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Russian Maritime Magazine Special issue

© design. studio !OCEAN 2012

Beautiful World of Ocean... ! OC EA N studio . design © Photo: Sovcomflot SatelliteSatellite TV TVchannel Channel 1O,OOO,OOO1O,OOO,OOO viewers viewers EXPO 2012: of OCEAN

This Amazing 4 Arctic: Climate and Ice Cap Change 48 Oceanic Research 86

Energy and Resources Nature Parks of the The Frigate Pallada 88 of the Ocean 6 Russian North and Far East 50 The Frigate Pallada: Horizons of Sakhalin Energy 16 Save polar bear! 64 Reading Classic Author 94 The 20 Diving in Russian North 68 Successors: Sail training ships

www.ocean-tv.su e-mail: [email protected] (495) 783-47-10 Pallada and Nadezhda 112 Atomic Conquerors Unique and Mysterious Baikal 78 of the Arctic 26 118 partners Lake Research Russian Columbus in 84 Varyag’s and Koreyetz’s relics 120

of the ХХ Century 38 цифровое СПУТНИКОВОЕ телЕвидение OCEAN have been attracting people minds from the ancient time. It has been a source for Ocean and our legends, myths, fairy tales. It was a source for life and all living creatures on our planet. It’s depth hides the mystery of our origin, it’s waves are the ! OC EA N base for our today existence and it’s power and richness Human:

studio care our future that is not . possible to imagine not in a harmony with water. design

© on the Way We know more about endless Space than about OCEAN. And every diving brings not only answers but new questions. from Past to photo: S ergey Balakin That is way the concept of Russian Pavilion at Expo 2012 is named: Future

Expo 2012 Korea, Yeousu – Worldwide Exhibitions planet of ocean technology nature & ecology science deep water sailing city & sea 26 & discovery 4 16 Atomic 48 68 94 118 This Amazing Horizons of Conquerors Arctic: 78 Diving The Frigate Vladivostok of the Arctic Vladivostok is the largest city on the Arctic Sakhalin Energy Russia is the only country operating Climate and Ice Unique and in Russian North Pallada: Reading Russian Pacific coast, the administra- The name Arctic comes from the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Swimming under the ice sheet on a nuclear-powered . These tive center of the Primorye territory and Greek word «Arktos». This word means Ltd is implementing the Sakhalin-2 Cap Change Mysterious Baikal sunny day cannot be described with Classic Author powerful ships are real conquerors of Lake Baikal makes 20 percent of the The main result of long and dangerous the trans-Siberian railroad terminal. «bear», but not the animal, but celestial Project on the basis of the Production The Arctic may be the most sensitive words – the experience will always be the severe Arctic. world’s surface waters (excluding gla- trip is a book «The Frigate Pallada», It has more than 600,000 residents. constellation Ursa Minor, which in- Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the Rus- region of the planet, and local changes remembered by those who take a look ciers and ice of Antarctica). which was published in 1858. cludes the North Star. sian Federation. have an effect on the entire world. behind the crystal glass at least once…

6 ships & shipping history 50 84 history 112 memory Energy and Nature Parks Re- Successors: Sail Resources 20 38 of the Russian search in Antarctica 88 training ships Pal- 120 The Northern Russian Columbus «The penetration into the subglacial The Frigate Pallada Varyag’s and of the Ocean North and Far East Lake Vostok in Antarctica – is the «So, we raised the anchor. The sea lada and Nadezhda Sea Route of the ХХ Century Plenty of invertebrate, fish, bird and sea Long-lasting trips on a sailing ship – Koreyetz’s Population of our planet is growing world’s great achievement that is was heavy and yellow, the clouds were The exploration of the Arctic has They called him a carefree man, mammal species populate the Arctic. is a perfect hardening of future sailors’ every year, and the humanity needs re- comparable in scale with the landing on grey, impenetrable; the rain and snow relics always been a part of the national a darling of fortune and a Russian characters. The knowledge in technics sources for its development. At present Mars», Vladimir Kotlyakov said. fell in rotation – that escorted us from Legendary Battle of cruiser Varyag and history; the exploration was a must be- Columbus who made the planet’s last is well, but the sea has not changed. it exists using mainly land resources our native country. Shrouds and tackles gunboat Koreyetz against Japanese cause about 1/5 of the Russian territory great geographic discovery. They said It is, as before, formidable and wild that are not at all infinite. were frozen... Frigate with a creak and squadron that happened not far from is located in circumpolar areas. he was a bad sailor who did not know 64 groan, rolled from wave to wave, the power... Chemulpo (Incheon) on Feb.9, 1904 how to moor but he was one of the first Save polar bear! 86 coast near us was buried in mists», – shook the whole world. captains to traverse along the Northern described the beginning of his journey Sea Route. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), which Oceanic Research are the symbols of the Arctic, could on the frigate Pallada the writer I.A. From space, from surface, probably disappear from our planet by Goncharov. A journey, from which the from deep water… the end of this century, the reason be- honored sailing boat could not come ing continuous global warming. back...

Cover: Russian SCF Sakhalin icebreaking platform supply and standby vessel. Photo: Sovcomflot. Contributors: Paulsen Publishing House, P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), Russian Geo- !OCEAN maritime magazine was registered with the Federal Service for Supervision over Observance of Law in the Area of Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage of Russia. graphical Society, Museum of the World ocean (Kaliningrad), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Alexander Aristarkhov, Sergey Registration certificate ПИ № ФС77-41670 dated August 13, 2010. Founders: Andrey Podkolzin, Daniil Borodin. Balakin, Anton Kostin, Nikita Kuznetsov. Publisher: ADN ltd. 103, Volokolamskoye str., 125371 Moscow, Russia. Editor-in-Chief: Sergey Balakin ([email protected]). Art Director: Yury Drobyshev ([email protected]). Photographers/Agencies: Sovcomflot, Rosatomflot, Gazprom, Sakhalin Energy Investment Co, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, Editorial office: 103, Volokolamskoye str., 125371 Moscow, Russia. Tel. +7(495) 783 4711. E-mail: [email protected] www.ocean-magazin.ru Lukoil, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Alexander Aristarkhov, Olga Belonovich , Alexei Konopelko , Yury Maslyaev, Vladimir Melnik, Vyacheslav Nemyshev, Igor Shpilenok, Printed in Russia. Printing-house: Lev Tolstoy, Tula. Vladimir Vertyankin, Dmitry Utkin. Copyright: all rights reserved. © !OCEAN maritime magazine, 2012.

Russian Maritime Magazine

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This Amazing Arctic

The name Arctic comes from the Greek word «Arktos». The longest railway bridge north of the Arctic Circle was built This word means «bear», but not the animal, but celestial con- on the Yamal Peninsula across the Yuribei River. Its length is stellation Ursa Minor, which includes the North Star. • 3.9 kilometres and it is part of the main road to Yamal’s largest gas condensate field Bovanenkovo. • Unlike the , the Arctic is constantly moving. The most numerous and varied colony of sea birds nests Or rather, the ice in is moving – from the east in the Arctic on the famous Rubini Rock that is located in the from the Bering Strait to the west to the Strait. That is why Tikhaya Bay near the Hooker Island. The bird colony on this it is so hard to get on the ice to the from the nearest rock contains up to 18,000 murres, guillemots, kittiwakes and islands – Franz Josef Land and . • other seabirds. • The Arctic Ocean’s impost depth is 5,527 metres. And the Arctic Tern is the only bird that seasonally migrates from the thickness of perennial sea ice – 4 metres. • Arctic, where it nests, to Antarctica for wintering and back, cov- ering a record distance of 70,000 kilometres over the year. • The biggest difference between the winter and summer air The Franz Josef Land archipelago is the northernmost temperatures on Earth – up to 100 degrees, has been record- Eurasian land, consisting of 191 islands with a total area ed in the Arctic. The winter air temperatures can drop to 68 de- of 16,090 square kilometres, 80% of which is occupied by grees Celsius below zero, and the summer temperatures can glaciers. The world’s northernmost post office – « rise above 30 degrees Celsius above zero. The North Pole’s 163100» works on one of the islands. It opens for 1 hour from average winter temperature is 35 degrees Celsius below zero, 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and and the summer average temperature – about zero degrees Friday. Celsius. Water in the Barents Sea near the southern islands of • Franz Josef Land and at the northern tip of can warm up in July to 6–8 degrees Celsius above zero. • Natural gas reserves in the Arctic by the middle of the 21st The largest land carnivorous animal is the polar bear. century can provide for 40–55% of its global consumption. A specimen of this animal weighed 1,002 kilograms. And ano- A total of 22% of world reserves of oil and natural gas are de- ther record was registered last year: a female polar bear in the posited in the Arctic areas of Russia, Norway, Greenland, the search for a suitable hunting site swam 685 kilometres without United States and Canada. • a stop! • The Russian sector accounts for 43% of the Arctic region One of the most mysterious phenomena in the Arctic are of the world. It is about 9 million square kilometres. More than spherulites – globe-shaped stone balls from a few centimetres 2.5 million people live here, accounting for 2% of the country’s to several metres in diameter, which are scattered in large population and for about 40% of the population across the numbers on Champ Island (the archipelago of Franz Josef Arctic. • Land). There are different versions of their origin – from the natural to alien. • photo: Alexei Konopelko

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Tidal power plants (TPPs) in Kislaya Bay Another renewable source of the ocean energy can be tides. The estimated capacity of the world tid- al energy reserves is 3 TW, and is comparable to river energy resources (4 TW). The offshore wind-wave energy potential is only slightly inferior to the energy potential of tides, and is estimated to be 2.5 TW. In Russia a place with the greatest concentration of tidal energy is the Mezen Bay of the White Sea, and where the tide height reaches 10 meters. In the XXI-st century wide use of the sea tidal energy is expected. Its reserves can provide for up to Energy 12-15% of current energy consumption. Tidal power plants (TPPs) do not pollute the atmosphere with harmful emissions, do not flood lands, and pose no potential hazard to human beings as opposed to thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric plants. And their energy cost price is the lowest. As compared to hydroelectric power plants TPPs have a number of advantages. Apart from the need to make a water-storage reservoir, energy generation by a TPP is stable, and does not depend on the dryness of the year. The tidal motion provides for fixed energy generation every month. According to experts, through the use of tidal energy Russia can cover more than a quarter of the current energy consumption in the country. Resources The principle of the TPP operation is in many ways similar to a hydroelectric power plant: turbines are driven by water that passes through them. However, their operation does not require creation of water reservoirs. They are built at the entrances to the bays of seas and oceans. During tides water that is passing through the turbines, fills a pool behind the dam, and the turbines generate electricity. During low tides the water also passes through the turbines back into the sea, and again produces electrical TPP in Kislaya Bay of the Ocean (Kola Peninsula) energy. Unlike most of the hydroelectric power plants, tidal power plants operate at low pressure. Hence TPP turbines have a special design. Population of our planet is growing every year, and the humanity needs resources for its development. At present it exists using mainly land resources that are not at all infinite. In quantitative terms, they substantially exceed the ocean resources, however their extraction is much more complicated, so the success is entirely dependent on the development of high technologies.

Resources of the World Ocean can be divided into bio- Renewable Energy Sources logical, mineral and energy resources. The estimated capacity of the world tidal energy reserves The estimated amount of food resources of the ocean is 3 TW, and is comparable to the river energy resources (4 is 40 billion tons, in contrast to 10 billion tons available on the TW). The offshore wind-wave energy potential is only slightly land. First of all it is fish, as well as shellfish, algae, crusta- inferior to the energy potential of tides, and is estimated to be ceans, echinoderms, etc. 2.5 TW. Ocean shelf contains huge reserves of oil and gas, and When we talk about the energy resources of the ocean we in the course of time an increasing amount of hydrocarbons is often mean hydrocarbon reserves on the shelf. However, the produced in the sea. ocean itself is in fact an unlimited source of energy. And this en- Along with this, the ocean itself (waves, tides, wind) can ergy, unlike oil and gas, is renewable. The ocean concentrates become an inexhaustible source of environmentally safe the sun’s energy that is transformed into the energy of waves renewable energy. and winds, the temperature difference between the surface Vast expanses of the ocean floor are covered with plac- layer of water and deep waters. This energy can be effectively ers of ferro-manganesian concretion nodules, in which ferrum used by man with minimal damage to environment and with no and manganese content reaches 40-60%, which is ten times pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. richer than the ores mined on land. Placer deposits of nodules Specific power of the wave energy is much higher than and sulphide ores include rare metals. Their content is often the wind and solar energy. The power increases with increas- higher than in ores on land. ing wave height, and at 2 m height can reach 80 kW /minute. The coefficient of the wave energy conversion is higher than that of the air, and can reach 85%.

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In Russia an experimental TPP has been operating in Kislaya Bay on the Barents Sea Development of Hydrocarbon since 1968. As of 2009 its capacity is 1.7 MW. It was registered in state accounting books Resources of the Ocean as a monument to science and technology. In the Russian part of the shelf oil reserves in the amount of Rybachy Russia’s first commercial tidal power plant will be built in the Long Eastern Bay on the 415 million tons have been explored, which is 41% of the total Peninsula Northern coast of the Kola Peninsula. In 2008 the Interdepartmental Commission on the reserves in the Arctic shelf. Loading mechanism distribution of productive forces of the region approved a project on the TPP In the Russian part of the shelf oil reserves in the amount Accommodation block construction in the Long Eastern Bay not far from the village Teriberka. Capacity of the of 415 million tons have been explored, which is 41% of the Barents sea Superstructure ecologically clean power plant will amount to 12 MW. That will be quite enough to cover the total reserves in the Arctic shelf. Explored gas reserves on the

electric power needs of the entire Northern coast of the region, including Gazprom bases Russian shelf make 4.7 trillion cubic meters, or 49.8% of the total Auxiliary block Intermediate deck created in Teriberka for the development of the Shtokman gas field. gas reserves in the Arctic shelf. Overall assessment of hydro- At the White Sea, Mezen tidal power plant with the capacity of 11.4 GW is being carbon reserves in the Arctic is about 100 billion tons of the fuel Kislaya Bay is. Kildin designed. According to the data obtained in the course of long-term design works, power equivalent, with the Arctic accounting for 58% of the total world’s Caisson generation at the Mezen Bay TPP in the White Sea will be comparable to the average en- hydrocarbon reserves on the shelf. About 70 billion tons of them ergy yield generated by a hydroelectric power plant on the Volga-Kama cascade. are concentrated in the Barents, Kara and Pechora seas. N

Severomorsk Offshore ice-resistant fixed Safonovo Murmansk platform (OIFP) «Prirazlomnaya» Kola

TPP in Kislaya Bay (Kola Peninsula)

In Russia a new cross-jet turbine known as «orthogo- tion technologies and a new design of the dam made nal» turbine was designed. This turbine is perfectly suited from thin-walled welded reinforced-concrete blocks it for tidal power plants and wave hydro-electric power will be possible to reduce the cost by approximately 1.5 plants with their cyclical wave processes, and has the times and to significantly reduce construction terms, as following characteristics: the turbine rotation direction and compared to using the traditional axial hydraulic units and characteristics do not depend on the flow direction; the technologies of construction of the dam behind jumpers. coefficient of efficiency of the orthogonal turbine exceeds An orthogonal turbine can be used as an air turbine in 75%; the turbine design is simple and adaptable; it is pos- wave power plants instead of the currently used Wells tur- sible to use multi-tier hydraulic units; the turbine has a high bines. Such wave units will have the following advantages: idle throughput efficiency. technological simplicity, ease of use, low noise level, high Design studies for large TPPs completed to date reliability, efficiency coefficient of 70% (efficiency coef- show that through the use of new hydraulic units with ficient of the available analogues is about 45-50%), low orthogonal turbines, application of advanced construc- unit cost.

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The caisson internal space is divided into 16 tanks with transverse and longitudinal cofferdams. These tanks are storage tanks for crude oil (nominal capacity is 136,000 m3), and are also used as space to house sea chests, and as wellhead areas. To protect against corrosion, the caisson outside skin in the ice impact zone is made ​​from steel plated with a stainless layer. The superstructure has equipment and systems for wells drilling and operation, oil production, preparation for and shipment of crude oil, and energy supply for all production types. The super- structure has an accommodation block for personnel, an auxiliary block for ventilation and electrical equipment, two deck cranes, rescue systems for the crew in emergency situations, communication systems, air navigation complex, and helicopter landing deck. Steelworks of their superstructure are formed from upgraded superstructure of the platform Hutton. An intermediate deck is an extra level between the caisson and the superstructure. Its interior space has tanks with drinking water, diesel fuel and various drilling fluids. OIFP is equipped with a modern integrated management and security system. Main part of the pro- Left page and far right: OIFP Prirazlomnaya duction processes takes place on the platform automatically. Automated remote devices for oil loading into tankers are installed on the platform.

