Continuing the theme of old wheeled ships, I want to show you another ship I found. It would be more accurate to say that it was not found by me, but rather discovered for myself, and now for you, if you have not seen it yet. The first time I noticed it was last year, when on a sunny February day we made an outing to the village of Rozhdestveno. That time we did not approach and examine it, and the purpose of the walk was rather to see the village. But the ship has sunk into our souls since then, and now, a year later, the Volga ice is under our feet again, and driven by the wind we are again walking along the Volga towards the old paddle steamer, which is like a magnet attracting.
In general, walks on the Volga ice always give a lot of impressions. On a sunny weekend there are a lot of people walking here, and this is not surprising. After all, from here an excellent panoramic view of the city opens up, here you can catch your breath from the city smog, and standing somewhere in the middle, it’s worth imagining that such a colossal mass of water is moving under this 35-centimeter crust, and either from the realization of this, or from the freezing wind that has rushed across a cold chill runs through the body. But during these walks you seem to be charged with some kind of energy, as if drawing it from a river.
So admiring the winter landscapes, we passed through the Volga and the island. Here, on the banks of the Volozhka, 3.5 kilometers from Samara, on the territory of the tourist center, is the same old steamship that was the goal of our walk.
This ship is located on the territory of the TTU tourist center; a watchman’s house has been built on the deck, which is why it has not yet been sawed up and demolished to a scrap metal collection point. Several bridges lead to the ship; apparently, it is used for economic purposes.
An old steam tug, the brainchild of the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. In the early 30s of the last century, this plant produced a series of tugs with a capacity of 1,200 horsepower. At that time these were the most powerful serial tugs on the Volga. The first series of such tugs were: “Red Miner”, “Industrialization” and “Collectivization”. They were intended for driving oil barges with a carrying capacity of 8 and 12 thousand tons along the Volga. Only the “Stepan Razin”, the former “Rededya, Prince of Kosogsky”, which was built before the revolution in 1889 and had a power of 1600 horsepower, surpassed them in power. These tugs ran on fuel oil, were equipped with an inclined steam engine with two boilers and superheaters, the total heating surface of the boilers was 400 m2. The use of superheated steam made it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the steam plant. A steam installation with three-stage water heating, that is, water was supplied to the boilers through heaters that received heat from already exhausted steam. The ship had an electric lighting network, the electricity for which was generated by a 14 kW steam dynamo, providing a direct current of 115 V. To lift anchors from the ground, the ships were equipped with a steam windlass at the bow of the ship and a stern capstan. In addition, they had a horizontal steering machine. For the first time in the river fleet, a steam towing winch was installed, on the drum of which almost half a kilometer of strong steel cable was laid. The machine and boilers, like all the ship's equipment, were designed and manufactured at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant.
The hull of the ships of the first series was riveted and was divided by nine bulkheads into ten compartments: in the first, bow compartment there is a pantry and a box with anchor chains; in the second there are cabins for sailors; the third is a rubber dam, which serves to prevent the penetration of gases from the fuel compartment; in the fourth there is a tank with fuel oil; the fifth was the engine room; in the sixth boiler room; in the seventh there is an aft fuel tank, then again a cofferdam, behind which are the cabins of oilers and stokers, and the aft compartment, where the stern anchor chains and machine parts were located. In the casing rooms, which are located on the outskirts next to the paddle wheel arch, there are cabins: two pilots, a driver and two assistants, a spare cabin, a red corner, a dining room, a laundry room, and a bathroom. The kitchen and dryer are placed in front of the boiler casing.
The forward deck house houses the cabins of the commander, his assistant, one pilot, and one radio control room. On the left side you can see inscriptions on the doors of the captain and the radio room.
The paddle wheels have been dismantled, so I’ll just show their diagram. The wheels had a diameter of 4.8 meters; each wheel had 8 metal plates - blades. To reduce energy losses when the plates enter and exit the water, they are made rotary, due to a hinged connection with an eccentric mechanism that regulates the position of the plates when the wheel is turned.
This wheel design has greater efficiency, ensuring that the blades enter the water at large angles of attack. The performance qualities of the new tugboats were significantly higher than those of pre-revolutionary vessels of similar power.
But along with all these technical advantages, the new tug had a number of significant shortcomings, which were identified after the “Red Shakhtar” tug was put into operation. Then the customer, which was the People's Commissariat of Water Transport, made claims against the plant. For example, when moving with a load, the ship did not obey the rudder well. It was found that the poor handling and longitudinal instability of the vessel was a consequence of an incorrectly designed hull, it was too narrow, the towing hook was too high, and the wheels were too offset towards the bow of the vessel. On the tugboats of the next series, these defects were eliminated, but on the already released ships “Industrialization” and “Collectivization” the changes were partially affected and the shortcomings regarding the hull design remained.
By 1936, the plant built a series of tugs of the Tsiolkovsky type according to the same project, with some changes relating, in particular, to the hull of the vessel.
Drawing by Mikhail Petrovsky taken from the website of the magazine Tekhnika Molodezhi
An interesting article about them was published in the 8th issue of the magazine Tekhnika Molodezhi for 1982, from where I learned a lot of useful information about the ship.
Through the snowdrifts, having filled my boots with a fair amount of snow, I walked close to the ship. Here there is no snow at all under the rampart, and the height of the side allows you to move freely without touching your head on the support brackets, of which there are many. The arch of the paddle wheel is closed; instead of a shaft, a channel is installed, which serves as a support for the decking, which just covers it. But you can carefully examine the structure of the body.
This design of the body kit, namely support on triangular brackets resting on the hull, was used on the first three ships: “Red Miner”, “Industrialization” and “Collectivization” and created some problems. The fact is that the water thrown by the wheel hit the brackets, thereby creating additional resistance to movement. On the vessels of the next series, the design of the outrigger supports was changed. The brackets began to be made in the form of beams suspended from vertical posts installed on the deck, and the ship's hull was made entirely welded; these changes made it possible to reduce the water resistance experienced when the ship moves.
