Krasin (ship)
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The Krasin (also Krassin , Russian Красин ) is a former Soviet icebreaker , which is now a museum ship in Saint Petersburg . It was named after Leonid Krassin .
The ship became famous for rescuing survivors of the Nobile North Pole Expedition and for recovering the German passenger ship Monte Cervantes, which had over 1800 people on board .
construction
The Krasin was built in 1916/17 during the First World War according to designs by Vice Admiral Stepan Makarow, who had died in 1904, on behalf of the Russian Navy Ministry at the WG Armstrong, Whitworth & Company shipyard in Great Britain. Its original name was after the Russian legendary figure Swiatogor . In 1919 it was confiscated by the British during the Russian Civil War , but two years later, after diplomatic efforts by the People's Commissar Leonid B. Krassin , a “comrade” of Stalin , it was bought back by Soviet Russia . She was baptized Krassin in honor of this man . From then on she was used as an icebreaker and rescue ship in arctic waters and was mostly stationed in Murmansk or Arkhangelsk .
Rescue missions
In 1928 the German passenger ship Monte Cervantes with 1,500 passengers and 325 crew members on board ran into distress off Spitsbergen . The ship had collided with an iceberg and leaked. The Krasin , actually involved in the rescue mission of the Nobile North Pole Expedition , was only 80 nautical miles away and received the emergency call from Monte Cervantes . The hole in their hull was repaired by Krasin divers . The ship was then pumped dry and made seaworthy again. All 1,835 people were saved in this way.
The next rescue mission followed immediately afterwards. In the spring of 1928 General Umberto Nobile took off on the airship Italia on his second North Pole voyage. On May 25, the airship crashed on the way back near Spitsbergen, with nine expedition members and Nobile being thrown onto an ice floe. Although 16 ships were on the way to the expedition, only the Krasin was able to reach the 82nd parallel north and rescue the expedition members. This rescue mission was taken up as material in a radio play by Friedrich Wolf . The piece with the title SOS… rao rao… Foyn - “Krassin” saves “Italia” was set to music by Funk-Hour Berlin in 1929 and is the oldest completely preserved radio play in German.
These two rescues improved the image of the Soviet Union in Europe considerably.
Further use
During the Second World War , the Krasin was used to protect the transport of troops and materials.
In the second half of 1941, a charter to the US Coast Guard for use in Greenland was considered. For this purpose, the ship was ordered to Bremerton and extensively inspected there. Despite a considerable need for repairs, the Coast Guard decided to take over the ship. On November 25, 1941, however, the Soviet Union withdrew its offer because of its own needs in Arkhangelsk .
From 1953 to 1960, the Krasin in Wismar underwent extensive modernization. Among other things, the original steam engine built by Richardson, Westgarth & Company was replaced by a new main engine built in the GDR and the drive switched from coal to oil.
The Krasin continued to serve as an icebreaker until 1972 . After that it was used as a floating power station and workers' dwelling in Svalbard until 1989 .
Today she is a museum ship in the Great Neva on the bank of Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg . The Krasin Nunatakker in Antarctica is named after the ship.
successor
In 1976 a new icebreaker was built in Finland for what was then the Soviet Union. It was also named Krasin and has a diesel-electric drive.
literature
- Bernd Oesterle: Icebreakers from all over the world . 1st edition. transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-925952-03-9 .
- R. Samoilowitsch: SOS in the Arctic, The rescue expedition of the Krassin . Union Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin
- Shipbuilding technology (magazine), 12/1960, p. 594
Web links
- Icebreaker Krasin in St. Petersburg (English) accessed on February 13, 2011
- Museum ship Krasin (Saint Petersburg)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Entry of the classification society RS - Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (English)
- ↑ a b Entry in Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1937/38 (English)
Coordinates: 59 ° 55 ′ 40.2 ″ N , 30 ° 16 ′ 8.2 ″ E