In 2012 the first oil will be produced at the Prirazlomnoye field (Gazprom) where develop- ment of the Arctic shelf of Russia will begin. Peak production on the Prirazlomnoye field will be Before 2020 development of the giant 6-7 million tons per year. Offshore ice-resistant fixed platform (OIFP) «Prirazlomnaya» is the main element of con- Shtokman field is to start struction and development of the similarly-named oil field, the recoverable reserves of which exceed 46 million tons. This is the first Russian project on the extraction of hydrocarbons in the Raw materials from it will be exported through the termi- Arctic shelf. The first Russian OIFP has no analogues in world practice in many parameters of nal in Teriberka that has not been built yet. The Shtokman gas construction, and in operation terms. Shift teams of 200 oilfield workers will extract and pump condensate field is located in the central part of the Russian oil to tankers in the most extreme conditions of a long Arctic winter at temperatures down to sector of the Barents Sea. -50°C and gale-force winds, and the platform that embodied the world’s best technologies and The field reserves are 3.9 trillion m3 of gas and 56 million plenty of domestic developments will have to resist the heaviest ice loads. tons of gas condensate. The field development license is hold The project for Prirazlomnaya oil field development in the Pechora Sea shelf is the first by Gazprom. Raw materials will be extracted by consortium Principal dimensions: step of Russia to the development of the hydrocarbon potential of the Arctic shelf. It opens up of Gazprom and a number of foreign companies. a new stage in the development of fuel and energy complex of Russia in the XXI-st century. Currently, members of the consortium are negotiating the Length: 139 meters The platform is designed to develop the Prirazlomnoye oil field located in arctic conditions technological scheme of raw materials production. The task Width: 144 meters in the Pechora Sea at the distance of about 60 km from the mainland. The platform will provide is to find an optimal way to perform works in difficult climatic Height: 141 meters Weight: 117,000 tons (without solid ballast) for a year-round drilling for oil with vertical and horizontal methods, oil extraction and arrange- conditions of the Barents Sea. and 247000 tons (with solid ballast) ment for its transportation in tankers. Port for LNG shipment under the project will be built in Number of holes: 40 The platform consists of a gravity-type bearing caisson, intermediate deck, and super- Murmansk region on the Barents Sea, near Teriberka Bay 3 Oil storage tanks capacity: 124,000 m structure. A caisson is a steel base, which serves as a support for the intermediate deck and (127 km to the North-East of Murmansk). Oil production capacity: 21,000 m3 per day superstructure, and includes equipment and systems for oil extraction and refining. The Shtokman project is unique in terms of scale and Staff: 200 people Autonomy period: 60 days The caisson plan is square in shape. Along the vertical extent its lateral sides are slant- conditions, in which it will be implemented. The area of gas Estimated service life6 25 years ing, corners are chamfered. Dimensions of the caisson base are 126 m x 126 m (height mark production is located at a considerable distance (550 km) from is +0.0), they are reduced in the top section to 102 m x 102 m (height mark is +24.3). The a coastline. Arctic climate (low temperatures, polar cyclones, wall along the perimeter of the caisson upper part going to the height mark of +40.5 serve to ice formation, snow, fog, long polar nights, icebergs weighting protect from sea waves and ice floes, and are constructively designed in the form of wave and up to 4 million tons, severe storm conditions) requires a com- ice deflectors. pletely new technological approach to the task solution.

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Varandey Oil Export Terminal

The project of such complexity and scale can be for complex gas treatment. Capacity of the LNG plant of LUKOIL provides for shipment of oil bulks to the heavy-duty ice-class tankers with a deadweight implemented only by means of using innovative and unique the Shtokman Phase 1 will become one of the largest in the of 70 thousand tons through a fixed offshore ice-resistant offloading terminal (FOIROT) of the engineering solutions based on the advanced international world – 7.5 million tons per year. Varandey Oil Export Terminal (VOET), which is located on the coast of the Barents Sea in the Nenets experience. A great deal of attention is paid under the project to Autonomous District. Shtokman field development plan envisages a creation environmental safety in the region. Extensive engineering and Varandey Oil Export Terminal with the capacity of 12 million tons of oil annually is used to ship by of underwater mining complex, which with the help of the environmental surveys in the Barents Sea are carried out. sea oil produced in the northern Timan-Pechora oil-and-gas province. The terminal operates year- communication system is connected to the ice-resistant Research is conducted with involvement of leading research round. To work in the winter period ice-breaking vessels are engaged. Exports mainly go to the U.S. technological mining vessel (Floating Production Unit – FPU). centers of Russia. Documentation packages have been market.

Shtokman gas will be extracted from one of the world’s larg- generated to evaluate the project impact on the environment VOET consists of the following structures: Above: Varandei fixed offshore est vessels: its full load weight will be about 220 thousand subject to international (ESHIA) and Russian (EIA) standards. • coastal tank farm with a total rated capacity of 325 thousand m3; ice-resistant offloading terminal of the LUKOIL tons, length – about 320 meters. In addition, an opportunity In 2009 the company signed a cooperation agreement with • fixed offshore ice-resistant offloading terminal (FOIROT) installed at the distance of 22 km from Company was entered in the to «undock» the vessel from underwater mining complex in the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) This year the Kola Centre for the coast. Shipping dock is a structure with the height of more than 50 meters, total weight of over Guinness Book of Records as the northmost oil terminal the case of the ice situation complication is provided. The Wildlife joined the agreement. 11 tons, consisting of a substructure with an accommodation block, mooring and cargo unit (MCU) in the world operating year- applied technologies are to provide for the highest level of In addition to oil and gas extraction, Arctic waters are with a boom and a helicopter landing deck. FOIROT was built on a steel plant of LLC LUKOIL-Kalin- round – 69о 03’ 11” ingradmorneft; safety of the gas production and transportation. used for transportation of hydrocarbons produced in the Left page: works at the A marine twin pipeline, the length of which is about 550 North of Russia. • Two lines of the underwater pipeline with the diameter of 820 mm connect the coastal tank Shtokman gas condensate kilometers, will transport raw materials to the coastal unit farm with FOIROT; field (far left) and floating drilling vessel Polarnaya • Oil metering station, auxiliary tanks, pumping station, power supply facilities, shift camp and Zvezda (Polar Star) other technological facilities.

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One of the priority tasks of the Russian government is • intensive growth of researches and returning to fishing to adjust differences between growing volume and intensity in the open World ocean with integrated resource-saving of extraction of hydrocarbon and other resources from the processing of harvested fishery on-site, development of seabed and the need for preservation, reproduction and new technological processes and equipment for waste-free production of bio-resources of the World Ocean. production; The Russian Federation is one of the leading nations of • revision of procedures in order to limit the use of Rus- the world fishing industry. Fishery plays an important role in sian marine biological resources free of charge; the food sector of the country, and is one of the sources of • creation of conditions for preferential placement of employment in most coastal regions. In the short term, the orders for construction of fishing vessels at Russian ship- bulk of raw fish will be biological resources of the exclusive yards and dockyards of those countries, in economic zones economic zone of the Russian Federation. of which the Russian fishing fleet operates; introduction of In order for the Russian Federation to efficiently develop practices of repayment of debts to the Russian Federation marine biological resources and to maintain its position through the purchase of goods and services from debtor among the leading maritime states in the field of commercial countries that grant licenses for fishing in their economic fishery subject to the Marine Doctrine of Russia the following zones to Russian fishermen; long-term tasks are being solved: • maintenance and development of state licensing for • conduct of special studies and monitoring of biological construction of new vessels and sale of operated vessels in resources of the World Ocean; order to maintain an optimal balance between the quantity • optimization of fisheries in the exclusive economic of vessels and size of allowable take, as well as systematic zone of the Russian Federation, strengthening of state con- rational upgrade of the fishing fleet; trol over fishing, and rational use of the fishing fleet, including • increased participation of the Russian Federation in with a monitoring system based on the state-of-the-art means activities of international fishery organizations in connection of communication, surveillance and information processing; with further development of international coordination, inter- • optimization of management of fishing fleets through national legal regulation of fishery, and increased require- effective forecasting of the spatial and temporal distribution ments to marine environment protection and preservation; of biological resources available for fishing in waters of the • ensuring interests of the Russian Federation in the de- seas and oceans; velopment of fish resources and their conservation in remote • mariculture development; World Ocean areas, as well as adoption and strict obser- • maintenance and increase of volumes of traditional vance of measures coordinated with riparian countries aimed harvesting of biological resources in exclusive economic at preservation of valuable fish species populations and other zones of foreign states; biological resources in the Caspian and Azov Seas. Photo: Dmitry Utkin •

Preservation of the Ocean Bio Resources It is needed to adjust differences between growing volume and intensity of extraction of hy- drocarbon and other resources from the seabed and the need for preservation, reproduction and production of bio-resources of the World Ocean. The volume of the total biomass of the ocean is 35 billion tons, with the share of fish of 0.5 billion tons. The World Ocean has more and less productive areas. They cover the shelf area and a periph- eral part of the ocean. The most productive are Norwegian, Bering, Okhotsk Seas, and the Sea of ​​ Japan. Ocean spaces characterized by low productivity, occupy a large part of the ocean. Thanks to fish, mollusks and crustaceans, mankind provides itself 20% with protein of animal Photo: S ergey G orshkov origin. The ocean biomass is also used to obtain high-calorie feed flour for livestock and poultry. Economies of some countries are heavily dependent on fishing, and seafood exports. Salmon Channels used to grow salmon baby fish at Vilyuisk salmon fish farm Red salmon at Malkinsky salmon fish farm In recent years breeding of certain species of organisms on artificially created sea plantations (mariculture) are becoming more and more widespread. In Russia in the seas of the Far East, sea kale (laminaria) and sea scallops are grown. Salmon Breeding in Far East Normally, the most productive waters are in coastal and estuarine areas. It is these areas that Salmon breeding in the Russian Far East started more than a century ago; the first salmon fisheries in the region were are also most vulnerable to human impacts. As a result of human activities, rivers are exposed to built in 1909. Almost 18% of the Pacific salmon is bred at fisheries. pollution both on land and at sea, seas. Development of transport and oil production can also cause Salmon fisheries are a highly profitable branch of the fishing industry. Control over all stages of the breeding process serious damage to biological resources of the ocean. Among most unfavorable waters in ecological results in roe fertilization at practically 100% and a high fry survivability ratio. The Russian Far East breeds salmon at 56 terms are Baltic, Black and Azov Sea. These are internal seas, into which a lot of rivers with huge fisheries in the Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Magadan regions, and the Khabarovsk and Primorye territories. T wenty-seven industrially developed catchment basins flow. In addition, the water exchange with other bodies of fisheries are federal, five are rented and 24 are private. The majority of salmon fisheries (29) are located in Sakhalin. water is difficult. As a result, biological resources of these seas were seriously injured, and fish pro- The Iturup Island and the Khabarovsk territory have eight salmon fisheries each. Kamchatka has five salmon fisheries, duction has substantially decreased. the Magadan region has four salmon fisheries, and the Primorye territory has two. In all, about 950 million of salmon fry are produced per year, over 70% of them Siberian salmon and about 36% – humpback salmon. •

!OCEAN 14 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф !OCEAN 15 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф technology technology Horizons of Sakhalin Energy

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd is implementing the Sakhalin-2 Project on the basis of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the Russian Federation. The Company’s shareholders are Gazprom (50% + 1 share), Royal Dutch Shell (27.5% – 1 share), Mitsui and Co. Ltd. (12.5%) and Mitsubishi Corpo- ration (10%). The company is developing Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field and Lunskoye gas field in the Sea of Okhotsk offshore Sakhalin Island, Russian Far East. The development of these two fields involved the construction of a new integrated infrastructure for offshore production, offshore and onshore transportation, processing and sales of hydrocarbons. This infrastructure includes three offshore platforms, offshore and onshore pipeline system, onshore processing facility, oil export terminal and Russia’s first LNG plant. Left: the Piltun-Astokhskoye-B offshore ice class production The infrastructure established within the Sakhalin-2 platform project laid the foundation for Russia to become a leading energy exporter to the fast-growing, highly competitive Above: the first Russian LNG plant built under Sakhalin-2 energy markets of the Asia-Pacific and the west coast of project North America.

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graded as an emergency situation. Thus, Sakhalin Energy is The company has accepted the operation excellence a steady world leader in the industry in terms of this indicator. approach in five key areas: world class field development In 2009 Sakhalin Energy joined the Global Compact ini- and well and reservoir management, total reliability, best tiative in the sphere of corporate social responsibility. In 2011 contractor management, implementation of lean execution it became the first Russian company chosen by the United practices, and excellence in people. Sakhalin Energy intends Nations to join the new platform for Corporate Sustainability to provide top quartile performance in the world oil and gas Leadership – Global Compact LEAD. industry, which will enable us to fulfil our responsibilities to shareholders, customers and society. • All photos: Sakhalin Energy

The year of 2011 was the second year of full capacity operation of the large-scale oil and gas infrastructure created under the Sakhalin-2 project

Company’s key achievement in 2011 was a highly reliable supply of hydrocarbons to the customers. Our hydrocarbons are shipped from Prigorodnoye port which is now ranking among Rus- sia’s newest maritime hubs. In 2011, our Vityaz oil blend was supplied to 12 buyers, with shipments accomplished to the ports of Japan, Korea, China, Philippines, Thailand and other countries. Most of the LNG we produced last year was supplied to the buyers from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Sakhalin Energy timely responded to the energy needs of Japan which dramatically rose last year as a result of the devastating tsunami. The company promptly provided assistance by delivering extra cargos of LNG to the Japanese buyers to replenish the deficient energy. 34 cargos of LNG with a total volume of more than 2.0 million tonnes were delivered in excess of the original plans. The company’s achievements in prevention of environmental pollution are also quite impressive Left page. Top left: Left page. Top right: Left page. Bottom left: Left page. Bottom right: Above: gas carrier Sakhalin-2 Onshore oil tanker Governor drilling on Lunskoye-A the first Russian Grand Mereya under and can be evidenced by the following statistics: since 1999, the company has produced almost 245 Processing Facility. Farkhutdinov under platform LNT plant built under loading million barrels of oil, spilling only about 0.000011% (a one-billionth fraction of one per cent) during Night time loading Sakhalin-2 project. Night time past 12 years. Over all these years there has been no oil or petroleum product spill which could be

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The Northern Sea Route The exploration of the Arctic has always been a part of the national history; the exploration was a must because about 1/5 of the Russian territory is located in circumpolar areas. Top: the Russian Above left: the Krasin (ex-Svyatogor) – Above right: the icebreaking ship It is impossible to say who was the first to begin the studies of (1899) – the world’s first ship the most powerful icebreaker of its time. A. Sibiryakov with impromptu sails capable of passing through old ice She was built in 1917 and worked in the on the famed voyage across the northern Russia and when but it is known that Russian industrialists of up to two meters. Worked in the Arctic until the 1980s. Now the Krasin is Chukotskoye Sea, 1932 visited Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen in the XVI century. Arctic region until 1963 a museum ship in St. Petersburg

Western powers started intensive exploration of the World Ocean in the XV century. This period integrity of the country fully depended on the development Yet Russian sailors managed to cover the entire north- is often called the Era of Great Geographic Discoveries. The Europeans were looking for new trade of transport routes. The northern route became a transport ern route only in the XX century. The Taimyr and Vaigach routes, primarily to India and China. It is hard to say who was the first to suggest that northern routes line only in the second half of the XIX century. Initially only crossed the Northern Sea Route from the East to the West from Europe to Asia could be safer and shorter than southern routes. Yet it is known that Western a small part of it was used – bread and Siberian mineral in 1914-1915 although they had to stay for winter off the seafarers made their first attempts to travel by the northeastern route in the XVI century. Both at- resources were transported from the estuaries of the Si- Siberian coast after they had bumped into solid ice. The tempts made by Briton (1553-1554) and Dutchman Willem Barents (1596-1597) berian Rivers Ob and Yenisei to West European seaports. next big success in the Northern Sea Route development were abortive. They could not go farther than Novaya Zemlya and died of cold and diseases. The sea route was also used in the construction of the was the voyage of the A. Sibiryakov ice-breaking ship, In the meantime, the were successfully traveling along northern routes. Ancient coins, Trans-Siberian railroad: construction materials and rail which was the first ship to travel from the west to the east dishes and navigation instruments of Russian seagoers were found not far from Cape Chelyuskin in were supplied by ship. Swedish seafarer Erik Adolf Nor- within one navigation season in 1932. The voyage almost , a Russian seafarer of the XVII century and an explorer of the North 1941. This means they sailed around the northernmost point of the continent no later than in 1617 denskjold (1878-1879) was the first to cover the northern had a tragic ending – the ship lost its propeller screw in the and East Siberia. He was the first to double and crossed the much earlier than West European travelers. The numerous archaeological sea way with support of Russian businessman Alexander thick ice right before entering into the Bering Strait. The Chukotka in 1648 in a voyage from the estuary finds show that the Russian sailors were aware of up-to-date navigation and shipbuilding techniques. Sibiryakov. The same as other Russian merchants, Sibir- crew made sails of the canvas, which had been used for of the River Kolyma to the River Anadyr. Actually, he discovered the Bering Strait The Eastern part of Russia was practically isolated from the Western part for centuries, and it yakov was very interested in the development of the sea covering coal stocks, and the coal-black sails brought the took years to travel from the capital city to the Far East in the XVIII century. The development and route to Siberia. A. Sibiryakov to the Pacific Ocean.