This means that this tug is one of the first trinity of 1200 strong.
Having examined the hull, it turned out that it was welded, but with noticeable traces of alteration; the portholes were previously located lower on board; you can see their welded openings and were moved higher relative to the waterline.
It should be noted that the 30s were restoration years for shipbuilding, the industry lacked qualified personnel, and there were no research developments. On the river, pre-revolutionary vessels were mainly used; they were often converted for new tasks.
In terms of overall hull dimensions, the steamer is also very similar to the first series of tugs. Thus, the lead steamship of the first series, “Red Shakhtar,” had dimensions of 65 x 9.8 x 3.2 m, which coincides with the dimensions of our oil tanker, the dimensions of which were measured, very approximately, on a map. However, they are the same. By the way, the width is given without taking into account the run-ins, along the waterline.
I went up to the deck, but did not approach the guardhouse, somehow I didn’t want to get caught by the watchman, I don’t think that my interest in the ship would have aroused his approval. Perhaps there are storage facilities here, and here I am without an invitation. Although I really wanted to see it, I didn’t get impudent; maybe I’ll come back here in the summer, when the tourist center is open and I can pass for a vacationer.
I walked around the ship, and the markings of the ship's draft scale were still visible on the rusting hull.
Looking through the forums of lovers of such river antiquities, I often came across the opinion that this is the tugboat “Industrialization”; there are very strong similarities with the surviving photographs of it, and the dimensions, the design of the outrigger supports, the number of windows on the deck superstructure - all this only confirms that this is definitely one of the first 1200 strong Sormovo paddle steamers.
One fact confused me. On the arch of the left paddle wheel, the one located on the side of the camp site, the numbers “1918” and the letters at the top of the arc, either “rn” or “ra”, are barely visible. Paint stains, its layers showing through one another and the ongoing corrosion make it difficult to make out the full name of the ship. I tried to search for ships with a combination of these letters and numbers on the Internet, unfortunately, the search did not give any results.
Perhaps it was renamed, but this is only an assumption, because I have never seen any mention of the renaming of tugboats from the first three, except for the first-born. Only “Red Shakhtar” was renamed “Georgiy Dimitrov”.
A porthole was open next to the propeller shaft axis support. With the hope of seeing at least some preserved part of the steam engine, I looked inside. Pitch darkness, only the luminous circles of portholes on the opposite side were visible, through which light passed and immediately dissolved in the darkness. Having raised the iso fairly high, I stuck my hand with the camera inside and took a few shots.
If you look closely, you will notice that the connection of the structural elements inside the body remains riveted.
Then I turned on the flash and clicked a few more times. There was a noise somewhere nearby. I listened, everything became quiet. But he didn’t put the camera in the porthole anymore. Walking along the hull of the ship, I again heard a creak coming from inside. Yeah, that means I didn’t go unnoticed and attracted someone’s attention. However, no one came out. Oh well, hopefully I'll be back next time the snow melts.
As he was leaving, he looked back to take another look at this river rarity, worthy of becoming a museum exhibit of the river fleet.
About the museum. Right away. Why put it off?
The museum does not have a separate building. It is located under the very roof of the beautiful house of the Amur Shipping Company. This is not to say that the exhibition is overly rich and meaningful ( I always want more), but there is something to see. By the way, it’s tempting to combine this museum with the shipping department in the Blagoveshchensk Museum of Local Lore, but for now this is only possible in dreams. Well, on the Internet, of course ( I promise to post some photos from there, from those that I didn’t show).
Let me pass by the story about the history of the development of the Amur lands. This matter is long, branched and not always clear. Therefore, I will just go through the museum’s exhibits, occasionally inserting comments.
Let's start with a miracle. "Drawing of the land of the Nerchinsk city", 1701. Original? A copy?.. In higher resolution - .
The pioneering theme is completed by a wall with a map and portraits of you-know-who.
A short excursion. I quote. “The first steamships on the Amur were state-owned. In 1855, the 2nd state-owned steamship Nadezhda sailed up the Amur from the sea. Two years later there were five of them. The main point for the construction of wooden ships was Blagoveshchensk, steel steamships and barges were supplied by the factories of John Cockerill ( Belgium), a mechanical engineering company in Helsingfors (Finland) and Alain McLellan's plant (England).Ships and barges from abroad were delivered to the Amur by sea and assembled locally in Sofiysk and MAGO.
In 1860, the first trading and shipping enterprise on the Amur, the Amur Company, was created.
In 1872, the Amur Shipping Company Partnership was established. In 1892, it was absorbed by the more powerful Amur Society of Shipping and Trade (PAROTOR), which existed until the nationalization of the fleet and played a major role in the further development of shipping on the Amur.
The entire Amur fleet until 1918 consisted of 208 steamships and 296 barges with a capacity of 40,146 indicator forces with a total carrying capacity of 8,084,645 pounds.
Personnel for river transport were supplied by the Blagoveshchensk Special River School, opened on December 15, 1899. The first head of the school was Captain 2nd Rank Petrushevsky, the author of the first textbook on shipboard practice.
The earnings of ship employees on the Amur were very high compared to European Russia. On average they received: commander - 184.4 rubles, driver - 144.8 rubles, pilot - 137 rubles, fireman - 41.3 rubles, cook - 59.3 rubles, sailor - 30.2 rubles."
So that. It remains to find out who these “indicating forces” are.
Under the banner there is a table on which a retired typewriter resides ( O! This is exactly what I learned to type on!) and telegraph apparatus ST-2M. I quote: “This device, manufactured in 1961, worked on radio communication channels Khabarovsk-Moscow, Khabarovsk-Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk-Svobodny.”
