opportunity to "open regular (regular. - S. B.) freight voyages with the Yenisei River, forcing cargo ships to follow the icebreaker."
Another important thesis in Makarov's note sent to the Naval Ministry was the idea that the creation of an icebreaker would have a great scientific significance for the study of the seas of the Arctic Ocean.
And finally, he emphasized the important strategic role of the icebreaker:
"I believe that the maintenance of a large icebreaker on the Arctic Ocean may also be of strategic importance, making it possible, if necessary, to move the fleet to Pacific Ocean the shortest and most militarily safe route."
How many ships, how many human lives would have been saved if the Northern Sea Route had been opened and mastered by the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905! There would not have been a bloody Tsushima, there would not have been this terrible and shameful page in the history of the tsarist fleet, if the ships of the Baltic squadron went to the Far East not around the world, but along the northern coast of Russia.
Photo of the painting "Yermak helps a warship stuck in the ice"
Yermak takes part in the rescue of the coastal defense battleship General-Admiral Apraksin near the island of Gogland, 1900.
But the high-ranking tsarist officials could not be convinced by any argument. The resolution of P.P. Tyrtov, head of the maritime ministry, was laconic, but expressive:
"The Russian navy is not at all so rich as to donate them (these ships. - S. B.) for scientists, moreover, problematic tasks."
But Makarov was not the kind of person to immediately back down from his idea. He decided to win support from the scientific community. On March 12, 1897, the admiral gave a lecture at the Academy of Sciences, having previously published the text of the lecture as a separate brochure.
Together with Wrangel, he organizes a public lecture with a catchy, advertising title " Head to the North Pole! The lecture was a huge success and immediately received wide publicity.
And yet, it is unlikely that Makarov would have been able to cope with the tsarist bureaucracy if the remarkable Russian scientist D. I. Mendeleev had not joined the ranks of the icebreaker’s supporters. He warmly supported Makarov's proposal and took on the difficult mission of convincing the Russian rulers of the reality and usefulness of the proposed project. Using great authority in the highest government circles, Mendeleev turned to the all-powerful Russian Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte for help.
"In 1897, namely at the end of this year, the icebreaker Yermak was ordered on my initiative."
from the memoirs of S.Yu. Witte.
And now, in March 1899, the new icebreaker left England and arrived in Kronstadt. Already on the third day of the Yermak's stay in Kronstadt, messages began to arrive from ships jammed in the ice asking for immediate help. And "Ermak" was on top. He easily freed all the ships stuck in the Kronstadt, and then in the Revel ports.
"Here "Ermak" is getting closer and closer. Its movement in the mass of solid ice is amazing. We all knew that the ice in the roadstead reaches 1 1/2 arshins (106 centimeters. - S. B.), and we could not believe our eyes, how the Yermak was going, as if there was no ice. Not the slightest effort is noticeable. "Ermak" went with a dull crack, breaking the ice and knocking it under him thanks to surprisingly well-calculated contours, especially in the nose. It was clearly seen how the stem easily crashed into the ice, after which the mass of ice obediently went under the powerful hull of the ship. There were no cracks around, and the Yermak was moving, tightly pressing its sides against the ice. Thick ice floes sometimes appeared at the very side, but quickly hid under the hull, behind the stern there was a free channel filled with ice, broken into pieces by the powerful propellers of the Yermak. Kronstadt newspaper "Kotlin"
In the first days of April, "Ermak" opened the mouth of the Neva and thus made it possible to start navigation unusually early in the port of St. Petersburg. On April 4, with a huge gathering of people, the icebreaker moored near the Mining Institute.
In 1901, Yermak came under the jurisdiction of the Committee for Port Affairs, subordinated to the Department of Trade and Navigation to work in the Baltic.
1903-1905 - transferred to the Main Directorate of Merchant Shipping and Ports.
In February 1918, the icebreaker withdrew all capable of moving Soviet ships from Tallinn and brought them to Helsingfors, and then ensured the transition from Helsingfors to Kronstadt.
In 1934, Yermak supported the activities of the Karsk and Lena expeditions, and four years later rescued the icebreaking ships Sadko and Malygin from ice captivity, participated in the expedition to evacuate the heroic four of the Papanins from the ice floe. In the late autumn of 1939, the icebreaker crossed the combat zone of the Second World War and, bypassing Scandinavia, crossed from Murmansk to the Baltic. October 4, 1941 "Ermak" was enlisted in the Special Forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The icebreaker took part in the evacuation of the garrison of the Hanko Peninsula and other garrisons, escorted ships to the Gulf of Finland, brought submarines to combat positions, operating under fierce bombing and artillery shelling.
