Icebreaker Sibiryakov

The icebreaker Sibiryakov was a Soviet ship which was active in the Russian Arctic during the 1930s. She was built in 1909 in Glasgow and was originally the Newfoundland sealing steamer "Bellaventure". After being purchased by Russia in 1916, she was renamed the "Sibiryakov". Her Russian name was chosen in honour of Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Sibiryakov, an Imperial Russian gold-mine proprietor. Sibiryakov financed explorations to Siberia, such as Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's, and also took part in some expeditions of his own. "Sibiryakov" made the first successful crossing of the Northern Sea Route in a single navigation without wintering. This historical voyage, which had been Mikhail Lomonosov's dream, was organized by the All-Union Arctic Institute (presently known as the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute).

The "Sibiryakov" left on June 28, 1932 from the Krasny (previously Sobornoy) docks in Archangelsk, crossed the Kara Sea and chose a northern, unexplored way around Severnaya Zemlya to the Laptev Sea. In September, after calling at Tiksi and the mouth of the Kolyma, the propeller shaft broke and the icebreaker drifted for 11 days. However, the "Sibiryakov" crossed the Chukchi Sea using improvised sails and arrived in the Bering Strait in October. Ice-breaker "Sibiryakov" reached the Japanese port of Yokohama after 65 days, having covered more than 2500 miles in the Arctic seas. This was regarded as a heroic feat of Soviet polar seamen and Chief of Expedition Otto Schmidt and Captain Vladimir Voronin were received with many honors at their return to Russia.

Ice-breaker "Sibiryakov" continued in service until World War II under the command of Captain Kacharev. It was sunk in 1942 after an unequal fight with Kriegsmarine cruiser "Admiral Scheer" off the northwestern shores of Russky Island in the Nordenskiöld Archipelago during Operation Wunderland.

References

* Armstrong, T., "The Russians in the Arctic", London, 1958.
* [http://www.whoi.edu/beaufortgyre/history/history_soviet.html Early Soviet Exploration]
* [http://www.tour-land.ru/extr/north_p/eng/hist_ark.shtml History of Russian Arctic Exploration]
* [http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/42-08.htm German Naval Warfare in 1942]