Krasin (icebreaker)
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Krasin is the name of two Soviet icebreakers, named after Leonid Borisovich Krasin.
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[edit] Krasin, former Svyatogor
The first icebreaker Krasin was built for the Imperial Russian Navy by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne under the supervision of Yevgeny Zamyatin.[1] She was launched as the Svyatogor on 3 August 1916 and completed in February 1917.[1] Length 99,80 m, breadth 21,65 m, draft 7,5 m. 4,220 metric tons of deadweight (DWT), GRT 6,048 tons and NRT 1,687 tons.
It was scuttled by the Royal Navy during the allied intervention against the Bolsheviks in Northern Russia (1918-19). The Royal Navy raised her to use it in the White Sea. It was later brought to Scapa Flow for minesweeping. Svyatogor was returned to the USSR under the Krasin trade agreement in 1921.[1] This icebreaker had a long, distinguished career in rescue operations, as well as a pathfinder and explorer of the Northern Sea Route. In 1920, after the Russian Revolution, the Svyatogor rescued Icebreaker Lenin with 85 persons on board.
In 1927 this icebreaker was renamed by the Soviet government to honor the recently deceased Krasin. Perhaps the most famous duty the Krasin performed was rescuing the expedition of downed balloonist General Umberto Nobile close to the North Pole, during his failed Italian Polar expedition in 1928. Later in the same year, Krasin rescued German passenger ship Monte Servantes, with 1835 passengers on board, after it hit an iceberg and its hull was severely damaged.
In 1933 Krasin became the first vessel to reach the hitherto inaccessible northern shores of Novaya Zemlya in the history of navigation.
During World War II, Krasin participated in many Russian convoys. In 1942 the Krasin was spotted at the Mona Islands in the Kara Sea by a Kriegsmarine plane during Operation Wunderland. Heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer rushed to find it, but providential bad weather, fog and ice conditions saved icebreaker Krasin from destruction.
Krasin was put on dock and reconstructed at Wismar, Germany, between 1953 and 1960. Then it continued in service until relatively recently, and is now a museum ship in Saint Petersburg.
[edit] Krasin (1976)
The second Krasin is an A1-class, triple-screw, four-deck icebreaker owned by the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) and based in Vladivostok. The ship was built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland in 1976.[2] Krasin can break ice six feet thick.[citation needed]
| Displacement | 20,190 tons |
| Length | 442 feet |
| Propulsion | 36,000 shp |
| Speed | 19.5 knots |
During the 2004-2005 season (Operation Deep Freeze 2005), the United States Antarctic Program hired the Krasin as a secondary vessel to help clear a channel to McMurdo Station because the Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star faced a record 90+ mile cut through fast ice. After Polar Star made the initial cut to McMurdo, Krasin assisted by grooming (widening) the thin outer channel, which consisted of first-year ice. Meanwhile, Polar Star broke the thicker, much denser multi-year ice near the station.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Barr, William (March 1980). "The Drift of Lenin's Convoy in the Laptev Sea, 1937-1938". Arctic 33 (1): 3-20.
- ^ a b c Myers, Alan. Zamyatin in Newcastle. Retrieved on 2007-05-11. (updates articles by Myers published in Slavonic and East European Review)
- ^ Technical details about the Krasin (1976) at the FESCO corporate site.
- ^ U.S., Russian icebreakers open path to Antarctic base. USA Today (Feb. 6, 2005). Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
