Russalka (monument)
The Russalka Monument was created in 1902 by the Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamson . It commemorates the sinking of the Russian naval ship Rusalka ( Russian Русалка ) in 1893 in the Gulf of Finland .
The fall of the Rusalka
The Rusalka was built in Saint Petersburg in 1866/67 as an ironclad for the Imperial Russian Navy . It was named after Rusálka , the female " water spirit " or " mermaid " in Slavic mythology .
The ship was equipped for coastal defense and belonged to the Baltic fleet . Its length was 62.3 m, the draft 3.3 m. The maximum speed of the very narrow ship was 9 knots .
The launch of the Rusalka took place on August 31, 1867. In 1869 it ran into a rock, but survived the disaster without human loss. After that, the Rusalka was extensively improved and heavily armored. She was supposedly unsinkable .
On the morning of September 7th, Jul. / September 19, 1893 greg. the ironclad ran Rusalka together with the gunboat Tutscha (Russian Туча) from the port of Reval (now Tallinn) with target Helsingfors (now Helsinki from). The journey should continue from there to Primorsk . At sea, there were strong winds and high waves in the Gulf of Finland . When the Tutscha arrived in the port of Helsinki, there was no trace of the Rusalka .
It was not until September 10 that the Russian Navy Ministry announced that the Rusalka was missing. The only evidence of the sinking ship was a lifeboat that landed at Sveaborg Fortress off Helsingfors, with a dead sailor on it. On October 16, the search operation, in which up to 15 ships participated, was discontinued without result. In June 1894 the search for the Rusalka was resumed, this time with the help of a balloon pulled by ships. This search was canceled on August 15, 1894 and the ship was officially declared missing. The cause of the ship's sinking in the autumn storm is still unclear. There are two theories, among others: One says that seawater may have entered the ship through poorly closed hatches. Conversely, the other suspects that the supply of fresh air to the boiler may have been reduced by too tightly closed hatches that the propulsion power of the engines and thus the maneuverability of the ship have deteriorated too much.
177 sailors went down with the ship. The wreck of the Rusalka was only discovered in July 2003 when exploring the sea floor using sonar for the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline at a depth of 94 m on the bottom of the Baltic Sea . The scene of the accident is about 25 km south of Helsinki. At the time it was found, the Rusalka was stuck with her bow forward in the mud, with the stern pointing upright towards the sea surface.
Monument in Reval (Tallinn)
From 1899 relatives and friends of the missing campaigned for the erection of a memorial to commemorate the shipwreck. It was funded through fundraising across Russia. Construction work began in 1901.
In 1902, in the Catharinenthal district of Reval (today Kadriorg), the Russalka memorial was inaugurated for the seamen who were killed in the sinking of the Rusalka . It stands almost directly on the shores of the Baltic Sea. A promenade leads from the monument directly to Catharinenthal Castle with its park.
The monument depicts an angel standing on a granite base , holding a gilded Orthodox cross in his outstretched right hand . He points to the presumed location of the ship's sinking. The sculpture is the first monumental work by the Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamson (1855–1929), who was probably based on the depiction of the Nike of Samothrace .
Anchors and cannons can be seen around the base of the monument . The names of the perished sailors can be read on shield plates. Tall lanterns frame the square of the monument, which is now a popular place for Russian-speaking bridal couples.
Remarks
- ↑ The current official Estonian spelling of the monument is Russalka . The spelling Rusalka is particularly common in English publications .
Web links
- Russalka - Tallinna sümbol võimust hoolimata (Eesti Päevaleht, October 12, 2006)
- Website about the ship and memorial with a complete list of the perished seafarers (English and Russian)
Coordinates: 59 ° 26 '36.2 " N , 24 ° 47' 38.3" E