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The shipping has intensified due to warming in the The Vladimir Tikhonov Ice Class 1 Suezmax tanker deliv- Arctic. European ships began to sail to the East along ered over 120000 tonnes of gas condensate from Murmansk the Northern Sea Route in 2009. The development of the to Thailand along the Northern Sea Route on September 16, Northern Sea Route infrastructure is a priority of the Russian 2011. The voyage lasted for 28 days, and the tanker covered government. Although a significant part of the Arctic Ocean the distance of 8 500 nautical miles, including more than 2000 is covered with floating ice, this is one of the safest routes miles along the Northern Sea Route. That was a trial voyage – where cargo ships are led by nuclear-powered icebreakers. ships of such size and deadweight had never traversed the Another reason for popularity of the Northern Sea Route is Arctic waters before. The tanker is 281 meters long, 50 meters that the southern routes are infested with sea pirates. wide and has the deadweight exceeding 160 000 tonnes.

A new deepwater route north of the Novosibirsk Islands was chosen for the tanker. The voyage hit a record not only by the payload but also by the delivery time. The tanker passed the distance of almost 2 200 nautical miles, from Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya) in the Kara Sea to Cape Dezh- nev in the Bering Strait in less than 7,5 days. The travel time was seven days shorter than that of a traditional voyage through the Suez Canal. There were other transit voyages, too. The SCFBaltica Aframax tanker with the deadweight exceeding 100 000 tonnes traveled along the same route in August 2010. That was the largest ship travelling along the Northern Sea Route at the moment. The world’s most powerful nuclear-powered icebreakers of Rosatomflot, the 50th Victory An- niversary and the Yamal, assisted the Vladimir Tikhonov voyage. The shipping season continued from early July to the end of November 2011 and 34 transit voyages were made along the Northern Sea Route. Nuclear-powered icebreakers assisted the trans- Top: the tanker SCF Baltica Above: the ice-class tanker Mikhail Ulyanov Right page: the tanker Vladimir Tikhonov with the deadweight of portation of 820 789 tonnes of cargo, which was much more than in 2010 (4 transit trips, 110 000 on a transit route along the with the deadweight of 70,000 tonnes, built 162,000 tonnes hit two records in 2011: she was the largest ship to Northern Sea Route. in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Admiralty travel along the Northern Sea Route and the first ship to cover the tonnes of cargo). • August 2010 Shipyards for operation in the Arctic distance between Novaya Zemlya and the Bering Strait within 7.5 days

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Sovcomflot

The Sovcomflot Group is one of the largest infrastructural enterprises of Russia with a fleet of 145 ships with the total deadweight exceeding 10.5 million tonnes and the shipbuilding program of ten vessels with the overall deadweight of 0.8 million tonnes. • An average age of the tanker fleet is approximately seven years (with the world’s average indicator of twelve years). • The Sovcomflot Group ranks the world’s top in the petroleum product tanker segment, second in the AFRAMAX tanker segment, and fourth in the SUEZMAX tanker segment. • The company has the world’s largest ice-class fleet; it is Number One operator of Arctic shut- tle tankers and ice-class gas tankers. • It offers hydrocarbons transportation, floating crude storage services, logistics and support to offshore development. •

The tanker Olympiysky Prospect is one of the most modern large-tonnage vessels of Sovcomflot. She was built by the Hyundai Heavy Industries in Republic of Korea and put into service in July 2010. This is an AFRAMAX oil tanker with the deadweight of 114,100 tonnes and the gross tonnage of 62,504 grt. The ship length is 250 meters, the breadth is 44.0 meters, the draft is 15 meters and the cruising speed is 14.6 knots. The tanker is ice class 1В (by international standards). The Olympiysky prospect was designed for operation in the Russian region, including hydrocarbons

transportation from Primorsk and Ust-Luga. She fully meets DNV national and international security All photos: S ovcomflot requirements. • ships & shipping ATOM IC Conquerors of the Arctic text: Anton Kostin

Russia is the only country operating nuclear-powered icebreakers. These powerful ships are real conquerors of the severe Arctic. Continuous shipping along the Northern Sea Route and development of natural resources on the Arctic shelf would have been unthinkable without them…

The World’s FirsT The history of Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet began over 50 years ago. The Soviet Council of Ministers ruled to build a nuclear-powered icebreaker for the Northern Sea Route in November 1953. The unique ship of Project 92 was designed by extremely tight deadlines at the Leningrad Central Design Bureau 15 (renamed into the Iceberg Central Design Bureau in 1966) under the supervision of General Designer V.I. Neganov. The construction of the icebreaker began at the Leningrad A. Marti Plant (currently the Admiralty Shipyards) in late 1955, and the official ceremony that opened construction works took place on August 25, 1956. Innovative solutions caused plenty of technical and technological problems but the works were done rapidly and the world’s first nuclear-powered ship was launched on December 5, 1957. By then the icebreaker of Project 92 was called the . The first reactor was started up on August 6, 1959, and the acceptance act was signed on December 3. In May 1960 the icebreaker arrived in the home port, Murmansk. photo: www.rosatom.ru

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Importantly, the interior of the first nuclear-powered The construction of the first nuclear-powered ice- icebreaker was extremely comfortable for that period. There breaker really became an outstanding achievement of the were single and double cabins decorated with precious domestic science and technology. The Lenin opened a wood, a music room with a piano, a library, a cinema, a new page in the exploration of circumpolar areas due to sauna and a smoking room – all that amazed Soviet sailors, the unlimited range of shipping and independence from who were not accustomed to such luxuries. The Lenin be- bunker bases. She tripled the speed of transportation along came an object of national pride, together with the launch of the Northern Sea Route and extended the polar shipping the first satellite and the first manned space mission. It is not season by two months. surprising that plenty of celebrities, up to U.S. Vice-President The icebreaker also had its shortcomings, the most seri- Richard Nixon and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, visited the ous of them the insufficient reliability and low repairability of ship in the first years of her operation. the power unit. Following the reactor failure in 1967 it was

The ship’s nuclear steam raising installation was made of three OK 150 reactors although the heat power of just one unit (90 megawatt) was sufficient. The atomic energy industry was just at the outset in those years, it was difficult to predict the reliability of the new complex equipment and the tripled power capacity did not look excessive. OK 150 reactors belong to the water-cooled water-moderated type: they use water both as a heat transfer agent and a neutron moderator. Water circulates in two independent circuits. The first-circuit heat transfer agent is pumped through the reactor’s active zone – highly purified water is heated to more than 300 degrees Centigrade but it does not transform into steam due to pressure. In the steam generator it heats water of the second circuit transforming it into superheated vapor. The latter rotates electric generator turbines. The current goes to three main propulsion motors. The mid- dle propulsion motor has the capacity of 19,600 horse/power and the side propulsion motors have the capacity of 9,800 horse/power each. The ship bow had a new shape for better passing ability, which was tested in an ice reservoir, Above left: Vasily Neganov – and the icebreaker was equipped with list and trimming systems. The hull was divided into twelve chief designer of the Lenin icebreaker sections with eleven water-proof bulkheads, and the ship could stay afloat in the case two sections were flooded. The emphasis was put on the hull endurance; the designers took precautions not only Above right: the Lenin against ice pressure but also against collisions or running aground. The icebreakers design ensured icebreaker launch. Artist Vladimir Shtranikh the reactor unit integrity even in a 90-degree side collision with a ship with the displacement of Above: the Lenin nuclear-powered icebreaker on the Neva River before leaving for the North 11,000 tonnes.

Modern-Day Ironclads Built by Entire Country The hull of a nuclear-powered icebreaker is supposed to be highly resistant. The Lenin’s Such an innovative ship as the Lenin icebreaker was a product of not only shipbuilders but also hun- high-strength steel placing was 36 millimeters thick on the side, 52 millimeters thick dreds of thousands of other specialists who made its unique ‘innards’ within a record short time. The on the bow and 44 millimeters thick on the stern. Just for comparison: the Kirov cruiser nuclear power unit came from the Gorki Machine Building Plant, the ship turbines were supplied by the (1938) had 50-millimeter armor on the side, while the T-34 tank hull had the thickness of Kirov Plant, and the main generators and main propulsion motors were manufactured b y the Leningrad 45 millimeters. • Elektrosila. In all, the icebreaker project involved over 500 organizations – design bureaus, industrial enterprises, research centers and others. •

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decided to replace the nuclear steam raising installation – there was a new installation project de- Forcing Way to Pole! began at the Leningrad Baltiysky Plant on July 3, 1971. The signed for the second-general icebreakers. The government approved the target specification for ship was launched on December 26, 1972, and the state flag Modernization of the Lenin nuclear-powered icebreaker to Project 92M was done at the the second-generation nuclear-powered icebreaker (Project was hoisted aboard on April 25, 1975. The second nuclear- Severodvinsk Zvezdocka shipyard from December 1967 to May 1970. Three OK-150 reactors were 1052) in 1964. The new ship was supposed to be much more powered icebreaker, the world’s most powerful ship at the replaced with two OK-900 reactors. The increased steam output made the icebreaker speedier in powerful, and its propulsion unit to be more reliable, safer moment, was put into service. spite of the larger displacement and draft. and serviceable. The project was designed at the Central The Arktika has a dual hull made of high-strength steel; After the modernization the Lenin worked for 30 years more and was put out of service only in Design Bureau-15 (Iceberg) with the chief designer V.I. Ne- the bow plating is 48 millimeters thick. Water ballast tanks are 1989. The new power unit proved its worth, no more significant accidents happened. The legendary ganov and later on A.E. Perevozchikov. placed between the external and internal hulls. The hull was Above: the Lenin Above: the Arktika nuclear- icebreaker in the Arctic icebreaker covered 654,400 miles (30 Earth equators!) and led more than 3,700 ships through the Technical documentation was ready in 1970, and the divided into eight water-proof sections. The ship can crush powered icebreaker Arctic ice in the entire period of its operation. It is now a museum eternally anchored in Murmansk. construction of the lead ship of Project 1052, the Arktika, the ice with its bow and stern.

The nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin (Project 92 / 92М) The nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika (Project 1052)

The displacement: 17,810 / 19,420* tonnes The displacement: 20,905 tonnes The maximal length: 134.1 meters а) The maximal length: 147.9 meters The maximal breadth: 27.6 meters The maximal breadth: 29.9 meters The depth: 16.1 meters The depth: 17.2 The draft: 9.6 / 10.4* meters Number and type of nuclear reactors: 2 ОК-900A, 2 x 171 megawatt Number and type of nuclear reactors: 3 ОК-150 / 2 ОК-900* Shaft horse power: 75,000 horse/power. Nuclear reactor capacity: 3 х 90 megawatt / 2 х 159 megawatt* Shaft horse power: 44,000 horse/powers. Propeller shaft: 3 Propeller shaft: 3 The maximal speed in clean water: 20.6 knots The maximal speed in clean water: 19.6 / 21* knots The maximal ice thickness: 2.5 meters b) The maximal ice thickness: about two meters with the speed Crew: 138–150 men of two knots Crew: 236 men

*Data for Projects 92 / 92М (before and after modernization)

The Lenin icebreaker with nuclear-powered plant as completed (a) and after the modernization (b)

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icebreakers. Any tourist can visit the North Pole now, forcing the way through the Arctic ice. That is a rather expensive venture – a three-week travel costs no less than $25,000, yet there is a demand. The Sibir performed the first cruise in 1989, and the Rossiya repeated it in 1990. The Sovetsky Soyuz engaged in polar cruises in 1991, and the Yamal joined in in 1993. The latter even has special quar- ters for tourists. The icebreaker has performed 46 trips to the North Pole by now. The Rossiya supported continental shelf research within the Arctic 2007 exhibition. She led to the pole the Academician Fyodorov research ship, which had manned submersibles aboard. Mir-1 dived to the depth of 4,261 meters in the North Pole on August 2. A Russian flag made of a titanium alloy was installed on the seabed. More than 30 years of history of the Arktika class icebreakers displayed their high reliability. sThe icebreakers did not have a single reactor accident in the entire period of operation. The Arktika and the Sibir are no longer in use; they are preparing for disposal, but the other icebreakers are still on the line.

The new icebreaker appeared to be so good that ano- and hoisted the Soviet state flag. The icebreaker became the ther four ships were built by the same blueprints with minimal first ever ship to reach the pole through the Arctic ice. adjustments: the Sibir (1977), the Rossiya (1985), the Sovet- The shipping season 1983 proved that the nuclear- sky Soyuz (1989) and the Yamal (1992). Actually, the last ship powered icebreaking fleet was irreplaceable: the tricky Arctic of the series, the 50 Let Pobedy (50th Victory Anniversary), weather caught into an ice trap more than 50 ships, including put into service in 2007, was a modification of Project 1052. two regular and one nuclear-powered icebreakers (the Lenin Hence, Russia built a nuclear-powered icebreaking fleet, among them). There was a threat to the ships and people which played an exclusively important role in the exploration in circumpolar towns whose life depended on cargo sup- of the Arctic. plied along the Northern Sea Route. The Arktika (named the …One hundred and fifteen years ago, on March 12, Leonid Brezhnev in 1982-1986) rescued all. That was one of 1897, Admiral S.O. Makarov made a report «On the Arctic the largest and most successful rescue missions in the entire Ocean Exploration» at a meeting of the Academy of Scienc- history. es in St. Petersburg. The report was later published as a bro- In fact, the Arktika hit many records. She worked all the chure under the title «Forcing the Way to the Pole!» Makarov year round, from May 1999 through May 2000, in the Arctic dreamt of reaching the planet’s top aboard an icebreaker, seas without visiting the homeport Murmansk , covered the although even the strongest icebreaking ship of that period, distance of 50,000 miles and proved the high reliability of all Above right: the Sibir the Yermak, could not cope with that mission. Ancestors and systems after 24 years of operation. There was a new record compatriots of the admiral made his dream true. The Arktika in August 2005, the Arktika passed the 1,000,000th mile! Right: the Sovetsky Soyuz forced its way through ice fields and reached the geographic The Sibir nuclear-powered icebreaker visited the North () Above and below: the Rossiya nuclear-powered icebreaker North Pole at 4 a.m. on August 17, 1977. The crew and the Pole in May 1987. The successful voyages gave rise to Far right: the Yamal expedition installed a ten-meter steel mast on the ice block the idea of commercial cruises aboard nuclear-powered

The Sevmorput In addition to the icebreakers, Russia has a nuclear- powered icebreaking lighter transport ship (LASH), the Sevmorput. She is on the Guinness Book of Records as a cargo ship with the most powerful nuclear pro-

pulsion unit. The Leningrad Baltsudoproyekt Central The Sevmorput LASH carrier Design Bureau designed the ship, and the Kerch Zaliv shipyard built her. She may transport 74 barges The Sevmorput (Project 10081) of 450 tonnes or 1,328 20-foot containers. The ice- Shipyard: Zaliv, Kerch, USSR breaking design and the powerful propulsion unit en- Launch year: 1986 able the ship to cross ice of up to one meter thick. Commissioning year: 1989 The Sevmorput worked on the Murmansk-Dudinka The deadweight: 33,980 tonnes line and visited Far Eastern ports, up to Vietnam. By The number and power of reactors: 1 х 135 megawatt 2009 the vessel had covered over 300,000 miles and Shaft horse power: 40,000 horse/power supplied 1.5 million tonnes of cargo to clients, but the Maximal speed: 20 knots reduced cargo traffic halted her operation. There were different options for the ship, up to her remodeling into a self-propelled rig, but modernization as a LASH carrier was approved in late 2011. •