In 1964, Yermak was decommissioned.
M.P. Vasiliev The first commander of Yermak 1898-1901.
Yermak in England, 1901
Sometimes on weekends we publish answers to various quizzes for you in the Q&A format. Our questions range from simple to complex. Quizzes are very interesting and quite popular, but we just help you test your knowledge. And we have another question in the quiz - In which country was the Ermak icebreaker built?
A: Russia
B: Germany
C: Netherlands
D: Great Britain
Correct answer: D: Great Britain
The construction of the icebreaker was carried out in England at the Newcastle shipyard. To be sure of the reliability of his “brainchild” in the conditions of the Arctic, Makarov made a zinc model of the ship on a scale of 1:48 with exactly the same waterproof compartments in the bottom. In experimental conditions, filling one or two compartments with water, Makarov was convinced that the calculations were correct. When, during the first test voyage to the Arctic, the Yermak icebreaker received a serious hole, the admiral was sure that the ship would not lose buoyancy and driving performance.
The firstborn of ships of its class, the Yermak cut ice in the same way as modern icebreakers: it climbed onto the ice field and broke it with its weight. The trim system helped the ship to overcome especially thick ice (designed to free the icebreaker from jamming and give the necessary landing). Two tanks: bow and stern, connected by a pipe. When the icebreaker got stuck, water was pumped into the bow tank from the stern at high speed - this helped to cut the ice.
"Ermak", low-power compared to modern icebreakers, went through three wars - Japanese, First and Second World Wars. After the war he served in the Far North. On March 26, 1949, in connection with the 50th anniversary, the Yermak icebreaker was awarded the Order of Lenin, for military merits during the Great Patriotic War and development of the Northern sea route. Only in 1963 it was decommissioned. On the basis of the world's first Arctic icebreaker, they were going to make a monument-museum, but they failed to defend the famous icebreaker. They let him go to the smelter.
Icebreaker "Ermak"
For the first time, an outstanding figure and innovator thought about the implementation of the idea of creating a powerful icebreaker suitable for research in the Arctic and prolonging navigation in the ports of Russia. Russian fleet Vice Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov. Makarov expressed the idea of creating such a vessel in the winter of 1892 precisely in connection with the problem of reaching the North Pole. The admiral took up the actual implementation of the project five years later. In October-November 1897, a commission was created to develop a specification for the future icebreaker, in which D.I. Mendeleev, as well as a number of engineers and shipbuilders. Soon a competition took place between three firms - Burmeister and Wein (Denmark), Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. (Britain) and Pillau (Germany). The most favorable conditions were offered by Armstrong's firm, so the choice fell on it.
The main technical data of "Ermak": length - 97.5 m, width - 21.64 m, draft - 8.55 m; displacement - 8730 tons; steam engine power - 6950 hp; speed - 14 knots; icebreaking 0.8-1.6 m; crew (in different periods services) 102-150 people.
The construction of the icebreaker proceeded at an accelerated pace, and on February 4, 1899, the ship was presented for surrender, and a month later, Yermak entered the harbor of Kronstadt. The icebreaker calmly overcame ice with a thickness of 0.6-0.9 m. In 1900, Yermak took part in the rescue of the coastal defense battleship General-Admiral Apraksin, which on November 13, 1899, as a result of a navigational error, jumped out onto the shallows south of -east coast of Gogland Island. In April 1900, "Ermak" managed to pull the battleship off the stone ridge and bring it safely to the port.
Soon the first scientific expeditions organized by S.O. Makarov. The first voyage lasted from May 29 to June 14, 1900. A leak was discovered in the hull near the southern tip of Spitsbergen, and the icebreaker had to return back to Newcastle for repairs. But the damage to the hull was minor and, in general, the expedition turned out to be quite effective. The second voyage began on July 14 and ended on August 16 of the same year. His route also passed in the Svalbard region. Another campaign took place from May 16 to September 1, 1901. The ice in the northern part of Novaya Zemlya turned out to be impassable for Yermak. Nevertheless, it was possible to achieve considerable success - to perform two flights to Franz Josef Land, to map Novaya Zemlya from Dry Nose to the Admiralty Peninsula, to collect a large number of materials on glaciology, deep-sea and magnetic research.
