The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-12

A scheme of conquest is about to be
put in practice in northern Russia,
which may not only accomplish great
things for that country, but which may
give very valuable hint to Arctic
explorers. 1t is matter of common
knowledge that all the seaports of
northern Russia, on the Baltic sea, are
closed to commerce during. several
months of the year, on account of the
intensity of the winter cold in that
region completely covering the sea
with thick ice fields for several miles
from the land toward the open waters.
The Russian government has devoted
much time and money to tests and
experiments designed to relieve or
remedy this deplorable condition of
things, but Up till lately only dismal
failures had been reported except in
a few cases where conditions We're more
favorable.
Admiral Makaroff of the Russian
navy has now come forward with
plan, simple, but ingenious, for break
ing up the packs in midwinter by
means of large ships specially designed
anG called ice breakers. Small boats
of this type already exist and do good
work in some ports, notably that of
Hango, at the southwestern extremity
of Finland, where the ice breaker first
came into prominence. nearly 20 years
ago. The ice breaker of Hango is a
sturdily built iron steamer, with very
powerful engines, and a strong steel
ram, with which the breaker charges
into the ice, cracking and splitting it in
every direction. The ice pack is soon
broken up and it is quickly removed
| by the action of the tides. The work
of the breaker, however, is constant, as
the surface rapidly becomes frozen over
again, and indeed, during the severe
winters of 1881 1886, 1889 and 1893, the
ice breakers efforts were unavailing.
MADE HANGO FAMOUS.
The results to Hango are astonish-
ing, for while in summer it is only a
small village, nowadays a fashionable
watering place, completely overshad-
owed commercially by Helsingfors and
| other large ports, yet in winter, being
the only northern port on the Baltic
open to ships, it does an enormous
maritime business thanks to the ice
breaker" Contrast this picture with
that of st. Petersburg in midWinter,
and what do we find? The capital of
Russia is separated from the open sea
by nearly $40 miles of ice fields; its
granaries are full of wheat, the expOr-
tation of which is delayed several
months, and its commercial Importance
is absolutely nil during a period de-
pending on the severity of the season.
Nor is this city an isolated case. for
every other northern port of Russia is
similarly crippled, and some are still
worse off.
MAY SOLVE THE NORTH. POLE
PROBLEM.
Having studied the question deeply
1 for many years and speaking not as a
visionary theOrist, but as a practical
sailor who understands what he is
/ talking about Admiral MakarOff
/ declares that with an ice breaker of
| huge dimensions and 80, 900 horse power,
it would be easily possible to break UP
/ in midwinter the immense ice packs
stretching from the Arctic ocean to
the north polel OF course, such a pow
erful ship is far beyond the limits
which have yet been reached in mari
time engine building, but the whole ker-
mel of the project lies in the device of
making two ships of equal size and
each half the total required horse
power; one to be armed as an ice
breaker, and also fitted with a special
arrangement whereby the other can be
used to expend its energy in pushing
the first against the ice.
Admiral Makaroff, however, has at
present no intention of destroying the
romance as well as the ice surround
ing the Ultima Thule of all explorers
but desires simply to accomplish two
things: First, to open up the ice fields
separating st. Petersburg from the
sea, and, secondly, to establish regu-
lar sea route between the capital and
the mouth of the river Yenesei in ST
IBERIA. To effect these purposes, two
ice breakers are to be built according
to his directions OF 1O,OOO-horse power
each and 5000 tons draft, to act as he
lays down, one pushing the other, and
it is proposed that these boats should
work from spring to autumn. when not