In the corner of the hall is a beautiful semicircular panorama of Nikolaevsk, with the Amur, ships and the Columbus model.
If it works, I’ll glue together a full-fledged version.
20th century, beginning. The pre-revolutionary and early Soviet stages are represented mainly by photographs.
"... The leader of the Bolsheviks in the Amur region was a former mechanic and worker at ship repair shops, Fyodor Nikanorovich Mukhin.
After Lenin's decree on nationalization, in the spring of 1918, the nationalization of the fleet was carried out in Blagoveshchensk. Captain Afanasy Karpenko was elected the first commissioner of water transport. The people's shipping enterprise was given the name "Amur National Fleet". On May 10, 1918, the Amur National Fleet included 255 ships and 5 dredgers. To manage the nationalized fleet, an executive board of 21 people was created, headed by A.N. Karpenko...
During the Japanese occupation of the Amur, the Amur fleet suffered heavy damage. Thus, a significant part of the fleet was hijacked abroad, including such large ships as "V. Alekseev", "S. Dezhnev", "Nerchugan", "Neronov", "Nevelskoy", "Amgun", "Mercury", "Ivan Oparin" and others, in total more than four dozen different ships. The other part was sunk and burned: the steamships “Telegraph”, “Sage”, “Zheltuga”, “Lux”, “Kanavino” and others.
Be sure to read the photo captions. Below, for example, is a photograph of a steamship that previously flashed in the panorama of Nikolaevsk.
A little about people.
What men!
I also found an album there. Tourist. Those. filmed by tourists who were riding on the ship "Miklouho-Maclay". I don’t know yet what the trip was like, but it took several days ( or even weeks), provided for parking in all sorts of beautiful places ( not only in populated areas), holding the Neptune holiday and other water-water joys.
And this is called "green parking". As I understand it, green - because in “green”, i.e. without any piers, just near the shore.
The oak trees there are beautiful.
Well, this is our dear Khabarovsk. The year is not identified. I hope it's spring.
There are tons of models in the museum. All sorts of different ones. At one time it was very popular to be known as a ship model maker. And to be known, and to be. Apparently, at that wonderful time, the museum stocked itself with all sorts of different models. For example, a Belgian ship called "Worker". Initially, of course, it was not a worker at all, but the Khabarovsk, but in 1930 the ship was renamed. It was built in 1897 in Belgium by the John Cockerill company. Power - 1000 hp, which at that time caused awe, delight and numbness. Almost 40 years later, the Astrakhan steamship was built in Russia using the same type; it turned out to be only 200 hp. The maximum that Russian industrialists reached in this type of ship is 400 hp.
P.S.: The curator of the museum is Anatoly Grigorievich Merezhko, military historian, member of the Khabarovsk Regional Council of Veterans. He said one interesting thing. That, they say, it’s not the right thing to change the names of ships. And if they change the name, then this dooms the ship to sorrow...
P.P.S.: I have no idea how to get to the museum :) I suppose you can call the shipping company and make an agreement.
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How a merchant's will and new technologies brought the Amur waves back to Russia
Tale of Cupid, part three
The fate of the great Far Eastern river was determined by the two Nicholas, who met on the other side of the continent on April 22, 1853. Russian Tsar Nicholas I and Nikolai Muravyov, Governor General of Eastern Siberia, discussed the future of the Amur in the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg, looking at the first maps of the Far Eastern lands that had just been drawn up.
Inviting the Tsar to make a trial voyage throughout the Amur, from its source to its mouth, Nikolai Muravyov was waiting for a messenger from Transbaikalia. There, five thousand miles east of St. Petersburg, near the Cossack village of Sretenskaya on the banks of one of the Amur sources - the Shilka River - the construction of the first steamship in the Far East was underway.
It was not for nothing that Governor-General Muravyov would add the honorary prefix “Amursky” to his surname in a few years - he understood that the first steamship to pass the waters of the Amur from its source to its mouth would forever decide the fate of the great river and its banks. Russian people have not sailed here since the time of Erofei Khabarov, because for more than a century and a half the Amur waters were the territory of the Chinese Qing Empire, which closed the path to our ships
Steamboat by will
The Amur is one of the ten largest rivers on Earth - almost four and a half thousand kilometers, if you count from the mouth to the sources of the Argun River, which, merging with the Shilka River, forms the Amur channel. The Shilka flows through our Transbaikalia, while the Argun has been the border between Russia and China since the end of the 17th century. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the first two Russian steamships built for sailing along the Amur will receive the names of the origins that formed it - “Argun” and “Shilka”.
Governor General Nikolai Muravyov began preparing the construction of these ships back in 1850. Unlike previous rowing ships, it was the steamships that were supposed to ensure reliable navigation along the Amur. They had to sail barges with troops and supplies along the river in order to create fortified posts at the Amur estuary and transfer reinforcements to Kamchatka. After all, at that time it was the Amur that was the most convenient “road” from Siberia to the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
The alternative routes that existed were extremely complex. Previously, goods and people were transported to the Far Eastern shores of Russia either by sea ships from St. Petersburg across three oceans, circumnavigating the greater half of the globe, or through the taiga along the most difficult “tract” from Yakutsk to. And only the first steamships on the Amur opened up a wide road to the East for Russia.
But the good intentions of Governor General Muravyov immediately ran into the usual obstacle - a banal lack of money. The highest bureaucracy in St. Petersburg did not approve of Muravyov's Far Eastern initiatives. Contrary to the opinion of the Tsar himself, the ministers of the Russian Empire were afraid to quarrel with greater China for the sake of distant and wild lands on the Amur, considering their development to be a vain and risky waste of public funds.