But this voyage put an end to the polar expeditions of Yermak for 33 years. In October, the icebreaker was transferred to the Committee for Port Affairs and was engaged in servicing the commercial ports of the Baltic. During the first ten years of work in the Baltic, Yermak spent over 618 ships in the ice.
In February 1918, in connection with the approach to Revel German troops the evacuation of the ships of the Baltic Fleet began. This operation was successful thanks to Yermak. During the "Ice Campaign" from Helsingfors to Kronstadt, which lasted from March 12 to April 22, 236 ships and vessels were withdrawn, including six battleships and five cruisers.
Until 1934, the icebreaker provided navigation in the ice of the Baltic, and that year, for the first time after 1901, went on the assault arctic ice. For the next five years, the work of the icebreaker was built according to the following scheme: during the year he worked in the Arctic, and at the end of navigation he returned to Leningrad and was engaged in escorting ships in the Baltic.
"Ermak"
In 1938, the icebreaker took part in the evacuation of polar explorers from the North Pole-1 station. The winterers rescued by the Taimyr icebreaker (I.D. Papanin, P.P. Shirshov, E.T. Krenkel and E.K. Fedorov) crossed to the Ermak and the equipment of the station was overloaded. In December 1939, having made the transition through the war zone, the icebreaker moved from Murmansk to Liepaja, and then to Leningrad. In the Baltic he had to work and fight until 1947.
When November 30, 1939 began Soviet-Finnish War, "Ermak" continued to release from the ice both merchant ships and warships. Anti-aircraft weapons were installed on the icebreaker, and not in vain: air attacks the enemy had to be repulsed repeatedly.
The Yermak met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War while being under repair in the Leningrad port. On June 27, 1941, the icebreaker was handed over to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, along with the crew and all property. Artillery weapons were again installed on the icebreaker. In November, he was sent to provide ice escort for ships between Leningrad and Kronstadt. During November and December, "Ermak" made 16 trips, each of which was associated with considerable danger (for example, on December 8, in the Peterhof area, the icebreaker hit a mine, received significant damage, but remained in service). In total, during the first military navigation, Yermak escorted 89 ships. But starting in January 1942, due to the lack of coal, he stood motionless for almost two and a half years. The operation of the icebreaker became possible only in 1944, after the blockade of Leningrad was lifted. November 6, 1944 "Ermak" was demobilized from the fleet. The crew returned to the icebreaker (most of which went to fight on the land front) and in December its 46th ice navigation began.
In August 1946, thanks to the Yermak, it was possible to save the floating dock, which was thrown out while being towed onto stones eight miles from the Swedish port of Gothenburg. The dock was pulled off the rocks and towed to the port of destination Bergen. In 1947, Yermak, for the first time after the war, went to the Arctic, where, together with the icebreaker Severny Pole, he was engaged in escorting caravans in the Kara Sea. In 1948-1950. The icebreaker was being repaired in the port of Antwerp.
July 28, 1950 "Ermak" returned to Murmansk. Now it was assigned to the Murmansk Commercial Port and was administered by the Arkhangelsk (since 1953 - Murmansk) Arctic Sea Shipping Company. In 1953-1954. the icebreaker was equipped with the latest radio equipment, a radar, a radio direction finder. At the same time, one of the first samples of the Mi-1 helicopter was tested on it. In 1954-1955. "Ermak" was the flagship of the icebreaker fleet in the western sector of the Arctic, where it remained the only linear icebreaker at that time. During his work in the Arctic, he happened to perform a variety of tasks: escorting and freeing ships in distress, jammed with ice, helping geological parties cut off from the mainland.
By the beginning of the 1960s. it became clear that due to the significant age of the ship, as well as the commissioning of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin" and new diesel-electric icebreakers, the further operation of the "Ermak" becomes unprofitable. At the end of 1962, he made his last voyage to the Arctic, from which he returned to Murmansk, accompanied by the Lenin nuclear-powered icebreaker. "Yermak" was prepared for a solemn meeting: he passed along the line of warships, which greeted him with crossed beams of searchlights.
