- Icebreaker Yermak
"Yermak" ( _ru. Ермак) (sometimes spelled "Ermak") was a
Russia n and Sovieticebreaker , often referred to as the world's first true icebreaker, with a strengthened hull shaped to ride over and crush pack ice."Yermak" was built for the
Imperial Russian Navy under the supervision of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov byArmstrong Whitworth inNewcastle upon Tyne at its Low Walker yard and launched in1898 . She was named after the famous Russian explorer ofSiberia ,Don Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich .She was commissioned on
17 October 1898 , and on the very first voyage she reached 81°21'N north ofSpitsbergen in1899 . It had been constructed to break through a heavy (up to 2 m thickness) ice.Yermak had been used in winter of 1899-1900 to set up 1st radio communication link in Russia between
Kotka and Gogland (Suursaar) island (distance 47 km).Between 1899-1911 Yermak sailed in a heavy ice conditions for more than 1000 days.
Yermak served with different branches of Russian and Soviet Navy and Merchant Marine up until 1964, becoming one of longest-serving icebreakers in the world. An island in the
Nordenskiöld Archipelago was named after this icebreaker.Another icebreaker with the name Yermak was built for the
Soviet Union atWärtsilä shipyard inHelsinki ,Finland in 1974.ee also
*
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet
*Alexander Stepanovich Popov External links
* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/Icebreakers.html History of icebreakers, by the US Coast Guard]
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