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The 50 Let Pobedy (50th Victory Anniversary) – the Record Breaker The nuclear-powered icebreaker of Project 10521 named after the 50th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, remains the world’s largest. She belong to the modernized project of the second series of the Arktika-type icebreakers. The Baltiysky Zavod started building the ship in 1989 under the name The Urals, and it was launched on December 29, 1993. In 1995 she was renamed into the 50 Let Pobedy (the 50th Victory Anniversary). Further works were suspended due to the lack of funds. They resumed only in 2003, and the ship began sea trials in the Gulf of Finland on February 1, 2007. She hoisted the state flag on March 23, 2007, and headed for the homeport Murmansk ten days later. The 50 Let Pobedy significantly differs from her predecessors of Projects 1052 and 10520. She is 9.6 meters long and has a spoon- shaped bow. She can crush the ice of up to 2.8 meters thick due to the longer two-layer stainless steel ice lining. Bio-security of the nuclear power unit was modernized substantially. The icebreaker has ‘an environmental unit’ for the collection and disposal of waste. The super- structure is enlarged and remodeled, and boats and cargo derricks are modern. She also carries modern radio-electronic equipment and a digital automated control system of the new generation. The ship has twelve cabins with bathrooms, 102 single and ten double cabins for the The Taimyr and the Vaigach ment. The Soviet Union even supplied rolled steel for their crew. There are 14 double cabins, three four-bed cabins and one six- The construction of the Taimyr and Vaigach nuclear- hulls. The icebreakers were towed to Leningrad in 1988. The bed cabin for passengers, all with toilets and shower cabins. There is powered icebreakers was an example of successful Balitysky Zavod installed reactors and other equipment into a passenger lounge room for 56 people, a restaurant for 106 guests, a cooperation between the Soviet Union and Finland. The the hulls. The ships were put into service in 1989-1990 and mess-room for 84 crewmembers, a music room with a stage and a bar, .. .. project was designed jointly by the Finnish Wаrtsilа and the moved to the north. a number of other rooms, a library, a cinema, a swimming pool, a gym Leningrad Iceberg Central Design Bureau for leading ships They mostly operate on the Murmansk-Norilsk and and two saunas. There is also a medical unit with an outpatient section, into estuaries of Siberian rivers, which required a lesser draft. Igarka-Dikson lines. In February-March 2011 the Vaigach physiotherapeutic and dental rooms, a surgery room, an X-ray room, Another distinctive feature of the project is a one-reactor assisted shipping in the Gulf of Finland when Baltic diesel- laboratories, a quarantine ward and an infirmary. Above: the Vaigach propulsion system specially designed at the Iceberg. electric icebreakers could not cope with the severe ice The icebreaker has a two-duct air conditioning system and modern nuclear-powered .. .. icebreaker The Taimyr and the Vaigach were built at the Wаrtsilа patterns. materials are used in her decoration – vibration damping sheets, shipyards in Helsinki with a broad use of Soviet-made equip- asbestos-free decorative panels and non-flammable polymers. The highly convenient icebreaker can be successfully used in cruises to the North Pole and the Franz-Joseph Land. The nuclear-powered icebreaker Taimyr (Project 10580) Her main mission though is to lead caravans along the Northern

The displacement: 18,100 / 20,700 tonnes Sea Route. The Arctic route from Europe to Asia is 15-20 days shorter The maximal length: 151.8 meters and much cheaper than the traditional 40-day voyage through the Suez The maximal breadth: 29.2 meters Canal. It is also safer considering the sea pirate hazard off Somalia. The depth: 15.2 meters Many called historic the successful 50 Let Pobedy leading of the Da- The draft: 8.1 meters Number and type of nuclear reactors: 1 KLT-40M, 1 x 171 megawatts nish bulker Nordic Barents with 41,000 tonnes of iron ore concentrate Shaft horse power: 50,000 horse/power. aboard along the Northern Sea Route in September 2010. That was the Propeller shaft: 3 The 50 Let Pobedy first foreign vessel to successfully perform a commercial transit voyage The maximal speed in clean water: 18.5 knots nuclear-powered The maximal ice thickness: 1.77 meters with icebreaker through the Arctic. The voyage set a precedent and opened up broad the speed of two knots vistas to the domestic icebreaking fleet. Crew: 89 men

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Prospects 21900М) and one of 25 megawatt (Project 22600). The Continuous operation of the Northern Sea Route is ships are due to be put into service in 2015. There is also an a Russian priority, as this route is vital for many Russian agreement to prepare for building a series of nuclear-pow- regions. Six nuclear-powered icebreakers are operating on ered icebreakers of 60 megawatt (Project 22220). The new this route now but only one of them, the 50 Let Pobedy may nuclear-powered icebreakers with a variable draft (a design be left by 2020 when the service life of the others expires. of the Iceberg Central Design Bureau) will be able to work on Serial production of nuclear-powered icebreakers of the new the Northern Sea Route and in river estuaries. They will have generation must start in the next few years. an extended useful life (up to 40 years) and will crush the ice A contract with the United Shipbuilding Corporation of up to three meters. It is planned to build three such ships (USC) was signed on December 2, 2011, to build four by 2020. Together with diesel-electric icebreakers, they will The 50 Let Pobedy nuclear- All photos: Rosatomflot powered icebreaker diesel-electric icebreakers – three of 17.4 megawatt (Project replace vessels of the Arktika and Taimyr classes. •

The nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (Project 10521)

The displacement: 22,680 / 25,840 tonnes The maximal length: 159.6 meters The maximal breadth: 30.0 meters The depth: 17.2 meters The 50 Let Pobedy general layout: The draft: 11.0 meters А — longitudinal plan. B — forecastle deck. C — inner bottom. Number and type 1 — pilot house; 2 — captain cabin; 3 — 3.2 tonnes derrick; 4 — restaurant; 5 — passenger lounge; 6 — crew of nuclear reactors: 2 OK-900A, 2 x 171 megawatts mess room; 7 — trimming tank; 8 — cargo bay; 9 — food storage; 10 — environmental room; 11, 12 — main Shaft horse power: 75,000 horse/power turbo-generators and auxiliary mechanisms rooms; 13 — nuclear steam raising installation room; 14 — bow Propeller shaft: 3 electric power plant; 15 — auxiliary mechanisms room; 16 — side electric motors room; 17 — middle electric The maximal speed in clean water: 20 knots motor room; 18 – jet fuel tank; 19 — towing winch room; 20 — swimming pool; 21 — 16 tonnes derrick; 22 — medical unit; 23 — gym; 24 — music room; 25 — reserve diesel generators room; 26 — instrument The maximal ice thickness: 2.8 meters room; 27 — auxiliary boiler room; 28 — crew cabins. Crew: 138 men

a)

b)

c) From S udostroeniye magazine

Prospective nuclear-powered icebreaker of Project 22220

!OCEAN 36 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф !OCEAN 37 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф history Russian Columbus of the ХХ Century text: Nikita Kuznetsov

They called him a carefree man, a darling of fortune and a Russian Columbus who made the planet’s last great geographic discovery. They said he was a bad sailor who did not know how to moor but he was one of the first captains to traverse along the Northern Sea Route. He was a seafarer, a soldier, a polar explorer, a researcher of the Arctic Ocean and African Rivers, «the Arctic-Tropical Admiral». He was a White movement emigrant, an irreconcilable opponent of the Soviet authorities but all the geographic maps published in the USSR carried his name. This man is Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky.

«He was an infant terrible, a child of fortune, a highly talented man with bright but usually poorly planned projects», Capt. 1st Rank D.I. Daragan wrote about – his Marine Corps mate. «Bobochka was a cute and interesting interlocutor, with a childish frank look in the eyes and swift movements; he resembled a kind St. Bernard dog sometimes. I knew Bobochka well from the Corps years: he graduated a year earlier than me but he was six months younger. He was a bad student, that is he did not do his homework, but he really did not need that, he learned with ease». Corps balls and receptions were frequently attended by V.P. Vilkitskaya – Boris’s mother and his two sisters, Vera and Lidia, «who were so good looking some naval cadets sneaked in just to catch a glimpse of them», Daragan said. «When exams started, the sisters sat near Bobochka and forced him to skip through textbooks». Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky was born to a noble family from the Minsk province in St. Petersburg on April 21, 1885. His father, Andrei Ippolitovich Vilkitsky (1858-1913) was an acclaimed Russian hydrograph. He studied the Onega Lake and Arctic seas. Since 1907 and to the end of his life A.I. Vilkitsky was the head of the Main Hydrographic Department. He was the drafter of a systemic long-term plan of hydrographic works for all seas of the Russian empire, and the founder of the hydrograph corps and the sea shipping instrument workshop. It was not accidental that both sons of A.I. Vilkitsky – Boris and Yuri – chose the naval career. Yuri died at the age of 17 in 1905, while he was still a cadet of the Marine Corps. Right: Boris Andreyevich Boris Vilkitsky became a midshipman and joined the 20th fleet crew on May 19, 1903. He stayed Vilkitsky in Toulon, France, from June 1903 to March 1904 for accompanying crewmembers of the prospective

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fleet battleship Tsesarevich. Vilkitsky was appointed as the on August 29, after the commander, Fleet Navigation Corps ship’s navigation officer. In spring 1904, after the beginning of Col. I.S. Sergeyev, fell seriously ill. An expedition participant, the Russo-Japanese War, he was sent on a trip to Harbin. He V.G. Mizin, recalls, «Following instructions from the Main returned to the Tsesarevich on April 26. Hydrographic Department, B.A. Vilkitsky dared to order a On the last weeks of the fortress defense Vilkitsky was separate voyage of two ships and permitted their independ- fighting on the land front, and was wounded in the chest on ent maneuvers outside of the radio contact zone. These bold December 1 in the fierce fighting for Mount Vysokaya. After or even risky innovations of the young commander, which his the Port Artur surrender, the midshipman and many other careful predecessor did not dare to make, proved extremely Russian sailors were taken prisoner and brought to Nagasaki, successful». Japan. He did not stay for long there: he was let go to Russia The expedition based in Vladivostok made a detailed because of the wound on January 31, 1905. In his return, hydrographic description of the territory from Cape Dezhnyov Vilkitsky visited several Chinese ports by the order of Rear to the Lena River estuary within three years and installed Admiral Grigorovich. navigation marks along the coast. In 1913 the expedition was Vilkitsky was decorated with a number of awards for ordered to make a hydrographic description of the terrain taking part in the Russo-Japanese War, and he was made up to the Taimyr Peninsula and, in the case of favorable a lieutenant for perfect service on December 19, 1905. In conditions, to make a through voyage along the Northern 1908 he graduated from the hydrographic department of Sea Route. Cape Chelyuskin was blocked with heavy ice, the Naval Academy and became a senior lieutenant on De- and Vilkitsky made a daring decision to circle the ice from cember 19. His further career was the following: he was a the north. Suddenly, this maneuver led to the greatest geo- fleet navigation officer at the staff of the commander of the graphic discovery of the XX century. 1st mine division of the Baltic Sea squadron, an acting fleet On September 3, 1913, north of the Taimyr Peninsula, navigation officer at the staff of the commander of the Baltic Russian sailors found a hitherto unknown island they called Sea naval force and a fleet navigation officer of the staff of the Nicholai II Land (the Soviet Union renamed it into the the commander of the Baltic Sea naval force. On December Archipelago). Vilkitsky reported the dis- 19, 1912, Vilkitsky became a Capt. 2nd Rank. In the same covery in the following way, «I announced to the ship crews years he took part in hydrographic and geodesic works in at 6:00 p.m. on August 22 (the Old Style) that the newly the Baltic Sea and the Far East. discovered land had been added to the Emperor’s realm Yet the main deed of Vilkitsky, which eternally put his and congratulated them on the discovery. The national name into the history of geographic discoveries, was the Arctic flag was hoisted on the mast, while sailors were shouting Hydrographic Expedition he led in 1913-1915. It had a global hooray. The crew was treated to drinks and a festive din- mission of the provision of future shipping along the Northern ner». The strait between the Taimyr Peninsula and the new Sea Route. It was planned at first that works will be done from land was named after Crown Prince Alexei. Also in 1913 the West to the East, and the expedition’s main base (primarily, the expedition discovered and put on the map the Vilkitsky the coal storage) would be Dikson. It was decided later that Island (named after Boris Andreyevich’s father, A.I. Vilkitsky) the expedition would start from the East, from the Bering Strait. and described the Nicholai II Land, the Islands of Crown Two icebreaking ships, the Taimyr and the Vaigach, took Prince Alexei (Small Taimyr) and Starokadomsky. When the part in the exhibition. Those were the first steel icebreaking shipping season was over the ships went to Vladivostok, ships built specially for research works. On April 20, 1913, and the expedition commander went to St. Petersburg for Vilkitsky was appointed as the Taimyr commander and assis- reporting their results. The emperor made Boris Vilkitsky one tant to the expedition head. He became the expedition head of his entourage on March 20, 1914.

In 1914-1915 the Taimyr and the Vaigach made the first ever through voyage from Vladivostok to Arkhangelsk along the Northern Sea Route with one winter stay. They discovered the Novo- pashennoy Island (now Zhokhov Island) and conducted numerous scientific observations. They also updated coordinates of a number of locations. Great polar explorer lauded the expedition, «In the time of peace the expedition would have excited the entire civilized world». Alas, the World War One made further works impossible, and the Taimyr and the Vaigach returned to At the Russo-Japanese War Arkhangelsk on September 3, 1915. (It must be noted that the discovered archipelago was studied in detail and put on the map only in 1930-1932 by the G.A. Ushakov expedition. The same expedition Top: the Taimyr and Vaigach left: midshipman In June 1904 Vilkitsky was attached to the command of Port Artur and took part in the defense of the fortress. He be- gave names to the majority of geographic locations of the Severnaya Zemlya). ships in the Anadyr River Boris Vilkitsky came a personal aide of the port commander Rear Admiral I.K. Grigorovich, the former T sesarevich captain, in June. In estuary, 1913 the period of the Port Artur defense, Vilkitsky’s fate was closely linked with the submarine fleet, which was just making In addition to making geographic discoveries, descriptions and maps of the areas, which had Right: the underwater mine- Above: the routes of Taimyr its first steps. He was appointed the commander of the Portarturets submerged minelayer built by talented engineer been studied little by seafarers, the expedition collected a bulk of information about currents, ice, at- layer Portarturets designed by and Vaigach voyages in M.P.Nalyotov M.P. Nalyotov, the future builder of the world’s first mine laying submarine Krab, at his own initiative in the besieged mospheric and magnetic phenomena. Surprisingly, expedition reports were published only 70 years 1914-1915 fortress. The tests of the Portarturets were never brought to the end. • after and not completely.

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his mates and naval officers. But he spent a due number of members of the expedition, which was disbanded in the war years in the fleet and was admitted to the Marine Academy, time. He received medals for decorating expedition members what is more the hydrographic department, which required in early 1916 but most of them had been attached to warship the biggest effort. Being a bright man and a quick learner, he crews. So B.A. Vilkitsky sent the medals and letters to the was not a thinker and tented to hope for luck, his lucky star. commanders of warships and naval units where his former Similar opinions were expressed in other memoirs and expedition mates served. The letters asked for decorating works published in the Soviet period. We think they are them with awards at a due ceremony and to confirm the rather biased. Although Boris Vilkitsky had a good start in decoration to him. Alas, in the war time conditions far from his naval service and was truly a child of fortune to some all the letters were received and far from all the nominees extent, his work in the Arctic Hydrographic Expedition, Arctic received their orders and medals. Traces of former polar expeditions of the early 1920s and in the years of emigration explorers were lost in the war». showed that hydrography was his true calling unlike the fleet The Arctic research of Vilkitsky was acknowledged with service. Expeditions revealed Vilkitsky’s talents of an adminis- the Constantine Medal of the Imperial Russian Geographical trator and a caring commander. The latter was admitted by Society (1914 г.) and golden medals of the French Geo- Soviet researchers, «We would like to note the scrupulous- graphical Society and the Swedish Society for Anthropology ness and attention of Vilkitsky to the interests of former and Ethnography.

