The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16

transferring of the national capital
from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
But since the death of Peter the
Great, Russia has accomplished moth
ing in the way of securing new sea-
ports, at least so far as Europe is con-
cerned The Black sea. is almost use
less as an outlet so long as Constanti-
nople remains in the possession of a
hostile power. In the event of war, the
whole Russian navy could be corked
up in the, Dardanelles the same as Ger
vera was at Santiago. And the efforts
of the bear to possess himself of the
Golden Horn by the .tortuous methods
of diplomacy have been so completely
| baffied as to be temporarily abandoned.
At the north there is greater prom
Use. The Baltic is a large body of va
ter and convenient means of egresS
during a large portion of the year. But
at the approach of the long Russian
winter every harbor on that northern
coast is locked fast. The still more
distant Arctic ocean IS of course al
most never free from ice. Here Of
course would be an immense advan-
tage to a hostile power in the event
of war with Russia. Either large por-
ton Of the Russian feet would be
locked up and rendered useless in the
Baltic during many months of the
year, or it would be obliged to sally
forth unable to reach base except
by fighting it's way through the Eng
lish channel, past Gibraltar, Malta
and Constantinople. To attempt such
a course would be suicidal in the event
of war with England or most any
other power
No other power in the history of the
world has ever had so many ice hound
harbors as Russia. Even Port Arthur
and her other newly acquired ports in
Asia suffer from the same cause.
Russia's naval prospects, therefore,
looked extremely dark until Vice Ad-
lnral Makaroff, the most intelligent
man in the Russian navy, three years
ago hit on a plan which bears abundant
promise, if it has not yet had time to
demonstrate its practicability. His
plan is nothing else than to construct
fleet of gigantic ice crushers, which
he claims will not only be big enough
to clear the river Neva and the Baltic
Of ice but will even piow through the
frozen Arctic and force way TO the
pole itself.
This scheme, while entirely new to
Europe, and so striking as to set all
the powers thinking, is old in America.
Admiral Makaroff is not an original in
ventor, but he has had the intelligence
long been in successful operation in the
great lakes of the northwest.
Two winters ago Admiral Makaroff
came to this country as a special COM
missioner of the Russian government
to inspect the operation of the fleet of
ice cruShers in northern Lake Michi- |
gan. These craft, which are huge fer |
ryboats owned by one OF the Michigan |
railroads, ply between the towns of
Mackinaw and st. Ignace and bridge |
the connecting link between the upper
end lower peninsulas of the wolverine |
state. In winter ice forms over the |
straights of Mackinaw sometimes to |
depth of five or six feet and If 1t were |
not for the ice crushers. the upper pen
insula would be cut off from all ap-
proach in winter except by way Of Wis |
consin.
The largest of the ice crushers is the
Sainte Marie. She is $500 tons horse
power, 305 feet long and has a SO foot
beam. She is one Of the unique ships
of the world.
Admiral Makaroff spent several weeks
travelling to and fro on the various ice
crushing ferry boats of the fleet, study
ing every feature of their construction.
Then he returned home reported to
his government, and was commissioned
to have constructed a similar and more
powerful ship, making only such
changes as were demanded by the diff
ferent uses to which the ship was to be
put Messrs. Armstrong Whitworth q
Co. of England were awarded the con-
tract, and the result is the mighty ice
crusher Ermack, the most powerful
ship of its kind in the world The
following detailed description of her is
taken from the French scientific Jour
nal La Nature:
1.-THE Ermack is 300 feet long, 70 feet
wide, and 40 feet high. Her engines
develop $4,000 horse power. The hull is
partly double, as the cross-section
shows. All the lower part of the space
thus left between the two hulls con-
stitutes double bottom, which is
divided into safety compartments. Be
sides this, the interior of the ship is
divided into thirty-five such compart-
ments.
The horizontal section shows how
original the plan of the Ermack is. The
engines and boilers take I'D all the in
terror. The propulsion Ii ,enteoted by
three screws, ondrdirectlT In the rear