Muravyov's idea for the first steamships for the Far East was saved by chance. In the fall of 1850, the richest merchant Evfimy Andreevich Kuznetsov, one of the first millionaires in Siberia, died in Irkutsk. He made a huge capital from the vodka trade and gold mines, and became famous for his extraordinary luck and exorbitant spending, scattering entire fortunes on his whims.
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Merchant Kuznetsov and Governor Muravyov knew each other personally - the center of the East Siberian General Government (which included the lands of Transbaikalia, Yakutia and the Russian shores of the Sea of Okhotsk along with Kamchatka) was located in Irkutsk. The Irkutsk businessman knew well about Muravyov’s Amur plans and before his death, having no direct heirs, he bequeathed part of his wealth - 100 thousand silver rubles - to the construction of the first steamships for the Amur.
But ships with new mechanisms, most complex for the mid-19th century, had yet to be built. The nearest plant where steam engines were then created was located in the Urals in Yekaterinburg - more than three and a half thousand versts separated it from Transbaikalia. Prices for steam engines were extremely high. There is no railway through all of Siberia yet, so the delivery of heavy steam engines from the Urals beyond Baikal, to the source of the Amur, also became a problem.
The state-owned Yekaterinburg Mechanical Plant at that time was fully loaded with the construction of mechanisms and engines for military ships of the Caspian Flotilla. Therefore, we had to turn to Ural private industrialists, who estimated the cost of two steam engines with their delivery to the banks of the Shilka River at 81 thousand silver rubles. As Governor Muravyov wrote to St. Petersburg, with such a purchase from the will of the merchant Kuznetsov, “the money is very insignificant and insufficient for the construction of two steamship vessels with equipment.”
To avoid unnecessary expenses, Muravyov decided to buy not the machines themselves, but, as they said then, a “machine plant” - the equipment necessary for their production. The purchase agreement was signed on January 2, 1851, the archives have completely preserved its data for us, down to the kopecks. Everything we needed was purchased for 26,899 rubles 10 kopecks from the Melkovsky mechanical factory in Yekaterinburg, which still operates today, having become the huge Uraltransmash plant. Three and a half thousand miles of transportation of what was purchased on sleighs and carts from the Urals to the village of Sretenskaya (now the city of Sretensk) in the Trans-Baikal Territory cost another 15,692 rubles 77 kopecks.
In total, it was possible to save 57,408 rubles 13 kopecks for the creation of the first shipbuilding production east of Baikal.
“And the Amur region opened up...”
The metal necessary for the construction of steamships was purchased at the Petrovsky Iron Foundry, 400 versts southwest of Chita. The quality of the iron produced there was worse than that of the Urals, but it could be delivered cheaper and faster to the site where steamships were built. The manager of the Petrovsky plant, mining engineer Oskar Deichman, born in Siberia, also became responsible for assembling the engines of future steamships.
The shipyard for their construction was equipped 80 versts downstream from Sretensk, where the Chalbucha River flows into Shilka. An abandoned silver smelter at the mouth of Chalbucha became the base for the creators of the first Amur steamships.
The general management of the construction and preparation of the ships for sailing was entrusted to Pyotr Vasilyevich Kazakevich, an experienced naval sailor with the rank of captain of the 2nd rank. In the near future, it was Captain Kazakevich who would make a huge contribution to the development of the Amur region - it is not for nothing that on the modern map of Russia a bay and strait in the Sea of Japan, a cape on the Okhotsk coast and one of the Amur channels in the Khabarovsk region are named after him.
The construction of the first steamships in the sparsely populated Transbaikalia faced enormous difficulties. Although two ships were laid down on the shore of Shilka at once, they had to be built one by one - there was not enough strength or specialists for simultaneous work. The second steamship could be built only a year after the first, and even a hundred convicts from the Carian gold mines were recruited as workers.
The drawings of the steamships were prepared by the “titular adviser” and naval engineer Mikhail Gavrilovich Sharubin, who also supervised the assembly of the hull of the first steamship. It is curious that a decade and a half later, when Sharubin is buried on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, his grave will be decorated with a tombstone epitaph telling specifically about the distant Amur:
Carried from end to end by fate,
You left your native shore
And the vast ocean
More than once I swam across as a joke -
And the Amur region opened up...
The first steamships for the Far East became the main thing in the life of the “titular adviser”; at the end of March 1852, he informed Governor Muravyov: “The work on building the ship’s hull has been completed.”
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A week later, a government dispatch came from St. Petersburg: “The Emperor has deigned to give the highest order that the steamship designed for navigation on the Shilka River be named Argun.” The still unfinished steamship was officially included in the list of ships of the military fleet of the Russian Empire.
The hull of the Argun steamship, built entirely of iron, was just over 26 meters in length. Since the ship had to sail along the shallow sources and tributaries of the Amur, its bottom was built almost flat, with a draft of less than half a meter without cargo. But the body was the simplest task - the creation of mechanisms and a steam engine at the Petrovsky Iron Foundry took a lot of time and was completed only in April of the following 1853. It took another six months to transport the disassembled engine and mechanisms on horse-drawn carts - after all, the Petrovsky Plant was separated from the shipyard on the Shilka River by almost 700 miles.
The steamship "Argun" became not only the first-born on the Amur - it turned out to be the first steamship in Russia entirely built from domestic materials without the involvement of foreign specialists. History has preserved for us the names of the workers who were involved in the installation of its engine, steam boilers and paddle wheels - mechanics Belokrylov and Baksheev who came from the Petrovsky plant, mechanics Pavlov and Dedulin. They completed their difficult work in the spring of 1854.