The publishing happened thanks to Dr. of Geographic Sciences, polar explosion veteran Valery Nikolayevich Kupetsky. He knew one of the expedition members, N.I. Yevgenov, and they started to prepare for publishing expedition reports together, but Yevgenov died in 1964 and it The Vilkitsky name on the map took 21 years to pass through preposterous impediments of «vigilant» academic bureaucrats, The names of Andrei Ippolitovich Vilkitsky and his son Boris remain on the Russian Arctic map. Islands in the who feared to publish materials of «the White movement» expedition. The book had a long and northwestern parts of the Nordensheld Archipelago (the Kara Sea), an island in the De Longa Archipelago in the Top left: capt. 2nd Rank thorny history but it is still topical – the United States translated and published it in late 1985, as East Siberia Sea, islands in the northwest of the Yenisei Bay, a cape, a bay, a mount and a glacier on the western B.A. Vilkitsky soon as the book was released in the USSR. coast of the northern island of the Novaya Zemlya and a cape in Chekin Bay on the eastern coast of the northern Top right: russian flag hoisting Vilkitsky’s description by one of his expedition colleagues may be of interest. Taimyr ice- island of the Novaya Zemlya are named after A.I. Vilkitsky. on Emperor Nicholai II Land’s breaking ship doctor L.M. Starokadomsky (1875-1962) wrote about the expedition commander, Islands in the Theresa Klavenes Gulf (the , the Taimyr Peninsula) and a strait between the Taimyr Pen- Cape, 1913 «The newly appointed Taimyr commander, Boris Vilkitsky, the son of Main Hydrographic Depart- insula and the Severnaya Zemlya were named after B.A. Vilkitsky. The strait was name after Crown Prince Alexei Above: Taimyr deck cleaning, ment head, outstanding hydrograph Gen. A.I. Vilkitsky who died in 1913 and a graduate of the in 1916 but was renamed into the Boris in 1917. The word Boris was crossed out from the strait 1914 name in the 1950s, and it was called the Vilkitsky Strait. An uninformed person might have thought that the strait Marine Academy wanted to go on an expedition for a long time but the father refused to appoint Right page: a dog goes for a was named after Vilkitsky senior, but Soviet maps paradoxically carried the name of an ideological enemy, a

him fearing unfavorable comment and criticism. The wish of B.A. came true only after his death». Photo: N ikita Kuznetsov walk from an icebreaking White Guard officer and an emigrant. Indirectly the Boris Vilkitsky name was given to a Soviet vessel, the Vilkitsky ship The expedition team was not very enthusiastic about the appointment of B.A. Vilkitsky as Strait large fishing trawler.

the Taimyr commander. The young bright officer had a reputation of a carefree man amongst • Lighthouse on the island Vilkitski Bay in the Yenisei

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The expedition ended in the midst of the World War One. Being an officer, Vilkitsky could not stay away from combat. He was the commander of the Letun destroyer since November 23, 1915, and became Capt. 1st Rank on July 30, 1916. After the February 1917 Revolution, «democratization» (collapse) of the Armed Forces began, and the election of commanders of warships and units was one of the innovations. It had an impact on Vilkitsky. The crew and the ship committee of the Letun destroyer passed a motion of no confi- dence in the commander on April 10, 1917. The resolution said, «Capt. 1st Rank Vilkitsky will not be acknowledged by the committee and the crew, because the destroyer’s operation under combat conditions revealed his unawares of the techniques of the ship control and command. The control was passed either to the division commander or the commander’s assistant at hard and responsible

Above: the badge of a moments. This is proven by his colleagues. Secondly, there is no need for this staff officer because participant in the Arctic the crew has elected its commander and the fleet commander approved the candidate. The Letun Hydrographic Expedition established in 1915. destroyer ad hoc committee resolves with the crew’s consent not to return Capt. 1st Rank Vilkitsky The badge belonged to to the ship for the following reasons: 1) rude treatment of the crew 2) unprecedented demand for L.M. Starokadomsky. It is currently displayed at wearing uniforms during works, 3) ungrounded shift to salaries, 4) inattentive attitude to the crew’s the Central Navy Museum. requests and claims. There are no monographs of Emperor Nicholai II and Crown Some of the claims to the Letun commander were farfetched. For instance, the command Prince Alexei on the badge lauded his conduct after the ship was blasted by a mine. But Vilkitsky never befriended sailors; that

Right: arctic Hydrographic is true. He was in danger during the dramatic events in Kronshtadt in February-March 1917, when Expedition officers: seated – sailors were killing their officers. The wife recalled a shot was fired at him from the shore and the bul- B.A. Vilkitsky the third on the left, P.A. Novopashennoy let pierced his coat. the fourth on the left. The Until the beginning of 1918 Capt. 1st Rank Vilkitsky was a staff officer at the operative division middle row: A.N. Zhokhov the second on left, A.M. Lavrov of the Baltic Fleet Communication Service. When the Bolsheviks came to power, he worked for the Photo from the family archives of I.N. Yevgenova, daughter of N.I. Yevgenov the second on the right, N.I. Main Hydrographic Department for some time. Then the Soviet government decided to continue the Yevgenov the third on the right, L.M. Starokadomsky the Arctic Hydrographic Expedition. on April 15, 1918. He arrived in Arkhangelsk in June, and the ice fields and performing hydrographic missions. The Reds fourth on the right. The upper Due to the severe food deficit in northern areas of the European part of Russia in summer 1918, city had an anti-Bolshevik revolt on August 2. The expedition seized some of the expedition members and property in their row: A.G. Firfarov the second on the left, K.K. Neupokoyev the proposal was made to carry grain from Siberia along the Northern Sea Route. The route was (even two) took place but for the White movement purposes. offensive. The White front in the north was broken through in the second on the right little studied at the time, so it was decided to send both grain and a hydrographic expedition subor- In 1918 Vilkitsky led an expedition to the Yenisei estuary February 1920, and Vilkitsky, who became a rear admiral on dinated to the Arctic flotilla commander. B.A. Vilkitsky was appointed as the expedition commander for building a radio station in Dudinka and bringing supplies October 16, 1919, had to take active part in the Arkhangelsk and a new shift to the radio station on the Dikson Island. In evacuation. that voyage the Vaigach vessel was lost: it ran aground off After the emigration, Vilkitsky spent some time in the UK. Cape Yefremov Kamen in the Yenisei Bay in thick fog. Then he moved to southern France and became a worker. Captain of destroyer Letun Next year the Northern Sea Route became important for The Soviet Union had a relative trade freedom in the the White movement. Supplies from the allies mostly came early 1920, and the Soviet government tried to organize On November 7, 1917, the Letun was blasted by a mine planted by a German submarine eleven miles to Siberia via Vladivostok. But there was a possibility to bring commercial expeditions in the estuaries of Siberian rivers. off the Revel Harbor. The ship’s stern was damaged seriously and 19 sailors were hurt, «but the crew remained calm and courageous all through the period after the accident». It must be noted that cargo and reinforcements along a shorter route. Hence the The expedition organizers (cooperative organizations) had B.A. Vilkitsky was not experienced in battleship command and, contemporaries said, the naval service Kolchak Government formed in April 1919 the Northern Sea a pressing deficit of experienced sailors, and Soviet Foreign did not come easy for him. Engineer Capt. 1st Rank A.P. Belobrov, who started his career in the Russian Route Committee. One of its tasks was to organize the Kara Trade Commissar L.B. Krasin sent a cable to Vilkitsky in 1922 Imperial Navy, wrote, «They said he could not moor or pinwheel, and the division commander who kept expedition for the delivery of officer reinforcements and offering him to take part in Kara expeditions. Vilkitsky ignored his burgee on Vilkitsky’s destroyer did that for him». Nevertheless, the Baltic Fleet commander nomi- cargo from Arkhangelsk to Siberia. The Arctic Hydrographic that cable but he accepted the Soviet government’s officer nated Boris Vilkitsky on October 29, 1916, for a St. George award weapon (granted on January 16, 1917). Expedition led by Vilkitsky provided safe shipping and ice next year. In 1923-1924 Vilkitsky led the 3rd and 4th Kara The order did not say why B.A. Vilkitsky was nominated but one may presume that was for laying mines reconnaissance. The Taimyr and Solovey Budimirovich ves- expeditions, which launched export-import transit between off Steinort on October 18, 1916, an operation involving the Letun destroyer. Destroyer Letun, 1916 • sels went to the Dikson Island for leading ships through the Western Europe and West Siberia and annual shipping along

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the Kara Sea route. Yet Vilkitsky realized quickly there was no as an accountant, a statistician and a Russian lan- Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky died in Brussels on March 6, 1961. The biggest Western editions hope for the soonest downfall of the Bolsheviks and refused guage teacher. In the last years of his life he was a clerk at an covering Arctic affairs reported his death. A large article dedicated to B.A. Vilkitsky was published to continue cooperation with the USSR. Boris Andreyevich ink factory. Vilkitsky, the same as some other White movement in the Soviet almanac, The Northern Chronicles, in 1964. N.I. Yevgenov, Vilkitsky’s colleague in the took residence in the UK and went into poultry farming but emigrants, pinned hopes for the liberation of Russia from the Arctic Hydrographic Expedition, was an article co-author. some time later his professional skills were in demand again – Bolsheviks on the WW2 and the invasion of the German army. Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky was an outstanding sailor who made a huge contribution to the Belgium hired him for service in Lower Congo. Princess His grandson said he offered Berlin his services in shipping Arctic shipping history. If the peak of his career had not happened amid the WW1 and the Civil Z. Shakhovskaya said, Vilkitsky transformed from «the Arctic along northern rivers in 1942. Most probably, the proposal was War, he would have been a much more known person. In fact, the Arctic Hydrographic Expedi- to tropical admiral». made because Vilkitsky’s colleague in Arctic projects, Vaigach tion led by Vilkitsky, not only made the biggest geographic discovery of the XX century but also Modern Central African state Zaire was a Belgian colony, icebreaking ship commander Capt. 1st Rank P.A. Novo- promoted the priority of Russia (and the USSR) in the control over Arctic territories and the Belgian Congo, in 1908-1960. A large river, Congo (Zaire), pashennoy (1881-1950), was the chief of the Abwehr German development of the Northern Sea Route, which became an important transport way in the second flows through its territory and has numerous tributaries. The military intelligence service’s ciphering department 4-0. half of the ХХ century. One simply has to agree with the opinion expressed in the Soviet time, «the Above: a Severnaya Zemlya Belgian government hired Russian emigrants for making The Germans ignored Vilkitsky’s offer for some reason. work of B.A. Vilkitsky and his associates restored Russia’s worthy place amongst the countries – landscape hydrographic research of Congolese water routes. Publicist I. Kuksin made an interesting comment on researchers of Arctic seas». On March 15, 1928, B.A. Vilkitsky in the rank of «fleet B.A. Vilkitsky’s relationship with the Soviet Union. «He lived • second lieutenant» headed the second research brigade of a lonely life and felt nostalgic frequently. Nostalgia became the Lower Congo Hydrographic Service. The brigade was particularly acute after he had met with a delegation of Soviet based on the Irondel (Swallow) ship. It made measurements polar explorers at the Brussels world show in the second in the Lower Congo River estuary. Vilkitsky was promoted to half of the 1950s. Boris Andreyevich was flattered with the Memory Hydrograph 2nd Class on July 1, 1930. He spent more than well-wishing attitude of the delegates who surrounded him three years in Congo and left Africa on April 15, 1931. He lived as soon as he introduced himself. He was so glad to hear in Belgium until he died. The Belgian government paid special that his name was not forgotten in the home country. Vilkitsky of the Descendants pensions to the former colonial personnel due to the hard told delegation head, chief of the Northern Sea Route Main Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky one of the few emigrant marines who conditions of equatorial climate. D.I. Ososov, who worked in Department Admiral V.F. Burkhanov he would gladly return returned home after his death. His ashes were taken from Brussels Congo for a long time, said ironically, «the enlarged colonial home. Burkhanov promised to do what he could, but soon to St. Petersburg in 1996 and buried at the Smolenskoye cemetery pension implied the soonest death of its holders, in particular, after that the Northern Sea Route Main Department was next to the family tombs (left).

in Belgian Congo». Contemporaries said Vilkitsky did not abolished and attached to a main department of the Marine photo: А. Pozharsky Ribbons from caps of Taimyr and Vaigach sailors. Central Navy The Taimyr (top) and the Vaigach (above) qualify for the Belgian government’s pension (most probably Ministry. That must have distracted Burkhanov, and Museum exhibits (above right). because of his short period of colonial work). He worked in B.A. Vilkitsky died soon after that». The Taimyr icebreaking ship (bottom right). •

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Muir and Riggs Glaciers The Arctic may be the most sensitive region of the planet, and local changes have an effect on the entire world. Growing temperatures reduce sea ice, while ice is a vital factor in the planet’s thermal balance. It reflects sunrays and protects the planet from overheating. When ice melts, the dark surface of water absorbs heat and the melting intensifies. Space monitoring of polar ices shows that their area shrinks by approximately 2.7% within ten years. Drifting ice in the Arctic may be gone at some point. Drifting ice is already much thinner than it was 30 years ago – the average ice thickness in winter was 3.6 meters in 1980, it has halved by now (1.9 meters). The disappearance of ice will change the Arctic: 1941 radiation balance of the planet and, consequentially, will increase average air temperatures.

Ice melting also intensifies shipping, which increases discharge of CO2 and soot into the at- mosphere and leads to air warming in the Arctic. The reducing areas and thickness of ice will make Climate and Ice

profitable hydrocarbon mining in the Arctic, which, in turn, will increase CO2 emissions. Warming in Siberia and Canada leads to the melting of permafrost, and large amounts of methane

are emitted into the air. Methane has a much bigger greenhouse effect than CO2. The shrinking ice inevitably reduces the population of seals, polar bears and other animals Cap Change 2004 whose habitat drifting ice is. Baby seals spend the first weeks of their life on the ice while they are not prepared for water. Bears need ice for successful hunting and rest. Warming is a particularly tangible process in the Arctic. The accelerating melting of Greenland glaciers is another danger. If the entire Greenland ice The average yearly temperatures grew by 2-3° in northwestern Canada melts, the World Ocean level will go up by six to seven meter. and Siberia in the past 50 years, as against the average growth of 0.7°. One may say that the future of the planet is being determined in the Arctic. • The ice cap shrinks by approximately 2.7% within ten years. photo: Vladimir Melnik

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Plenty of invertebrate, fish, bird and sea mammal species populate the Arctic. Nature Parks It has about two dozens of Cetacean species and nine Pinnipedia species, the walrus of the Russian North being the largest of them. and Far East Russia is a world leader in animal protection

8

1 2 5 5 6 7 3 4 9 5 10

Nature Parks of the Russian North and Far East 1 – Russkaya Arktika 11 National Park; 12 2 – Kandalakshsky; 3 – Nenetsky; 4 – Gydansky; 5 – Bolshoy Arktichesky; 6 – Taimyrsky; 13 7 – Ust-Lensky; 8 – The ; 9 – Koryaksky; 14 10 – Komandorsky (Commander Islands); 11 – Kronotsky; photo: Vladimir Melnik 12 – Magadansky; 13 – Dzhugdzhursky; 15 14 – Poronaysky; 15 – Kurilsky.

Franz Josef Land Reserve. After an ice storm

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The world’s biggest predator – the polar bear – also lives here. Bears spend most of their lives on drifting ice to hunt seals. The Barents Sea has the most diverse fauna, such as fish and sea birds. The fauna is scarcer to the east, but it turns diverse again in the Chukchi Sea. On the whole, the fauna of the Arctic basin (the central Arctic) is much more limited that the fauna of coastal waters. But this is the habitat of the most wonderful Arctic ani- mal, narwhale – sea unicorn. photo: Vladimir Melnik

Franz Josef Land Reserve. Atlantic walruses

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photo: Alexei Konopelko

The largest sea bird colonies live in the western Arctic, These include eight nature parks – Bolshoy Arktichesky, Gy- The island is also called the polar bear’s «maternity home» – on the Franz-Joseph Land and the Barents Sea coast of No- dansky, Kandalakshsky, Koryaksky, Nenetsky, the Wrangel she-bears from Alaska and Chukotka come there to give birth to vaya Zemlya. Another place crowded by birds is the Bering Island, Taimyrsky and Ust-Lensky – and four reserves – the their cubs. Musk oxen were brought to the island in 1974. Sea, particularly, the Chukotka coast. Franz-Joseph Land, Nenetsky, Nizhne-Obsky and Severoze- The nature conservancy areas protect both eco-systems and Franz Josef Land Reserve. A number of nature conservancy areas have been cre- melsky. The Wrangel Island is on the World Heritage list. cultural heritage linked with the exploration of northern areas and Colony of birds ated to preserve the unique and diverse fauna of the Arctic. It has the unique flora resembling Pleistocene species. the traditional lifestyle of indigenous small-numbered peoples.