The government and the Ministry of the Navy received numerous letters from sailors and polar explorers with proposals to turn the Yermak into a memorial ship. I.D. took an active part in this. Papanin. The discussion also unfolded on the pages of various newspapers, including Pravda. Finally, on December 12, 1963, an order was signed by the Minister of the Navy on the gratuitous transfer of the Ermak to the Murmansk Higher Naval School. But this decision was opposed by officials from the Ministry of Marine Fleet, headed by Deputy Minister A.S. Kolesnichenko (it was he who spoke in one of the newspaper discussions with the words that "... there are no special merits behind the ship"). Kolesnichenko reached the highest authorities, up to N.S. Khrushchev and, unfortunately, achieved his goal: on May 23, 1964, the order of the Minister of the Navy No. 107 followed to decommission the Yermak and cancel the previous order. For the cutting of the vessel, Vtorchermet requested approximately twice the amount that was required for the repair and installation of the icebreaker in the eternal parking lot ...
So the veteran of the Arctic ended his life absurdly. The memory of him remained in the exposition of museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Odessa, where some relics from the Yermak were transferred. And in honor of "Yermak" ten different geographical points in the Arctic and Antarctic are named. In 1976, the Finnish-built diesel-electric icebreaker Ermak was commissioned.
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On March 4, 1899, thousands of astonished people walked along the Kronstadt pier. Despite a meter layer of ice, the town approached huge ship under the name "Ermak". For the inhabitants of the island of Kotlin, the ice plowman was not a miracle - after all, the world's first icebreaker "Pilot" 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 the icebreaker in Kronstadt in early March caused genuine surprise among the townspeople - it was the finest hour of Admiral Makarov. He got his way.
Just two years ago, in a memorandum to the head of the Naval Ministry, Stepan Makarov proposed the creation of a powerful icebreaker for navigation in Arctic waters. But his application was rejected. The admiral did not accept this. What he did today would 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 all of St. Petersburg heard about his idea.
Among others, Dmitry Mendeleev became interested in the idea of \u200b\u200bbuilding an icebreaker: the outstanding chemist subsequently participated in the development of the machine together with the admiral. Finance Minister Witte became a key figure in the project. Makarov and Mendeleev convinced him that the project would pay for itself. In November 1897, Witte introduced the tsar to the project and received his approval. Just a year later, the construction of the icebreaker was completed at the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard in Newcastle.
An interesting detail: during the construction of the ship, Makarov was worried that when sailing in the ice, the icebreaker would get holes and sink. So he made a 1:48 scale zinc ship model with exactly the same waterproof compartments in the bottom. All compartments had openings closed with stoppers. In the course of experiments in the bath, filling 1-2 compartments 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 safe.
The icebreaker, which cost the empire 1.5 million rubles, paid for itself almost instantly. In the winter of 1899, during a snowstorm, the newest battleship General-Admiral Apraksin ran aground near Gogland Island. If not for the Yermak, the ship worth 4.5 million rubles would have received significant damage. Later, the icebreaker will repeatedly save a wide variety of ships.
Many people were associated with the Ermak icebreaker famous people that time. Among them is Alexander Popov. His first radiogram was sent to the commander of the Yermak during the rescue of the battleship off the island of Gogland. Popov was sincerely glad: his invention helped to save human lives.
But luck did not always accompany the Makarov icebreaker. The admiral hoped to reach the North Pole on the Yermak. The same wished him Dmitry Mendeleev. When the icebreaker first came to St. Petersburg, the chemist wrote to the sailor: “The ice that blocks St. Petersburg, you won, congratulations. I look forward to the same success polar ice". It was not possible to repeat the success. No matter how hard Makarov tried, his ship was not powerful enough to overcome the ice of the high latitudes of the Arctic. The limit for the icebreaker was 81 degrees 28 minutes north latitude. Admiral's ill-wishers gloated.
But what is surprising: Yermak, low-powered compared to modern icebreakers, went through three wars - the Japanese, First and Second World Wars - and served in the Far North for more than 60 years! Only in 1963 it was decommissioned. On the basis of the world's first Arctic icebreaker, they were going to make a monument-museum, but the enthusiasts failed to defend the car. The famous icebreaker was allowed to be melted down.
Fortunately, artifacts from Yermak have been preserved in the country's museums. A monument to the icebreaker has been erected in Murmansk, built around its original three-ton anchor. In St. Petersburg, the ship's steering wheel is stored in the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, and many items from the Ermak's wardroom are kept in the Moscow Museum of the Navy. Things continue to keep the spirit of one of the most grandiose machines of its time.
We thank the Museum of the Navy (Moscow) and the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic (St. Petersburg) for their help in preparing the material