The first steamship on the Amur was precisely a wheeled one - a more advanced propeller, which first appeared only 14 years ago, had not yet reached the eastern outskirts of Siberia. Therefore, the “steamboat” created here had a four-meter paddle wheel on each side. One chimney and two wooden masts with yards rose above the deck - they had to be equipped with sails, because the steam engine, first built east of Lake Baikal, had a power of only 60 horsepower and allowed the ship to develop a very low speed, less than 7 knots (about 13 km /h).
But for contemporaries on the eastern outskirts of Siberia, the first steamship seemed the height of perfection. As one of the eyewitnesses recalled about the internal arrangement of the new ship: “The cabins were all good, but the captain’s in particular. A large hall with a bright hatch, a bedroom, a buffet and a good closet...”
The Arguni crew consisted of sailors of the 47th naval crew; all military sailors who served in Kamchatka and the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk belonged to this military unit. But the Far Eastern sailors did not yet have experience in servicing the new steam equipment, so civilians, craftsmen who had previously participated in installing the engine on the ship, were included in the team as “drivers.”
The captain of the Arguni was 28-year-old Alexander Stepanovich Sgibnev, a hereditary military sailor born in Kronstadt. Since the summer of 1851, he had been researching the bed of the Shilka River “with the aim of establishing navigation on it,” and then built wooden barges and rowing ships, which were supposed to go along the Amur after the first steamship.
“So that it doesn’t smell like gunpowder...”
A whole caravan of ships was to set off on an unprecedented voyage from the source to the mouth of the Amur. All winter, the soldiers of the “linear” (that is, border) battalions located in Transbaikalia harvested timber. In the spring, construction of barges and huge rafts began on the banks of the Shilka and its tributaries. All the ships had to be completed by May, and as warrant officer Alexey Baranov recalled: “The work was carried out hastily, they started at dawn and finished at dark, they worked 15-18 hours a day. This lasted from the end of March until the last days of April..."
The preparation of the “Amur rafting,” as the voyages to the mouth of the Amur were then called, was accelerated by big politics. Since 1853, Russia has been at war with Turkey, on whose side were England and France. By the beginning of the next 1854, it became clear that an armed clash with the Anglo-French coalition was inevitable. This immediately turned the regional conflict with Turkey into a war along all the borders of the Russian Empire. After all, England and France then had the most powerful navies, capable of striking our country not only in the west, off the coast of the Black, Baltic and White Seas, but also in the Far East.
Russia at that time had practically no troops east of Lake Baikal - in the vast area from Alaska and Kamchatka to Okhotsk there were only a few hundred soldiers and sailors. The largest was the garrison of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, but its 125 soldiers, including clerks and orderlies, were unlikely to be able to protect our shores in the event of the appearance of the Anglo-French fleet.
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There was an urgent need to transfer reinforcements to the Far East. The sea route from Kronstadt around the globe, past Western Europe, Africa, India, China and Japan was impossible - British ships dominated the world's oceans. The soldiers could still hardly walk along the taiga trail of the inconvenient “tract” from Yakutsk to the port of Okhotsk. But it was completely impossible to transport heavy guns and numerous supplies this way.
And only the deep Amur flowing from west to east, the banks of which were still considered Chinese, opened up a reliable route for the transfer of reserves and cargo to the Far Eastern possessions of Russia. The final decision to follow this “road” was made in January 1854 at a new meeting between Tsar Nicholas I and Governor General Nikolai Muravyov. In the context of the beginning of the war with England and France, it was decided to “sail the Amur” without waiting for permission from the Chinese authorities. The Russian emperor set Muravyov only one condition: “So that there is no smell of gunpowder…”
Apparently then Nikolai Muravyov realized that he would have to sail with the troops along the Amur in person. Ships with soldiers and cargo had to be carried through formally still foreign territory, but at the same time avoid any clash or conflict with the Chinese. In March 1854, Great Britain and France declared war on our country, their powerful fleets were preparing to attack - there was no choice, reinforcements for the Far East had to be delivered by the summer.
"Amur alloy"
The war became the reason for almost round-the-clock work on the banks of the Shilka. By May 1854, in addition to the first steamship, a whole caravan of river vessels was ready - 76 wooden barges, longboats and huge rafts. They had to take a combined detachment of soldiers from the Siberian “line battalions” and Transbaikal Cossacks to the mouth of the Amur. 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Semenovich Korsakov, who had previously visited Kamchatka and the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk more than once, was appointed commander of the detachment. Setting out on this journey to new unexplored lands, the young lieutenant colonel could not know that in the future grateful descendants would name a city on Sakhalin and several villages on the banks of the Amur in his honor.
On May 19, 1854, having traveled all of Siberia from west to east, Governor General Muravyov arrived at the Shilkinsky plant, where all the troops and ready-made ships had already gathered. The past winter was harsh, Shilka was frozen through and only by this time the last ice floes on the river had disappeared. Muravyov immediately ordered testing of the ship.
On May 25, the first Far Eastern steamship descended several miles down the Shilka. The governor arranged his return solemnly - soldiers in full dress uniform lined up on the river bank. As an eyewitness to those events, Cossack centurion Gabriel Skobeltsyn, recalled: “General Muravyov gave the order when the steamer returned to be met with cannon and rifle salvoes from the shores. Unfortunately, the celebration was completely unsuccessful. The steamboat did not have the strength to rise against the current, and had to be dragged with a towline ... "
The soldiers believed that the problems arose due to an unsuccessful test day - on the calendar then it was May 13, old style. In reality, inexperienced stokers and a weak steam engine did not allow the ship to sail against the strong current of the flooded spring Shilka. The first pancake came out lumpy, and the soldiers had to return the ship to the parking lot in the role of barge haulers. But there was no time to postpone the trip to improve the steam engine. The next day, Governor General Muravyov scheduled the departure of the caravan.
The beginning of the campaign was marked with a prayer service in front of an ancient icon of the Mother of God specially brought from Nerchinsk, which, according to legend, was rescued from Albazin, besieged by the Chinese. Many eyewitnesses also remembered the beautiful singing of the choir, composed of Transbaikal convicts - there were no other singers in this wilderness.