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Russia’s first national park, the Russian Arctic, opened in 2009 on the northern outskirts of the Novaya Zemlya Archi- pelago and the first tourists visited it this year. The creation of reserves and nature parks is the most important direction in the conservation of rare species of Arctic wildlife. The survival of polar bears causes the greatest con- cern of experts as of today. The main threat for this species is climate change, leading to melting of ice in the zone of ​​ the continental shelf – the main habitat and food source for the bears. «Some experts believe that all polar bears will be extinct with the disappearance of the ice. It is unknown so far whether the ice disappears or not. But the process goes on, and it has a very unfavourable trend for the bears», Nikita Ovsyannikov, Deputy Director for Science of the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve, said. He also pointed to another critical factor – the extermination of animals by people that has considerably grown in scale. «Polar bears – it’s a very easy prey, they are not timid, so you can approach them very closely. In Canada, they are hunted even with crossbows», Andrei Boltunov, Deputy Chairman of the Council on Marine Mammals, bore out his words. photo: I gor S hpilenok photo: Alexander Aristarhov photo: Alexander

Left: white-coat seal Above: Kronotsky on the ice Reserve in Kamchatka. Semyachiksky Lagoon

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If the situation does not change, then, according to sci- Finally, the third reason is the so-called killing of «a entists, the Canadian bear population could disappear within problem bear» that occurs when a person encounters the 90 years, and non-Canadian populations – within 40 years. animal. In this case, the expert believes, it is necessary Andrei Boltunov has named three main reasons for to conduct explanatory work among the people, to work killing the bears. The first is that during the winter period out clear-cut rules in case if it is impossible to evade an polar bear in Chukotka has become the only source of meat encounter with the bear. for people. In order to rectify the situation, it is necessary to It is important to note that Russia is a world leader in organise the region’s normal food supply. the sphere of Arctic animals protection. So, the country was The second reason is commercial poaching. The cost of the first in the world to adopt in 1957 a law totally banning a polar bear hide in Moscow can amount to 1 million and 200 hunting of polar bears. In 2007, an agreement between the

photo: O lga Belonovich thousand roubles. The tightening of control over the traffic governments of Russia and the United States, establishing of the hides and liquidation of their sale points is seen as the quotas on the destruction of the Alaska-Chukotka population Commander Islands’ Reserve. only way to combat this phenomenon. of polar bears came into force. Orcas

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Russian Arctic National Park This measure significantly limited the destruction of the animal within the framework of the «traditional use of natural The Russian Arctic National Park is the youngest and third largest national park in Russia. It covers about 650,000 hectares of land and resources» by the indigenous peoples of the North. At pre- almost 750,000 hectares of seawaters: the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, a part of the Barents Sea and 191 islands of the Franz-Joseph Land federal nature reserve. sent, about 12 bears are annually killed in Chukotka. Thanks to the efforts of the International Fund for Animal The Russian Arctic mission includes preservation of cultural, historical and natural heritage of these wonderful lands. Despite the Arctic Above: Russkaya Arktika severe climate (with the lowest temperatures -40°C), Pomors have always been hunting and fishing on the territory, which now be- Welfare (IFAW), the hunting of baby Greenland seals (white- National Park. Ice front on Cape Zayats comes the national park. Historically, these lands have been starting point of many polar voyages. The park comprises 160 cultural and coat seals) was prohibited by law in Russia in 2009. And historical sites of international and federal significance. Another goal of the national park is circumpolar tourism. In the past three years in 2011, the import of their skins was also banned, which Left: fur seal cub the number of tourist arrivals has grown considerably. We are glad that an increasing number of compatriots wish to visit the Arctic. • reduced the interest in the hunt for these animals in Canada. photo: Vyacheslav N emyshev

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photo: Dmitry Utkin

«Russia currently has a chance to influence the lives of Greenland seal all over the world», be- Above: Russkaya Arktika National Park. Coast of lieves Lyudmila Danilova, IFAW program manager. In connection with climate change, the White Sea Novaya Zemlya is becoming a practically unique place of their reproduction. However, due to the active navigation

Right: South Kamchatka in these waters hundreds of seal pups get under ships. For the prevention of their mass death it is Sanctuary, Bay Herald. Gray necessary conduct annual flights over the area and put in the map the location of the seal haul-out whale sites. Captains of ships have confirmed their willingness to bypass such areas, if they are mapped. Next page: Arctic in The successful experience of such cooperation has already been recorded in 2009. Commander Islands’ Reserve • (left); ptarmigan (center); red Photos provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation

salmons (below) photo: Vladimir Vertyankin

!OCEAN 62 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф !OCEAN 63 www.ocean-magazin.ru www.океанжурнал.рф nature & ecology nature & ecology Save polar bear! Greenhouse gas mitigation can save polar bear from extinction Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), which are the symbols of the Arctic, could probably disappear from our planet by the end of this century, the reason being continuous global warming and – as a result – rapid sea-ice loss in the Arctic.

For polar bears, sea ice that would not melt in the Arctic and sea-ice habitat, which means that there is no tipping Today’s climate change can be doubted by anyone, but not by scientists. They know that global all the year round, is a vital necessity, as it’s the ice cover that point leading to irreversible loss of ice. (meaning that on the entire planet) mean surface temperature has increased by 0.8°C since the end of provides them with their main food source – seals. Therefore, Polar bears, the world’s largest land predators, are now the 19th century, and by 0.33°C throughout 1990-2006. This temperature raise leads to increase of the the ice cover projection will also be the one of the polar bear on the verge oа extinction. Continuous climate change leads World Ocean level (by approximately 3.3 ± 0.4 mm a year throughout 1993-2006), as well as ice cover situation. To date, this projection is far from being comforting, to rapid sea-ice loss in the Arctic, and it’s the ice that provides loss in the centre of the Arctic Ocean. although the outcomes of the survey carried out by a USA these specific animals with their main food source – seals. What causes climate change is first and foremost continuous greenhouse gas increase – and mostly

research team still leave some place for hope. Using various Polar bears usually lie in wait of their prey, and then, at the СО2 that is being produced as a result of fossil fuels burning. Each year, due to human activities, nearly 9 scenarios of greenhouse gas behaviour, their influence on air right time, kill it with a dead hit on the head and get it onto ice. billion tons of carbon are being released into air. About 4 billion of them stay in the air, and the rest is being temperature and ice cover loss in the Arctic, the research- Moreover, polar bears can catch a seal, when it has come out absorbed by the ocean and land ecosystems. As a result, ice cover of the Arctic gets thinner, and, above ers concluded that it’s possible to conserve ice cover, and on the ice for itself. Therefore, constant sea-ice loss – as well all, is being reduced in space. As female bears give birth to cubs in lairs on solid surface (and very rarely Polar bear therefore polar bears. The important discovery was a linear as simple retreat of ice verge form shelf, productive sea re- (Ursus maritimus) on ice), bears then have to wait till ice cover appears in shelf regions for them to be able to procure food. relationship between global mean surface air temperature gions (rich in fish and seals) – is a real danger for polar bears. As freezing period is being gradually shifted, polar bears suffer from hunger and serious undernutrition.

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The future of polar bears totally depends on the situ- as the size of ice regions which can provide food for polar polar bear population amounts to nearly 20,000 animals, which, of course, ation with ice cover. That is why it’s crucial to make a right bears, continental shelf ice cover, how much time the shelf is not a very small number, but taking into consideration the extremely low projection of this situation. A United States Geological Survey stays free from ice, the distance from the shelf to the verge reproduction rate, the situation can easily become dangerous. (Alaska Science Centre, Anchorage, Alaska) research team of permanent ice in the centre of the Ocean. And according In Russia, hunting of polar bears has been prohibited until recently (with headed by Steven C. Armstrup has recently come up with to pessimistic scenario, there would be almost no sea-ice in poaching rate always very high), but now it has been legalized for locals, such a projection within various greenhouse gas scenarios. September by the mid-century. which triggered a protest of scientists and society. Upon the initiative of the The researchers paid special attention to the relationship be- It’s also necessary to take other steps to conserve polar Russian department of WWF special groups have been organized – mostly tween greenhouse gas concentration in the air, global mean bears, including total ban of hunting, which is still partly al- consisting of locals (the so-called «bear patrol»), – to monitor polar bears, surface temperature and various ice cover features, such lowed in the northern parts of the USA and Canada. Today deal with poachers, as well as to keep the bears away from urban areas. •

The most sensitive region of the planet Polar bears & ice

The Arctic may be the most sensitive region of the planet, and local changes have an ef- Polar bears need ice for successful hunting and rest. fect on the entire world. Warming is a particularly tangible process in the Arctic. The aver- Zoologists have watched by GPS a she-bear swimming age yearly temperatures grew by 2-3 ° in northwestern Canada and Siberia in the past 50 for nine days (687 kilometers) non-stop before she could years, as against the average growth of 0.7°. • reach a good hunting ground. •

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text and photo: Alexander Aristarkhov

The undersea world of the Russian North is severe but extremely interesting and abundant. Swimming under the ice sheet on a sunny day cannot be described with words – the experience will always be remembered by those who take a look behind Diving the crystal glass at least once…

We live in a northern country. That is a fact, which can-

not be ignored. Permafrost occupies a huge part of our ter- graphics: Yu. Drobyshev ritory, and nearly all the cropland lies within the «agriculture risk zone». Hence diving in Russia has long been considered a risky adventure – nearly all the seas are cold or even super- in Russian cold. Short dives without exposure suits are possible only in the Black Sea in the peak of the summer season, and even then dives cannot be deep. In all the other waters, including inland reservoirs, divers cannot do without exposure suits and other equipment. The cold water factor impeded ama- teur diving in Russia for long. North

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Yet diving in the Russian North has become popular in recent years due to the appearance of reliable high-quality equipment (mostly imported) on the market alongside the development of modern tourism and diving infrastructure in northern, circumpolar and Far Eastern areas. Modern dive centers opened to offer services in the White and Barents Seas, the Baikal, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and Primorye. A substantial part of the diving community shifted from the tra- ditional tropical waters to domestic water ponds as a result. The underworld of Russian Northern and Far Eastern Seas, lakes and rivers of the European part of Russia and Below: the White Sea’s beauty, Siberia is severe but extremely interesting and abundant. Cape Kartesh, harbors the only diving support vessel in It is a question of common knowledge that the sea shelf of the Russian North with the moderate and cold waters is one of the most productive same name in the World Ocean. It feeds the planet with sea proteins. Right page above: sea girdle Northern areas are much more biologically abundant than (laminaria) jungle is typical of Russian northern seas warm tropical waters. Life is everywhere – water mass is full of oxygen. Oceanic currents lift up mineral salts from the Right page below: sea urchins and bright sea squirts seabed; together with oxygen that creates a breeding ground (filtrating animals) make up a for plankton – the backbone of life. Giant fish shoals graze large share of the biomass in the Arctic undersea world there; large predatory fish, sea mammals, birds and the man hunt the shoals…

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Cold waters are full of phyto- and zoo-plankton, water plants, mollusks, sponges, crustaceous and echinodermatous species. There is no unoccupied rock at all – all is covered by plants and ani- mals. Dense «forests» of laminaria, rockweed and other algae grow in shallow waters. That is a real paradise for small living organisms. Basket stars, the young of sea stars and urchins, sea squirts, sea slugs, multicolor sponges, pearlweeds, small sea anemones, hydropolyps, shy fry, mollusk and fish roe find refuge in the plants roots, «trunks» and «leaves». Red algae grow a bit deeper; it is smaller than brown algae but no less interesting. Pantopoda (sea spider) and side-swimmers crawl on the algae, bivalve mollusks – mussels and modiolus – hang like grapes while sea urchins of an Left: setting sun in brisk autumn weather lights up for a moment apple size move in between. Purple urchins with a silvery or violet tint have the size of a grapefruit. the coastal taiga and granite Sea stars of various shapes and colors decorate the seabed. Farther on rocks are covered with boulders in Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea sponges and sea cucumbers hunting plankton. Sea «jewels» – brightly colored actinia, undersea «chrysanthemum» and «asters», merciless killers of jellyfish, fry and plankton, are also there. The Right: man-made diving hole – young of crabs may be seen on the rocks sometimes, but the area is dominated by fixed or non- the door to the mysterious sub-glacial world mobile life forms feeding on plankton carried by tides. Large fish – cod, pollack, haddock, rock trout and lenok – bustle about the greenish water.

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Phlegmatic bullheads move around, flatfish melt into the These are just bio-riches of the moderate and northern background, and lancet fish hide in holes under the rock. waters, but there are also cultural and archeological artifacts Bivalve mollusks occupy sandy stretches of the seabed; amassed underwater in the long history of sea shipping. The slow snails crawl and swift hermit fish shuttlecock. There waters conceal traces of numerous wars, the WW1 and WW2 are bunches of scallops in the sand. They taste good even included. Cold seas of Northern Europe and the Far East once when they are raw, but not only people love them – sea were the battlefield of navies of Germany, the UK, the USSR, stars also hunt scallops. The mission is hard – scallops can Japan, the United States and other countries. There are sights swim by briskly shutting their shells and thus creating a jet to see and things to seek and explore. thrust. They cannot escape the crushing teeth of lancet fish Sub-glacial diving is a Russian diving specialty. That is a though… truly extreme sort of diving. Extremely low water and air tem- Kamchatka crabs live at accessible depths in Russian perature, dim light and orientation problems test for endurance northern waters. Adult crabs provoke keen interest and ap- both diving equipment and the diver’s health and mind, skills petite of divers. The young of crab may be found on cliffs. and knowledge accumulated through the personal diving re- Tens or even hundreds of young crabs stick together, actually cord. Nevertheless, these are the most wonderful dives, which sitting on one another. That is a way to protect from numerous leave no one indifferent. Impressions and emotions experi- predators in molting, when the chitin shell is still soft. The mov- enced in ice diving overfill any soul that takes a look behind the ing thorny mass is a rare and unforgettable sight. crystal glass, especially if that happens on a bright sunny day.

Top left: rare large basket star (sea star Top right: sea walnuts – large plankton Above: sea ice diving in Europe Top: a young Kamchatka crab Above left: intricate laced Above right: cod – the relative) Gorgon’s Head organisms, some of them purple is guaranteed ONLY in the White surrounded by large purple sea slugs – a real jewel main commercial catch colored, hovering under the White Sea! Divers from various countries sea urchins of the seabed in the North Sea ice like unreal airships come here

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Light! Dimmed soft blue light comes through the cracks and breaks, the diving hole and ice stretches clean of snow. Sunrays play a wonderful game on the intricate surfaces of chunk ice and hummocks and exhaled air bubbles slide along the ice’s bottom. Light pillars come through holes into winter-pure water, transforming into cones and illuminating undersea landscapes with a phan- tasmal unreal glow. The only sound disturbing the silence and calmness comes from the regulator, which rhythmically emits air bubbles booming in the frozen stillness... Now that the world’s latest diving techniques have become accessible to our compatriots, diving in cold or even ice-cold water becomes natural and rather comfortable. Modern divers have mastered circumpolar skills; they make successful dives in the Arctic Ocean, the North Pole, high- land lakes and even off Antarctica and they do that with pleasure. •

Left page: the spring sun and Top left: sea walnuts, Top right: crab Above left: devil shrimps – Above right: bullheads – tides crack the ice shell in glittering in the water mass «married couple» funny-looking creatures phlegmatic, big-mouthed April, making ice drift diving as they fight small plankton occupy sea girdle leaves colored fish species, one particularly attractive with their «mouths» open of them most common wide and amusing natives of northern seas

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Unique and Mysterious

Lake Baikal is the deepest (1637 m), the oldest (25 Mya) and the largest lake in the world. Proceeding from the current Baikal demand of the people in water, that is equal to 500 litres per person per day, Baikal water can satisfy the needs of the whole Earth’s population for about 40 years. Baikal is called

Ushkan Is. the planet’s «blue miracle», it is the world’s most transparent lake (visibility up to 40 metres). Russia holds one of the first places in the world in terms • of fresh water reserves. The largest portion of fresh water Olkhon Is. is in lakes. There are more than two million lakes in Russia The shores of Lake Baikal are moving apart at a significant (first place in the world), mostly small (up to 1 square km in speed in geological terms – 2 cm per year. The Siberian Angara river area). The total area of their water surface is more than 350 and Trans-Baikal tectonic plates are moving apart, freeing thousand square km, and the total reserves of lake waters Irkutsk Selenga river the space for an ocean trench. The continents of Africa Above: Baikal ice in March are estimated at 26 thousand cubic km. Of these, Lake Baikal and South America are moving apart with the same speed. accounts for 23 thousand cubic km. This makes 20 percent Listvyanka Geophysicists have expressed a hypothesis that Baikal is an Right page, above: expedition Ulan-Ude of the world’s surface waters (excluding glaciers and ice of ships near Olkhon Island originating ocean, and the area around it may become a new Antarctica). Atlantis. • Lake Baikal •

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In 1996, UNESCO included Lake Baikal in the World Natu- In 2008-2010, the Lake Baikal Protection Fund organised ral Heritage List under all four criteria, although one would a complex International Research Expedition «Mir Subs» be sufficient. It was stated in the UNESCO decision that Lake on Baikal during which the lake research was for the first Gas hydrates Top: moving of Mir ocean Baikal is a real limnological miracle and a territory with an time conducted with the use of the deepwater manned submersibles to Lake Baikal exceptional biodiversity. It is possible to find here both the submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. The made a total of 178 dives. Gas hydrates are ice-like solid compounds of methane and water, stable at high pressures and low temperatures. Large methane volumes are discharged during tiny crustacean epishura and a large pinniped – the Baikal The expedition allowed the scientists to collect a wealth of re- Above: the President of Russia the decomposition of gas hydrates. The Baikal gas hydrates could contain 13 billion Vladimir Putin before the dive seal. It is noteworthy that two-thirds of the local species are search material, to considerably supplement the knowledge cubic metres of gas. According to scientists, it is a huge reserve of energy resources endemics, which is of exceptional value for the study of of the earlier known species and discover new species – the Right page, above: for future generations. Before the «Mir Subs» Expedition on Baikal, it was believed deepwater work evolution. blue sponges, Baikal planarians and other. The discovery at that such large volumes of gas hydrates are deposited only on the sea shelf. • the bottom of Lake Baikal of huge deposits of the «fuel of the • future» – gas hydrates, was the greatest achievement. • Manipulator of the Mir deepwater submersible takes a hydrate sample

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One of the mysteries of Baikal is the Kurykan ruins. This ancient wall of the Olkhon Island was built without any binder, therefore there are no organic substances that can be used for its radiocar- bon analysis, which makes it difficult to identify the wall’s age. Although, it’s commonly considered to belong to the Kurykan culture (5-10 cent.), the line should not be drawn here, as the wall can turn out to be younger or, vice versa, much older. The construction’s purposes also cause arguments. It’s located across Cape Khorgoi , stretching along the steep on the east and blocking the cape with sheer cliff descending to the water on the west, its total length being 292 metres. A stone with a cavity presumably intended for gathering im- molation blood was found on the peak of the cape. Thus, the wall had probably been a structure of religious worship, built around the sacred place. This version is also supported by the burial places discovered on Cape Shebet behind the wall. According to another version, these walls might have served as protection from enemies. On the eastern side of the wall, the ruins of what seem obviously to have been a moat were discovered, with vertically embedded flat stones of 2-metre length on its periphery, which probably served to protect the people from enemy soldiers. •

