The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-12-30
RUsHER YERMAK .
proposed For the Russian
ship In Arctic Seas.
!. arlr 4 PASSAGE TO TIE POLE.

10 0uT A PASSAGE ~ lhh fohh.
N .,,ral MaknroR Thinks His
=. Powerful Enough to
.,sa.h Her Way THROUGH the Ice.
80 past F.eatn In Breaking Up Ice
asias.
.a.ording to the New York Suns
,a.aon dispatches, the Russian Ice
sse,np ship Yermak is being prepar-
~ Armstrong yards at Elswick,
" nd for an attempt to smash her
y - -. .,roueh the Ice to the north pole
= z .,,mmer. The Yermak was built
.sa Armstrong; after plans made by
v W. Admiral Makaroff. Work on her
haeun In the early summer Of
- and she was completed in the
pring of 1890.
ADMIRAL Makaroff has long held the
,seoFy that if vessel powerful enough
taon omen communication with st.
.....rsh,,rg in the winter could be built
xouId be possible to construct anoth-
.essel with greater power with a
.ocIaIly designed bow and with other
s.:ol features that would be able to
s n rs way through TO the pole. He
- directed to prepare plans, and the
.rmstrongs got the contract to build
.h.ehip. By its terms the constructors
100 make the ship able to withstand
n tmpacts of the ice, and any dam
=. which the vessel suffered in
breaking ice were to be repaired free
,f4ost to the government.
Take most ice breakers, the Yermak
- brlt of steel and has much greater
hssnt than ships of her length usually
N bare. The plans required that she
ehnuld be remarkably shallow forward
sotbat her bow might be pushed up on
tbe lee which her great weight forward
vas ex. acted to assist in breaking.
One was fitted with four screws, three
a the stern and one at the bow under
" nor forefoot. Her engines were of 10,-
0do horsepower. and her plans called
|. far greater coal carrying capacity
e than any Ice breaker ever had before.
The idea which suggested Admiral
Makaroff's scheme of construction was
that the ice of the northern sea in sum-
ner has so slight a resistance that it
cannot withstand the shock of 5000
TINS displacement and 10000 horse
power. Upon that principle he drew
bis plans.
The Yermak was completed in March.
1899, and was Immediately put at
work. On April 4 of that year she
smashed into the ice of the gulf Of Fin
land, freed six vessels that had been
held fast in the ice for long time and
brought them to st. Petersburg. Three
days later she found &c other vessels
fast behind an ice bank. She sailed
into that bank as a football team
smashes an opposing rush line, opening
channel through which the icebound
craft came out. A third trip resulted
10 setting ten more ships free, while q
little later she attacked the ice packs at
the mouth of the Neva and brought out
90 vessels which had been held in the
river for weeks.
Her performances surprised and de-
lighted the Russian naval officers, and
Admiral Makaroff was congratulated
and told that all he had to do was to
set sail for the pole and it's discovery
would be his. The admiral was pleas
ed, but not unduly elated, and simply
said that he would require more tests
before he would be satisfied. So in
July, 1899, the Yermak was sent far
ther north. On July 25 she struck the
Ice north of the northwest coast of
Spitzbergen, In latitude 80 degrees 20
minutes north and longitude 8 degrees
"a minutes east.
From there she proceeded north
slowly. smashing the ice before her as
she went. She ran into icefields of
rom 4.OS to AT meters in thickness,
AND these were broken up without the
slightest difficulty. At times she en-
countered Ice 149 meters thick rising
s0S meters above the surface Of the
sea Smashing into these fields. she
saiied on northward as serenely as il
tnrough tropic seas.
un July 26. having been out a little
more than "a hours, the Yermak struck
another of these towering ice packs.
ano the comparatively weak underpart
" her hull was pierced by spur of the
iee, and she sprang a leak. The hole
was temporarily stopped up and the
ulp continued. The ice breaker. pushed
neadily northward, breaking ice of ev-
Kind, form, height and thickness
which she met, until about the middle
August. Then she struck hard
ssainst low lying block of ice, the old
soc was made larger, and on Aug. II
sne voyage was abandoned, and the
Aefmak put back TO st. Petersburg.
shortly after her arrival there she
r1s sent to Elswick, 1t was said at the
me, Tor repairs. Nothing could be
kafned then about the extent Of the
laiFs or what thy would be. Now,
lLser more than a year at the Arm.
ongs yards, It comes out that the
etnak. under the personal supervi.
non OF Admiral Makaroff, has been
nes'oed with great new bow and IL