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By noon on May 26, 1854, the entire detachment boarded the ships - a hundred Cossacks, 754 infantrymen, 120 regular army cavalrymen with horses and 46 artillerymen with 4 cannons. But the bulk of each ship intended for the voyage was occupied by cargo - almost 25 thousand pounds of food and military supplies, mainly intended for Kamchatka and the Okhotsk flotilla. The cargo included not only government property, but also private donations collected by Siberian merchants for the first Amur Rafting. For example, the Irkutsk gold miner Stepan Solovyov, at his own expense, provided all ordinary soldiers setting sail with supplies of tea, sugar, soap and tobacco.
“The Cossacks and artillerymen and their horses,” recalled Warrant Officer Alexey Baranov, a participant in the campaign, “were on barges built by the Cossacks on the Argun. These barges were almost round, with low sides and moved slower than our boats, both due to their shape and because their bottom was made of logs laid across the barges... All the boats were loaded with bread slightly higher than the sides, in the form of an elongated pyramid , and covered with canvas. Soldiers were placed on the front and back of the boats, free of cargo. We officers also set up something like cabins for ourselves on the stern parts of the boats, using the canvas that covered the bread... In addition to various boats and barges, we also had rafts made of logs, occupied with various supplies, corned beef, butter and live cattle for food for the expedition. As supplies and livestock are used up, the rafts will be used as firewood for the steamship...”
The caravan stretched for many miles along Shilka. In the first boat, 24-year-old Cossack centurion Gavriil Dmitrievich Skobeltsyn sailed as a guide. A native of the Trans-Baikal border region, he had previously participated in research expeditions on the northern bank of the Amur and knew the language of the Manchus and the “Tungus”-Evenks, local aborigines. Like many participants in the first “Amur Rafting”, this Cossack will forever leave his memory on the map of Russia - where the Bureya River flows into the Amur and today the village of Skobeltsyno, founded in the century before last, is located.
After four days of sailing along the Shilka, on May 30, 1854, at 14:30, the caravan approached its confluence with the Argun River. This is where the Amur itself began, along which Russian people had not sailed for more than a century and a half. As an eyewitness recalled: “Everyone stood up in the boats and made the sign of the cross. The Governor-General, scooping Amur water into a glass, congratulated everyone on the opening of navigation on the river, there was an enthusiastic cheer..."
“The soldiers loved the ship...”
Two days later, on June 1, the ships reached the place where the heroic once stood - today it is the Skovorodinsky district of the Amur region. The participants of the “rafting” paid tribute to the memory of the Russian pioneers who died here. The commander of one of the companies, 23-year-old second lieutenant (that is, junior lieutenant in modern terms) Nikolai Aleksandrovich von Glen later recalled that day: “To the sounds of prayer performed by battalion trumpeters, Muravyov and his retinue went ashore and climbed the rampart, which was Albazin was once surrounded and traces of it are still visible to this day. Everyone involuntarily bared their heads and made the sign of the cross in memory of the fortress defenders who died a heroic death here, repelling with their breasts the hordes of Manjurs, ten times their number. Having prayed, the detachment moved on..."
From here began completely uncharted waters. There were no accurate maps of the Amur, no information about the features of its bottom, shallows and currents. The wooden ships moved carefully behind the boat with the guide and the black steamer, clearly visible on the water. As Alexander Sgibnev, the commander of the Argun steamship, later spoke about the first voyage along the Amur: “At that time we had the most modest, confused ideas about this river, and therefore we sailed, as they say, gropingly, not even knowing to what extent the river was navigable ...Therefore, ships often ran into shoals and had to be unloaded and loaded again.”
Captain Sgibnev describes the order of navigation as follows: “The detachment usually left their overnight stay at dawn, at the sound of a cannon shot from the steamer, and the steamer weighed anchor no earlier than ten o’clock, when the fog that almost constantly covered the river banks in the morning cleared. By noon the steamer was catching up with the detachment. Then, due to the difficulty of keeping with the detachment, scattered along the river fairway over an area of two or three miles, the steamer overtook the detachment in a wide place and went ahead to choose a convenient bank for an overnight stop.”
Captain Sgibnev’s memories of the first Amur voyage complement the memoirs of Ensign Baranov: “The steamer went ahead and stopped in such a way that the flotilla could arrive there around ten or eleven in the evening. Arriving boats were positioned along the shore... Cooking began immediately, the soldiers made tea for themselves. While there were livestock, food was prepared with fresh meat and then corned beef or butter. A special team was appointed at each stop to chop wood for the steamer.”
"Bessarabian"
Built in 1891 by order of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the Howaldswerke shipyard in Kiel (Germany). Vessel type - wheeled single-deck single-mast iron tug-passenger steamer . Home port Odessa. The ship sailed at the mouth of the Danube River. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, the ship was purchased by the Russian Government and from September 1904 transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. The ship carried out cargo and passenger flights Reni - Galati - Tulcea - Isaccea - Izmail.
Capacity 308.74 GRT/286.38 tons. Load capacity 4000 poods. Dimensions 50.1 x 7.1/13.4 x 1.72 (m). Inclined triple expansion steam engine 600 hp. Speed 12 knots. Crew 17 people. The number of 1st class passengers is 10, 2nd class 16, 3rd class 300 people.