The Baikal winds. They still present a mystery even for ex- Mirages. It is not a common knowledge, but in the Baikal perienced fishermen. Going to «sea» (and that’s how locals region one can observe mirages just like in the desserts. In a call Lake Baikal), they never know whether it would be stormy sunny weather you may see a mountain, a ship or a village, or calm, as hurricanes may suddenly come on a clear sunny try to reach them – and fail. The region is not rich in hot sum- day. The reason is in Lake Baikal’s geographical position: mer days – how can this phenomenon be explained then? surrounded by mountains, it forms a giant cavity, which now Although the weather is really rather cool most of the time, and then is attacked by especially strong winds from behind the sun is still a frequent guest in the Baikal region – it shines the mountain chains. One of the most violent Baikal winds, here for 2,500 hours a year (it’s more than in the Crimea or sarma, is so sharp because of the same-name river-valley in the Caucasus). Thus, the warmed air can present us with narrowing towards the entry. Thus, the lake is being assault- mirages for 2 to 10-15 days. Light rays reflected from the wa- ed by the wind, caused by aerodynamic tunnel effect. ter make us see subtle outlines and silhouettes. The mirages • Above: baykal seals and their appear near Cape Solnechny, in the north-eastern part of the favourite Ushkan Islands Underwater fauna of Lake Baikal Olkhon Island and on the Ushkan Islands. •

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The lake’s significant size make it possible to consider it as a terrestrial analogue of the seas that exist under the ice shell on Jupiter’s moons Europa and Callisto. In this regard, the area of Lake Vostok is of interest as a proving ground for testing methods and tools to detect and study life in extreme (extraterrestrial) conditions. The first instrumental evidence of the existence of a sub- glacial lake under the was obtained in 1964 by Russian researchers who carried out the seismic sounding of glaciers in this area of Antarctica. In the 1970s of the last cen- tury, these findings were confirmed by radar sounding, which Lake Vostok was carried out on a number of routes by the US, British and Russian scientists. The processing of the results of satellite radar altimetry conducted in 1993, for the first time made it Research in Antarctica possible to assess the enormous size of the subglacial lake that was named Lake Vostok. Studies allowing to examine its «The penetration into the subglacial Lake Vostok in internal structure are currently underway. Antarctica – is the world’s great achievement that Well 5G, which reached Lake Vostok, is currently the is comparable in scale with the landing on Mars», deepest of the wells drilled at any time in icecaps of Green- Director of the Institute of Geography of the Russian land and Antarctica. In 2012-2013, drilling at Vostok will be Academy of Sciences Vladimir Kotlyakov said. continued, but an eco-friendly operation will require special instrumentation and additional investment, so all this will take Lake Vostok is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica. The drilling of holes through the four-kilometre thick time. It is planned to take water samples from the relict lake It is comparable in size with Lake Ladoga – the largest in ice continued for a total of more than 20 years. Finally, on in 2014 within the framework of the 59th Russian Antarctic Europe. It is located in the area of the Antarctic station February 5, 2012, Russian scientists from the Vostok station Expedition. Vostok (77 degrees south latitude, 107 degrees east longi- reached the waters of the lake. The implementation of the project of penetration of Lake tude), under the ice sheet about 4,000 metres thick and has The importance of the study of Lake Vostok is determined Vostok will help find answers to many fundamental questions a size of approximately 280 x 55 kilometres. The estimated primarily by the fact that it potentially represents a unique that the researchers of the subglacial environment are facing, area of the lake – 15.5 thousand square kilometres, depth – aquatic ecosystem that has been isolated from the Earth’s and, above all, to the central question about the existence of 1,200 metres. atmosphere and the surface biosphere for millions of years. life in the lake’s water. •

Above: expedition’s Below: participants in the 57th special machinery Russian Antarctic Expedition at convoy borehole 5G, which reached the depth of 3,650 metres, January 2012

Map of Antarctica. The arrow marks Lake Vostok. Diagram of Lake Vostok and borehole drilled in the ice

Antarctica The discovery of Antarctica January 28, 1820 is usually considered the date of the discovery of Antarctica, when members of the Rus- The sixth continent of the planet – Antarctica – is the world’s natural reserve. In accordance with the Antarctic T reaty, which sian expedition on the Vostok and sloop-of-war under the command of Captain 2nd rank Thaddeus was signed on December 1, 1959 and entered into force on June 23, 1961, the continent cannot belong to any state. The von Bellingshausen (Faddey Bellinsgauzen) saw an ice barrier and a continental glacier, rising to the south. deployment of military facilities is banned here. In the 1980s, Antarctica was also declared a nuclear-free zone, which ex- The same expedition participants saw the Antarctica coast without the eternal ice on January 29, 1821. cluded the appearance in its waters of nuclear-powered vessels, and on land – nuclear power units. The Madrid Protocol of Bellingshausen named the discovered coast after the Russian Emperor Alexander I. The Land of Alexander I turned out to be part of mainland Antarctica. 1991 prohibits industrial activity and mining in Antarctica, and only research activities are permitted here today. • • Russian coin, issued in honour of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819-1821.

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морской познавательный журнал Oceanic Research roughness of the sea surface. Diverse tasks can be solved with the knowledge of these parameters. The application of observation data received from sea and ocean monitoring satellites goes beyond the tasks listed below: • Operative cartography and monitoring of sea and ocean temperature patterns; • Operative cartography and study of areas of concen- tration of suspended material; • Analysis of phytoplankton concentrating bio-productivi- ty of the sea and blooming; Technical Parameters of the Mir from space • Monitoring of ice and snow patterns on land and at the sea; class manned underwater vehicles:

Satellites have been used actively for a long time to • Monitoring of the level and dynamics of waters in vari- Working depth: 6000 meters monitor the World Ocean; they play in an important role in ous parts of seas and oceans; Dry weight: 18.6 tonnes the forming global ocean monitoring system. The monitoring • Monitoring of the level, flow and deltas of large rivers; Length: 7.8 meters system incorporates 10,000 ground stations, 1,000 aerologi- • Environmental protection; Width: 3.8 meters Height: 3.0 meters cal stations, over 1,000 ships, 1,200 drifting buoys, 200 • Monitoring of the ecological condition of areas around Energy store: 100 kW/hours (Ni-Cd) anchored buoys, 3,000 Argo diving buoys and approximately mining, refinery and transportation of crude, gas and other Life support: 246 men/hours 3,000 aircraft. The orbiting component of the system is made mineral resources; Maximal speed: 5 knots up of six geostationary satellites, five polar orbit satellites, five • Observation of coastal zones, shipping and oil spill Reserve buoyancy (on the bottom): 290 kilogauss environmental observation satellites and about 50 other satel- monitoring; Crew: 3 people Inhabited sphere diameter: 2.1 meters lites. The most informative method of the Earth observation • Operative control and monitoring of the construction and Sphere material: nickel steel from space is the analysis of imageries collected by satellite status of oil and gas mining and transportation infrastructure; instruments of different frequency ranges. • Studies of clouds, dangerous atmospheric phenom- Active and passive sensors operating in the visible, ena, wind speed and wave height; infrared and microwave segments of the electromagnetic • Monitoring of natural and man-made disasters, forest spectrum are used for measuring the four main parameters fires and floods. • of the seas and oceans: color, temperature, height and from deep water There are four submersibles in the world capable of reaching depths of 6,000 meters, and Rus- sia owns two of them. The Mir-1 and Mir-2 manned underwater vehicles are a remarkable page in the modern mari- time history of Russia. The vehicles were built in Finland in 1987 under the guidance of scientists and engineers from the P.P. Shirshov Oceanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 25 years of their accident-free life, the vehicles dived in more than 50 spots of the World Ocean. Over 1,000 dives were performed with the total duration exceeding 12,000 hours (the diving map). In 1991 the Mir-1 and Mir-2 Russian manned underwater vehicles dived towards the Titanic, the British vessel, which collided with an iceberg in 1912 and sank in the Atlantic Ocean at the depth of Main parameters of the Vyacheslav 3,750 meters. In all, 140 submersions were performed by the Mir vehicles towards the Titanic from Tikhonov survey ship: 1991 to 2001 and unique filming was done, which was later used in fiction and popular science movies. Deadweight: 4.771 tonnes The Mir-1 and Mir-2 manned underwater vehicles submerged in the North Pole geographic spot Length: 84.2 meters on August 2, 2007, within the Arktika 2007 scientific expedition. That was a landmark event because Width: 17 meters the northern pole of the planet located at the depth of 4,261 meters under the ice shield up to 2-2.5 Crew: 22 men Ice class: 1A meter thick was explored only in the early ХХI century. That was the first time people saw the Arctic Seisphone cable assemblies: 8 Ocean floor in the North Pole geographic spot! The Mir-1 and Mir-2 manned underwater vehicles studied Lake Baikal in 2008-2010. In the three-year international scientific expedition, the Mirs performed 176 submersions in practically from surface every part of the unique lake. That was their first freshwater dive. The vehicles descended to the The Vyacheslav Tikhonov research ship was added to the Russian Company SKF fleet in 2011. The X-bow 3D vessel was depth of 1,580 meters for studying the lake flora and fauna, hydrothermal vents, mud volcanoes and built for geological survey of the continental shelf, primarily under complex climatic conditions of the Arctic. The ship was built in hydrocarbon emissions. The scientists updated information about the depths of Lake Baikal, tectonic August 2011. It is the youngest of the world’s six X-bow 3D vessels. processes on its bottom and the coastline condition and even searched for archaeological artifacts. The Vyacheslav Tikhonov carries the newest scientific equipment and has a number of unique features. Its hull, stern and bow The Mir manned underwater vehicles made nearly 100 dives within the Elemo scientific program have special shapes, the ship carries eight seisphone cable assemblies, an optimized diesel-electric engine and propulsion system in 2011 for studying Lake Geneva, one of the largest in Europe. Scientists from six states conducted and systems ensuring unfailing operation under low temperatures; this is a vessel of a high ice class and security standards. hydro-physical, geological, biochemical, hydro-chemical and microbiological research. The informa- The peculiar ship bow makes it possible to work under extreme Arctic conditions and reduces fuel consumption. The ship’s tion they collected will help evaluate pollution of Lake Geneva, the main source of drinking water for mission is geophysical survey. It is named after USSR People’s Actor Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov. • more than 500,000 people. •

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The Frigate Pallada text: Sergey Balakin

«So, we raised the anchor. The sea was heavy and yellow, the clouds were grey, impenetrable; the rain and snow fell in rotation – that escorted us from our native country. Shrouds and tackles were frozen... Frigate with a creak and groan, rolled from wave to wave, the coast near us was buried in mists», – described the beginning of his journey on the frigate Pallada the writer I.A. Goncharov. A journey, from which the honored sailing boat could not come back...

The Pallada occupied a special position in the history of Russian fleet, there were several reasons for it. Firstly, she was an unusual, modern for its time ship in design of which there were introduced many technical innovations. Secondly, she had a long life – 23 years, and the most part of it the frigate spent in long travels. Thirdly, she became the hero of wonderful book «The Frigate Pallada», immortalized her name for centuries. Finally, this ship was considered one of the most beautiful sailing ships of Russian fleet, impressed contemporaries with perfect proportions and careful finishing. The construction of the frigate was authorized personally by Emperor Nickolai I in September 1831 and commissioned to colonel of ship engineers’ corps V.F. Stoke. It had to build on Okhta shipyard. The «imperial order» clearly indicated that the ship should be built according to drawings of English frigate President, that was absolutely different from all previ- The Frigate Pallada. ous frigates of 44-gun rank, building in series in Arkhangelsk, Artist Sergey Pen St. Petersburg and Nikolayev.

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graphics: Sergey Balakin

It was assumed that the Pallada would have a status Launching of the Pallada of Okhta Admiralty stock was Above right: russian Emperor of «prestige» ship and used for foreign visits of royal family, on 1st September 1832. Its first commander was one of the Nicholai I initiated that’s why her construction and decoration were loosen the best officers of the Russian fleet – captain-lieutenant construction of the frigate Pallada and closely followed purse strings. The hull and finishing were made from well- P.S. Nakhimov. On his initiative to the construction of the the works seasoned wood – larch and oak, decks were covered with frigate was added a number of improvements during its con- expensive teak wood, underbody was laid down with copper struction – in particular, dual capstan, two iron helm stocks sheets. The set was reinforced by diagonal ties according to of new system, screw turnbuckles, newly anchors of system the Seppings system. Instead of traditional drums for storage Peringe. In addition, he proposed to replace hemp anchor of fresh water metal tanks of square cross section were used. cables with chains, lead pipes with iron ones, and iron nails There were bronze windows with thick glass at the sides – at of deck flooring around the binnacles of compasses – with that time this innovation was very unusual. copper ones.

Above: frigate Pallada is a one of most beautiful sailing ships of

graphics: Sergey Balakin Left: frigate President, the drawings of which the Aft of the frigate Pallada. In terms Wintering ships in Kronshtadt in 1851, Russian Emperor ordered to of decoration the ship was a typical artist L.Premazzi. To the left is a use to build Pallada representative of the Russian classicism frigate that is very similar to Pallada

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of Japan. The trip was difficult, the ship was often worn out by strong storms. It was showed age of frigate: all kinds of damage took place. Nevertheless, she once again confirmed the reputation of excellent walker, sometimes reached the speed of 14-15 knots. Thus, the distance of 5800 miles from the Cape of Good Hope to the Sunda Strait the Pallada overcame in 32 days. «As much as it was known, this trip was carried out faster than any of ships», - said Putyatin. Upon arrival in Japan it became clear, that the negotiation process would be delayed for a long time: feudal rulers of the land of rising sun referred to any foreigners leerily. In the future the frigate sailed between Japanese ports, the Philippines and China, firstly visited Korea. Simultaneously her crew carried out a great amount of scientific and hydrographic surveys. War between Russia and British-French coalition, beginning in 1853, forced to change plans. Englishmen sent to search the Pallada well-armed fleet. The try to hide in the mouth of the Amur was not successful: draft of frigate even after complete unloading of hold did not allow going through the winding Amur waterway. In the end, the Pallada left for the winter in the Imperial Harbor, and the most part of her crew was transferred to the post of Nikolayev on the Amur. I.A.Goncharov left for Ayan, and then through Siberia – to St. Petersburg. Mission of count Putyatin in August 1854 was transferred to new frigate Diana arriving from the Baltic and went to Japan on it. By the way, despite of many different problems, Putyatin fulfilled his tasks: the result of long-lasting negotiations was the conclusion of the first Russian-Japan contract in the history in January next year – «trading tract», providing Russia favorable conditions for trade development. The Pallada was still standing in Imperial Harbor, step by step coming into worthlessness. Taking into consideration that it was not possible to carry out a repair or protect frigate in case of enemy, the head of Amur region, real admiral V.S. Zavoyko gave an order to scuttle her. Sailors cut through ice a canal and towed the ship to deep place. On January 31, 1856 the Pallada was taken over the frozen waters of the bay Konstantinovskaya forever. Next decades the famous frigate was examined by the divers, in forties of the twentieth century even a draft of her recovery was developed. Many relics raised from the Pallada now are kept in museums, and its true anchor is installed as a monument in the sea village Posiet. •

Admiral count Efim Putyatin The Pallada was rightly called a masterpiece of the the set additionally was tighten with iron links. Next year a national sailing ships building. Contemporaries noted that the freshen sailing ship went to Portsmouth and Copenhagen, quality of finishing and harmony of proportions of that frigate and in 1849-1850 made a long trip across the Atlantic and had no equal. Although according to official classification she the Mediterranean, came to the ports of Spain and Portugal, was referred to 44-gun rank, in fact, according to its dimen- to the island of Madeira. She perfectly exercised the role of sions was referred to 60-gun frigate: her length was 52.8 m «representative» ship, demonstrating Andrew’s flag in the Above: russian ships, depicted by Japanese artist, 1854- (it was 1.5 m shorter than 74-gun ship), width – 13.3 m, European (and not only European) waters. 1855. The second ship to and displacement – 2090 t. Armament of the Pallada at the But perhaps the most popularity to the Pallada brought the right – frigate Diana, replaced the Pallada as the moment of commissioning consisted of 52 guns – thirty the trip of 1852-1854 period, when the famous frigate carried flagship of diplomatic mission 24-pound bronze cannons and twenty-two 24-pound carro- to Japan a diplomatic mission headed by Admiral count E.V.Putyatin

nades. The crew consisted of 426 persons. E.V.Putyatin. Captain of 1st rank I.S.Unkovsky commanded Right: on one of the first In August 1833 the frigate was commissioned in Baltic the ship, and the secretary of mission was a famous writer photos, related to the Russian fleet, officers of the Pallada Writer Ivan Goncharov fleet and participated in training in the Gulf of Finland. During I.A.Goncharov, later describing the trip in the book «The Fri- and members of diplomatic The Pallada under sail, artist the first decade of her service she repeatedly went to long gate Pallada». mission were shown. In the Aleksey Bogolyubov. This is trips, visited England, Germany and Denmark. In 1846, the The route ran from the coast of England to the islands of first row fifth from left – the only «lifetime» image of I.A.Goncharov, sixth from left – famous frigate Pallada was timbering in – it was replaced almost Madeira, Cape Verde, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and count E.V.Putyatin the whole hull’s covering and re-covered it with copper, and then through Singapore and Hong Kong came to the shores

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The patriarch of national maritime The Frigate Secretary of admiral Putyatin’s mission I.A.Goncharov was on the board of the frig- ate Pallada from October 1852 till February 1855. He was already quiet famous writer, although his most famous novels – «Oblomov» and «The Precipice» («Obryv») – to the beginning of trip were existed only in outline. Goncharov carried out diplomatic opera- tions, was a translator, logged a special magazine, studied literature with naval cadets. But the main result of long and dangerous trip is a book «The Frigate Pallada», which was published in 1858. In fact, national maritime literature is tracing from Goncharov. Before him, only sailors wrote in that genre, publishing their travel notes, sometimes they were very exciting. But only a professional writer could turn the diary notes into a truly literature, Pallada: filling then with unexpected comparisons, aptly-observed details and adding them with a share of irony. That’s why the book «The Frigate Pallada» was republished and read to the present day. Reading Classic Author Below we refer some quotes and selected fragments of famous work. Ivan Goncharov. Portrait was painted in 1859 by the painter N.A.Maykov

photo: Yury Maslyaev Hurry up, let’s go! Poetry of wanderings disappears by leaps and bounds. May be, we are the last travellers, in the sense of Argonauts: people will look at us with envy on return

I didn’t come off fantail the whole morning. I wanted to get acquainted with ocean. I had already known from poets that it «was landless, gloomy, morose, unlimited, immeasurable and invincible» , and geography teacher once said that it was simply Atlantic. Now I devouringly look at its face, like peering into a person who was known by a portrait. I would like to believe the portrait with original features of giant lying in front of me, in the power of which I was given for a long time. «What is it really?» – I thought, looking around. «What conceal from these unmeasured deeps of water? What does ocean give to swimmers?..» It was calm: light waves were hardly moved in rows on it, like rows of silent thoughts running on face; passions and impulses were silent. Tail-wind and moderate anxiety so kindly were tempted faraway, and there... «Why is it invincible? – I thought again, - on old-aged face there is no wrinkles! But it is true, it is boundless: it can be seen not more than six miles around, and there horizon descends on it in the form of rather dirty curtain…» • Look at setting and flaking cloths nearby, at complexity of mechanism, at net of ropes, cordages, whip- pings, ends and cords, each of them sends its own designation and is a necessary link in the overall chain; look at the number of hands, causing them to move. And meanwhile all these tricks cause such incomplete result! It is impossible to determine the arrival time of sailing ship, it is impossible to fight with a nasty wind, you cannot move backwards, going ground, it is impossible to turn opposite direction, it is impossible to stop in a flash. When it is calm, the boat sleeps, at the opposite wind it maneuvers, i.e. wags, deceives the wind and wins only third part of direct route. But a few thousand years were killed in order to make up cloth and rope in a century. You can read history in each rope, each hook, nail, plate, how mankind get the right through torture to sail at favorable wind. • Huge hills with white crest, push- ing each other with howls, rise, fall, rise again, as if the crowd of suddenly released furious animals fight in frenzy, only splashes like smoke, raise and a groan is in the air. Frigate climbs on the head of wave, trembles on the crest there, and then falls to the side and begins to slide from the mountain, descending to the bottom between two hills, straightens, in order to roll to other side hardly and to climb again on the hill. When it falls down, water walls are heaved at its sides.

Wind was roaring; it tore the tops of waves and sowed them in the ocean, as if through a sieve: clouds of water spray stood over the waves. I believed again my previous comparison and found it true: yes, it was a crowd of wild animals who festering each other in in a fury. Just a few lions and tigers attack, jump on legs in order to dig their teeth into each other, and tear up and then suddenly the whole crowd is stampeded down – only air is full of dust, and the boat is flying there after them, into the abyss, but a new force pushes it back up and then stands on the side. That boat creaked at sides; two or three men including me, quickly moved from that corner to another one. But a huge hush suddenly hit the net, jumped over the side and spread over the deck, pouring the feet of sailors. All horizons were covered in gray dust. There was not any excitement: water was boiling; waves lost their shape. • Guns secured with triple tackles and, moreover, brought with cable, and they were quiet calm on this matter. Rolling was terrible. Things that were firmly tightened to the walls and the floor, were broken away and rushed to the opposite side, and from there back. In that way three massive arm-chairs were conceived off in the captain’s cabin. They rushed, went and reached to the middle; the lurch was so sharp, that they leapt in the air, knocked down the table in front of the sofa and broke it, crashed themselves, fell down the sofa with crack. People ran, began to assemble the pile of fragments, but at the same mo- ment the pile with the people rushed back, directly to my corner: I just had time to pick up my legs. Glasses, plates, cups, bottles in cupboards rode with ring from their places.

We got up: it was terrible darkness, the wind howl was even worse; it was hardly seen where to step. Suddenly it was a flash of lighting. It highlighted the sea and the lake of water on the deck, a crowd of people, hauled up the rope, and stretched hand-rails, to keep in rolling. I walked in the water through the ropes, through the crowd; somehow got to the door of my cabin and there, grabbed the bollard, not to throw in the corner somewhere, went to the cannon, stopped to look vaunted storm. Lightning was like lighting, but without the thunder, or it was not heard through the wind. There was no moon. • At the top, however, the sky was free of louds, and from there as from holes of illuminated by the light temple, millions of lights were shining with all colors of rainbow, as stars didn’t never shine at our place. How passionately, hotly they shone! It seemed that it was so warm at nights! This ever-playing and talking something on a foreign language picture of the sky could never get tired. Getting out of the cabin for half an hour to breathe with night air and stay in the numbness two-three hours, not taking eyes from the sky, till eyes unwillingly closed from fatigue. Hold your eyes on design of closest constel- lations of stars, look at the play of these green, blue, red lights, then look sank in pink deep of the Milky Way.

And do you think that ocean fell asleep? No; it was boiling and glittering more than stars. Under the ship deep of flames spread, streams of gold, silver and red-hot coals broke out. You were blinded, embraced by sweet creative dreams... fixed your look at the sky: there it was filled with gold, blood and emerald moisture Canopus, bright light of the ship Argo, two huge stars of Centaurus. But you calmed down with love from unbear- able brightness on the four stars of the Southern Cross: they shined modestly and it seemed that they looked at you so closely and smart. The Southern Cross... • Nature meanwhile lived out hot day: the sun was sloping to the horizon. You looked away, and nothing could be seen faraway. We were dili- gently looking at spacious surface of the ocean and kept silence, because there was nothing to tell each other. And only a shoal of flying fish and like sparrows flied over the water: all hands were put out, the eyes were lighted up. «Look, look!» – everybody would shout, but everybody looked at a herd of bonitos chased after unlucky flyers, playing with purple back on the surface. This phenomenon would disappear – and everything would disappear, and again there is nothing. Dream and peace were spread along the sea and sky, like an ideal of beautiful, non-painful death, which every man whipping-up by passions and miser- ies would like to calm. That’s why it seemed the soul fell down in a solemn and instinctively sweet thought, because it affected by the picture of beautiful, majestic peace. • Calm weather, not the storm – was a horror for sailing vessels...

The wind sometimes dropped entirely, and spilled cloth too fell flapping on the masts. We looked around questioningly, and the sky, sea shone with unbearable glittering as if they were laughing, like strong anger was laughed sometimes over the infirmity. We got up in the morning: «So, do we go?» No, we crawled on one and a half, two miles per hour. The sea rocked the whole mass, like a thick melted metal; there was no scale, even no splash. • Let the artists found paints, they could only call these colors, which the sun painted the sky! Look: violate sheet was covered the sky and mixed with purple; it was passed a moment and it was come dark green, jaspideous color through it: it in turn possessed the sky.

It was come after hot day stuffy-sweet, long night with a blink in the sky, with fiery stream un- der the feet, with trembling of tenderness in the air. My God! These nights were lost for noth- ing: no serenades, no sighs, no whisper of love, or nightingales’ songs! Only a frigate moved hard and sometimes moaned and slapped down played-out cloth or the water splashed under the stern – and again everything was solemn and quiet-beautiful! • Gigantic rocks, almost black of the wind, like the teeth of huge fortress, protected the southern coast of Africa. Here it was an eternal fight of the titans – the sea, winds and mountains, the eternal surf, almost everlasting storms. •

Nowhere man is so pathetic, bold and suddenly happy at times, as in the sea. • Ivan Goncharov, «The Frigate Pallada» sailing sailing

Successors: Sail Training Ships Pallada and Nadezhda

Long-lasting trips on a sailing ship – is a perfect hardening of future sailors’ characters. The knowledge in technics is well, but the sea has not changed. It is, as before, formidable and wild power...

text: Sergey Balakin, photo: Yury Maslyaev

Do you need sail training ships in the century of electron- ics, computers and nuclear technologies? Yes, we need, – believe professional sailors. «The sailor on the ship and the sea – are eye to eye, and you can fell sharper, every vein of each second interaction of the ship, wind and waves, – said the captain O.P.Vandenko of training bark Tovarishch. – Here in the daily hard work the most valuable human qualities are grown: teamwork, mutual assistance, the ability not to lose in complex situations...» Left: all hands on deck The undisputed leader in the training of future sailors on on sailing! training ships was the Soviet Union. In 1980 USSR ordered in Next page top: sail training Poland five big sailing ships – there were not such great con- ship (STS) Pallada at the Pacific tracts in history. Although in 1991 two ships of a series (Dru- zhba and Khersones) have gone to Ukraine, Russia owns Next page far right: STS Pallada launching now the most numerous training sailing fleet in the world. Five at the Polish shipyard in large white-winged ships have the Russian flag: four-mast Gdansk in 1988. Photo barks Kruzenshtern, Sedov and three three-mast ships of the from ship’s museum on the board of Pallada Polish construction: Mir, Pallada and Nadezhda.

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Externally series sailing vessels were not hardly differed The fourth serial sailing ship of the project V810 was given from the Polish sister-ship, but their internal rooms were sig- the name Pallada – in honor of famous Russian frigate, immor- nificantly redesigned, 22-bed cabins for cadets were replaced talized in the novel of the writer Ivan Goncharov, and the fifth by more comfortable 12-bed ones, mechanisms had special one – Nadezhda (Hope), in honor of several predecessors, the absorbers, that reduced the noise and vibration during their most famous of which was a sloop, on which I.F.Kruzenshtern operation. As the auxiliary mechanisms were installed two made his first Russian round-the-world trip. New training sailing diesel engines with capacity 419 kW, working for one screw- vessels were built at the shipyard in Gdansk and put into ope- propeller of regulated step, and at moving under sail propeller ration in 1989 and 1992 accordingly. Now both tall ships are blades turned into so-called feathered position, reducing the based in Vladivostok; Pallada belongs to the Far Eastern State resistance to the oncoming flow. Technical Fisheries University, and Nadezhda – to Maritime State University named after Admiral G.I. Nevelsky.

Sail training ship Pallada graphics: Sergey Balakin

The founder of the largest in the history series of training tall ships – the Polish sailing vessel Dar Mlodziezy – first time went to sea in 1982. Built on donations, it replaced the departed veteran Dar Pomorza nicknamed White frigate. The new ship began to call the frigate too, because it also carried full ship rig on the masts like naval frigate of the past centuries. The first long-distance trips Dar Mlodziezy and among them 7-month trip to Japan – confirmed her excellent driving performance and high reliability. That’s why the Polish frigate became the prototype of series of Soviet training ships of project V810 (class Druzhba).

Above: the STS Pallada – Right page: sail training setting sails (left); the captain ship Pallada and trainee into the navigation room (right)

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Pallada and Nadezhda are equipped with full ship rig and are often referred to as frigates. Welded metal hull has a rather large sheer, sharp lines and proportions, providing the high speed of ship. Prow – is a typical fiddle bow, but the stern is non-typical for classical shipping vessels square transom one. All three masts are steel; they carry 26 sails with total area 2771 sq. meters. Standing rigging is made from steel galvanized ropes, and running one – from strong synthetic ropes. Displacement of each ship is 2950 tons, gross tonnage is 2284 grt, hull length is 96.6 m (with bowsprit – 108.6 m), width – 14.0 m, height of board on midship – 10.65 m, maximum draft – 6.6 m. Height of steel mainmast above the waterline is 49.5 m. Crew staff numbers 51 persons; rooms for cadets are designed for 144 persons. Besides, there are well-equipped training rooms and cabins for six teachers. At the moment, the Pallada is the most high-speed training sailing ship in the world and is entered in the Guinness Book of Records. It belongs officially confirmed sailing speed record – 18,7 knots (for the sailing ships of class «A» ). Over the past decade both Russian Far-Eastern sail training ships carried out around-the-world trip – Nadezhda in 2003-2004 and Pallada – in 2007-2008. •

Top left: keep it up! Top right: on the Pallada’s Above: sail training Top: work with running Above: at the At the steering wheel deck at storm ship Nadezhda rigging on Pallada bowsprit of Pallada of the Pallada

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Vladivostok is the largest city on the Russian Pacific coast, the administrative center of the Primorye territory and the trans-Siberian railroad terminal. It has more than 600,000 residents. • The city is slightly more than 150 years old. The construction of the Vladivostok port began in summer 1860; the port became a city 20 years later. • Vladivostok is linked with the sea, and it is not surprising that its first native resident was born to a sailor’s family. The baby was a girl with the symbolic name Nadezhda (Hope). • By 1914 Vladivostok had become a large commercial seaport and a fortress with about 50 coastal batteries, 16 forts and plenty of other structures. • The modern Vladivostok port exports fish and seafood, timber, ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It is an important transit point for commodities imported from Japan, the Republic of Korea and China. • The construction of two unique cable-stayed motor bridges ended in Vladivostok this year. One of them connected the banks of the Golden Horn Bay. Its total length is 1,388 meters, the main span is 737 meters long and the span height is 64.25 meters. The second bridge connected mainland to the Russky Island. It is one of the longest bridges in the world. The length of the bridge with flyovers is 3,100 meters, the main span is 1,104 meters long, and the span height is 70 meters. • Vladivostok will host a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) in September 2012. • Vladivostok

Top left: view from Okeansky Top right: sea coast at Above: the bridge to Below: panorama of From Past to Future Prospekt (Ocean avenue) to Aprelevka near the the Russky Island Vladivostok with construction the Golden Horn Bay Vladivostok city of the bridge across the Golden Horn Bay

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Legendary Battle of cruiser Varyag and gunboat Kore- yetz against Japanese squadron that happened not far from Chemulpo (Incheon) on Feb.9, 1904 shook the whole world. Varyag’s The battle happened at the start of the Russo-Japanese War and became a symbol of Russian Navy stoicism. It had been honored in songs, poetry, a big amount of books and and Koreyetz’s documentary films. relics

1st rank cruiser Varyag was considered as one of the most beautiful ship of Russian Imperial Navy. This photo was taken in 1901 yet in Baltic by E.Ivanov

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Right: gunboat Koreyetz in Incheon, February 1904

Far right: postcard from the beginning of the 20th century Varyag’s showing the view of Chemulpo (Incheon)

Below: not to become prizes of war Varyag had been scuttled and Koreyetz had been blown up. Photo of Koreyetz’s explosion, Feb. 9,1904 and Koreyetz’s relics

For many years priceless relics raised from the sunken Russian ships have been stored at Incheon City Museum. There are cruiser Varyag’s naval jack, gunboat Koreyetz’s lifeboat flag, artillery projectiles, rifles, Koreyetz’s secondary anchor (kedge) and others among them. In 2009 these re- lics (11 items) were transferred for temporary use to Russia so they could be shown in major museums of Moscow and St. Petersburg. «Cruiser Varyag‘s relics» exhibition was an important event and also became a first example of Russia- South Korea cultural and historical cooperation. •

Top: the beginning of the battle, painted by Above: japanese postcard Ioshio Inoue’s assistant that witnessed the showing shipwreck of battle. Album of Chemulpo bay battle watercolor Koreyetz, 1904 sketches that was kept in the Incheon City Museum became a part of exhibition in Russia

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Below: cruiser Varyag’s Bottom center: Bottom right: incheon City Naval jack is the main the Cross of Museum exhibits at relic transferred from St. George, which the Central Museum of Incheon Museum for were awarded Armed Forces in Moscow: Varyag’s exhibition in Russia Varyag’s and Varyag’s 152-mm shell Koreyetz’s crews, and 75-mm projectile, Bottom left: medal «For and Varyag’s Koreyetz’s secondary the Varyag and Koreyetz ribbon anchor (kedge) and Battle» was awarded to 152-mm gunpowder the crew members, 1904 projectile’ case and Koreyetz’s relics

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