"Count Ignatiev"
Built in 1889 by order of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the J. Johes & Sons" in Liverpool (England). Vessel type - wheeled iron single-deck, single-mast tug-and-passenger steamship. Home port Odessa (No. 40). The ship sailed at the mouth of the Danube to the ports of Romania and Bulgaria. On the first voyage in the spring of 1890, due to difficult relations between Russia and Bulgaria in Svishtov carried out separate inspection by Bulgarian police. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was purchased by the Russian Government and by September 1, 1904, transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. The home port and number are the same. Twice a week he made towing and cargo flights from Odessa to Reni via Vilkovo, Kiliya, Izmail through the Kiliya branch of the Danube and back. By 1908, renovations were completed. At this time, he served the passenger-and-freight line from Reni to Kladovo.
Displacement 505 tons. Capacity 205 brt, carrying capacity 2500 poods. Dimensions 43.8 x 6.1/11 x 1.8 (m). Two inclined double expansion steam engines 450 hp. Speed 10 knots. Crew of 16 people. The number of passengers is 1st class 8, 2nd class 10, 3rd class 100 people.
"Belgrade"
Built in 1894 by order of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the Mayer plant, Linz (Austria-Hungary). Vessel type - and Iron wheeled single-deck, single-masted tug-passenger steamer. In April 1895 it was launched. After delivery to the customer On May 17, 1895, a temporary patent for navigation was issued for 1 year in Romanian Galati. On February 1, 1896, in Izmail, he was measured by customs and on March 2, received a patent to sail under the Russian flag. The home port was Reni. The ship sailed on lines along the Danube River. In the summer of 1903, the tug was purchased by the Russian Government and by September 1904 it was transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. Made flights from Reni to Kladovo and back along the Danube. In 1906, the ship underwent repairs and was renamed. Twice a week the ship made tug-and-cargo-passenger voyages to all Danube ports from Reni to Kladovo.
Displacement 550 tons. Capacity 272.90 brt., carrying capacity 2000 poods. Dimensions 56.2 x 7.22 / 12 x 1.4 (m). Inclined steam engine type high pressure compound, double expansion 600 hp. Speed 11 knots. Crew 18 people. The number of passengers in 1st class is 4, 2nd class is 16, and 3rd class is 300 people.
"Patriot"
Built in 1892 by order of the Russian Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the Hartman plant in Budapest (Austria-Hungary). Vessel type - wheeled iron single-deck, single-mast tug-and-passenger steamship. Home port of Reni. He worked along the Prut River, towing barges mainly with grain to Reni. In 1901, the steamship underwent a major overhaul in the Society's workshops in Reni. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was bought by the Russian Government and by September 1904 it was transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. The ship provided cargo transportation along the Prut River. In the summer of 1907, due to the heat, the Prut became so shallow that the tugboat could not enter the river and remained in Reni until the fall.
Displacement 109 tons, capacity 77.6 gross tons, carrying capacity 1000 pounds. Dimensions 27.3 x 4.9/7.6 x 1.2 (m). Inclined mixed pressure steam engine, double expansion - 160 hp. Speed 8 knots. Crew 11 people. The number of 1st class passengers is 10, 2nd class 20, 3rd class 60 people.
"Romania"
Built in 1889 by order of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the J. Johes & Sons" in Liverpool (England). Vessel type - wheeled iron single-deck, single-mast tug-and-passenger steamer. Home port of Reni. IN In 1901, the ship underwent repairs. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was bought by the Russian Government. On September 2, 1903, during the passage from the port of Vilkovo to Odessa, due to the captain’s mistake, the steamship ran aground near Peschany Island in the Kiliya branch of the Danube River and was damaged. By September 1904 it was transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. The home port and number remain the same. The ship made tug-and-cargo-passenger voyages to all Danube ports from Reni to Kladovo twice a week. Later he served the cargo-passenger line Odessa - Reni.
Displacement 505 tons, capacity 184.6 gross tons, carrying capacity 2000 pounds. Dimensions 44.1 x 6.3/10.6 x 1.8 (m). Two inclined double expansion steam engines - 450 hp. Speed 9 knots. Crew 16 people. The number of passengers in 1st class is 6, 2nd class is 12, and 3rd class is 140 people.
"Saint George"
Built in 1899 by order of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company at the LinzerSchiffswerftAG plant, Linz (Austria-Hungary). Vessel type - steel single-deck, single-mast tug-passenger paddle steamer. Got a name "SAINT SERGIUS". L In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was purchased by the Russian Government and by August 1904 transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. Home port of Reni. The ship made tug-and-cargo-passenger voyages to all Danube ports from Reni to Kladovo twice a week.
Capacity 268.8 brt, carrying capacity 5000 poods. Dimensions 57 x 7.2/14.6 x 1.2 (m). Inclined mixed pressure steam engine, double expansion - 550 hp. Speed 11 knots. Crew 14 people. The number of passengers in 1st class is 4, 2nd class is 16, and 3rd class is 200 people.
"Serbia"
Built in 1867 by order of the Norwegian company Halden Dampskibsselskab. Fredrikshald at the Nylands Verksted shipyard, Christiania (Norway). Vessel type - wheeled iron single-deck, single-mast tug-and-passenger steamer. In September 1881, the ship was purchased by the Swedish company "Angf.AB S. Sture" (A.F.Horstedt) from Malmo and renamed it "VICTORIA". Two years later, on May 24, 1883, without changing the name, the tug was bought by the German company T. Rocholl & Co from Bremen. In February 1889, it was acquired by the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company and, under the name SERBIA, was registered in the port of Odessa (No. 572). Since the time of registration at the port, the ship has not made sea voyages, but sailed in the lower reaches of the Danube. In the winter of 1895 -1896, at the shipyard in Tourna-Severin (Romania), the steamship underwent a major overhaul with the replacement of the engine (a vertical compound type steam engine, mixed pressure was installed) and boilers. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was purchased by the Russian Government and by September 1904 transferred to the Russian Danube Shipping Company. Home port of Reni. The ship made tug-and-cargo-passenger voyages to all Danube ports from Reni to Kladovo twice a week. In the spring and summer of 1905, during flights to the Danube, gendarmes more than once detained illegal literature and weapons transported by the crew and passengers.
Displacement 200 tons. Capacity 143.2 brt, load capacity 1500 pounds, Dimensions 48.3 x 5/9.1 x 1.83 (m). Vertical double expansion steam engine - 350 hp. Speed 9 knots. Crew 14 people. The number of passengers is 1st class 4, 2nd class 8, 3rd class 150 people.
"Montenegro"
Built in 1882 by order of Prince Yuri Evgenievich Gagarin for work on the lower Danube at the Hartman plant in Budapest (Austria-Hungary). Vessel type - wheeled iron single-deck single-mast tug-passenger steamship. Home port is Reni. Since 1886, he was listed as a member of the vessels of the Black Sea-Danube Shipping Company. In 1894, the Bellino-Fenderich plant in Odessa underwent a major overhaul. In the summer of 1903, after the bankruptcy of the company, it was purchased by the Russian Government and sold to Varvarov in the same year. In 1904, the steamship was listed as part of the vessels of the Trading House “V. Varvarov and Sons" from Odessa and worked on the Lower Danube. The home port and its number remain the same. In 1913 it was converted into a tug. Passenger cabins have been eliminated.
Capacity 75.3 brt, load capacity 500 pounds. Dimensions 27.2 x 4.8 x 1.2 (m). Steam engine - 200 hp Speed 7 knots. Crew 14 people.
"Shevchenko"
Built by order of the Dorokhov merchants at the plant of the Bryansk Rail Rolling Company in Bezhitsa, Bryansk district, Oryol province (Desna River) in 1888.
Vessel type - wheeled iron single-mast single-deck tug-passenger steamship "SHEVCHENKO". After descending through the Dnieper rapids in 1889, he began work on the Dniester River from Soroka to Bendery. Around 1895, the ship was bought by B.A. Mess and took him to the Lower Dnieper, where he walked on the line Voznesensk - Aleksandrovsk. Since 1899, the ship was owned by the company I.A. Kovalenko and R.R. Webster." At that time, the steamship served in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River and made flights Aleksandrovsk - Voznesensk - Ochakov, and since 1906 Aleksandrovsk - Kherson. As of January 1, 1912, the ship belonged to I.A. Kovalenko. Home port – Reni (No. 120). In 1912, the ship was bought by the Russian Danube Shipping Company and rebuilt into a screw tug steamer with a new steam engine (220 hp) and a reduction in the number of passengers (4 2nd class passengers and 100 deck). The tug worked on the Danube and Prut rivers.
Capacity 132 brt. Dimensions 40.7 x 5.2/10.2 x 0.8 (m). Steam engine 220 hp. Speed 8 knots. Crew 11 people. The number of 2nd class passengers is 4, 3rd class 100 people.
Tugboats
"Vilkovo"
Built in 1900 by order of the German company Schleppschiffahrts Ges. Unterweser" from Bremen at the BremerVulcan shipyard, Vegesack (Germany). Vessel type - single-screw steel single-deck single-mast tugboat. On August 17, 1904, the ship was sold to the Russian Danube Shipping Company, where it was named VILKOVO. Home port of Reni. Upon his arrival on the Danube, Vilkovsky Posad head Platonov sent a telegram to Peterhof, the head of the merchant shipping department, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich: “The Vilkovo society brings congratulations to Your Highness on the occasion of the consecration of the newly acquired steamship, which increases the number of ships of the shipping company and is under your patronage. The steamer was consecrated with the name “VILKOVO”. The response telegram from Peterhof read: “I sincerely thank the Vilkovo Society for the telegram and rejoice at the consecration of the new ship. Alexander". Managing Director of the Russian Danube Shipping Company A.K. Timrot was invited to receive the ship. The vessel made twice-weekly towing and cargo voyages from Odessa to Reni and back, as well as towing barges in the port area.
Capacity 171.9 brt, carrying capacity 2500 poods. Dimensions 31.5 x 6.7 x 3.7 (m). Vertical high pressure triple expansion steam engine 550 hp. Speed 10 knots. Crew 16 people. The number of passengers in 2nd class 2, 3rd class is 50 people.
"Rod"
Built in 1906 by order of the Russian LMEmbricos at the DanubiusShipyard & MachineWorksCo. Ltd", Budapest/?jpest" (Austria-Hungary). Vessel type - twin-screw iron single-deck, single-mast tugboat. TO snatched away Russian Danube Shipping Company. Home port of Reni. The steamship provided freight transportation along the Prut River, towing barges with goods, mainly grain, from the Prut to Reni. In the summer of 1907, due to the heat, the Prut became so shallow that the tugboat was unable to enter the river and remained in Reni until the fall.
Displacement 75 tons, capacity 48.6 brt., carrying capacity 800 pounds. Dimensions 25.6 x 4.6 x 0.8 (m). Two vertical double expansion steam engines - 150 hp. Speed 8 knots. Crew 8 people. The number of passengers in 2nd class 2, 3rd class is 25 people.
"Mstislav Udaloy"
Built in 1894 for the Greek owner Stathatos Brosers, Ithaka at the J. P.Rennoldson & Sons", SouthShields (England). Vessel type - single-screw steel single-deck single-mast tugboat. Home port Braila. He worked on the lower Danube and the Black Sea off the Romanian coast. In 1909, as "EMILIEWENDER" was sold to the German company "Wender & Co", the same registration. In April 1914, it was purchased by the Russian Danube Shipping Company and named « MSTISLAV UDALOY " Port n ripiski Reni.
Displacement 125 tons, capacity 116 gross tons. Dimensions 30.6 x 5.9 x 2.8 (m). Triple expansion steam engine - 360 hp. Speed 12 knots. Crew 21 people.
