Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-09
THE WORK OF THE YERMAK
Admiral Makaruffs Ice Breaker NAY
Reach the Pole.
Cut Through Thfrty-Three Feet Of Ice
In the Baltic Sea-Caused Sem
sation In CrOnstndt.
From the London Geographical Journal.

From the London Geographical Journal
The ice breaker was built in England by
Sir w. G. Armstrong. and the name of the
conqueror of Siberia, Yermak was given
| to her. Her length is 305 feet; breadth, Il
| feet: displacement, with 5000 tons of coal,
5000 tons; and in this condition she draws
% feet. Her bow is inclined 20 degrees
| from the vertical; her stern Is IS degrees,
and her sides are 20 degrees from the YER
tical. In whichever direction she moves in
the ice she Is bound to rise on It, and break
it with her weight. She has four engines,
working four independent propellers, one
| in front and three at the stern Each en-
CINE develops $500 horse power, so that
the total force of the ship is 10000 horse
| power. The ship has a double bottom and
double sides; she is divided into forty-eight
tried by filling with water as high as the
upper deck: one compartment in the fore
part or the ship, one at the stern and two
| at both sides are specially designed for
changing the trim and heel of the ship. In
the center of the Yermak is situated a
powerful pump, which can take water from
any OF these compartments and pump into
the other. Each propeller is supplied with
extra auxiliary engine, so that the main
engine can be disconnected if necessary.
and the propeller worked from the aux
| 1iiary engine. This was meant to give
economy of fuel when the ship has to go
under ordinary conditions, and reduces the
number OF the mechanical staff.
her maiden voyage was from Newcastle
TO st Petersburg: We entered the ice at
the meridian of Revel and had to force
our way through 100 miles of ice 1t never
occurred to any one that the ship would
go to Cronstadt in winter time, and our en-
tering Cronstadt harbor caused quite a SEN
sation.
Soon after our arrival in Cronstadt teIe-
gram was received that thirteen steamers
were caught in the ice near Reyel and
some Oh them were in danger. The Yer
max went at once to Revel and opened the
way 1or these and~other steamers the total
being forty-one. partly blocked in the ice
ana partly waiting in ReveI harbor and
olner ports Tor several weeks. This work
uohe, the fermak proceeded again to Cron-
stadt and helped forty steamers going to
st. Petersburg "
The ship was built for the Kara sea,
Where is one years ice, but it was resolved
to try the ship in heavy polar ice. In the
month OF June we made our first trial in
me polar zee, and found that the ship had
10 DC strengthened and the forward pro-
castle, and on August we encountered
aEain the polar ice This time we were in
the ice two weeks, covering during that
period go miles in 81 hours.
The most interesting part of the exnar;-
ment Is the behavior of the ship herself in
the Ice, the question whether or not the
steel ice-breaker can break polar ice and
stand its pressure. Experiments in the Pal
TIC have shown that great deal of mower
IS required to propel the ship through the
Ice. Ice ridges in deep water in the Baltic.
never attain any considerable height. but
the ice is difficult to pass through: and if
happens that the ice field, which is no
hlsher than one or two feet, requires more
power than the Yermak can supply. In
THESE cases We were obliged to move the
ship astern and charge at full speed, gain
ing sometimes less than the half-length of
the ship at charge. The fact is, that the
baitlc Ice, being composed of pieces no
more than two to three feet thick gives a
very great 81 in-resistance to the ship This
was SO to such an extent that other ships
following the Yermak in the canal opened
by her, on some occasions could scarcely
proceed with full speed.
IT Is quite another proceeding, breaking
the polar ice. In some places of the Baltic
the lceneid is uninterrupted from one shore
to another. In the Arctic seas the ice is
broken. Floes of ice might be several
miles or several fathoms in length. Be
tween fcef1oes are the lanes which are yery
irregular. sometimes fcefioes are pressed
against each other, and sometimes not
W men the ice is not pressed, the progress of
the ship is very easy. Floes of ice even a
mile long move away and give passage to
the snip. The sharp projecting angles of
the foes break very easily, and sometimes
1t is preferable to shorten the way by cut
ting a foe right through. Thick polar ice
locks very heavy and strong and when
walking on it one cannot imagine that such
a heavy thing could be broken. But the
fact is that even ice fourteen feet thick
cracks when charged at by the ship, if
there is room to remove broken parts.
The lower part of the polar foe has con-
stantly, more or less, the same tempera-
tIre, while the temperature of the surfac e
varies with the temperature of the air.
which sometimes produces the cracks, and
sometimes prepares 1.-THE ice for cracking
The moment the ship charges the ice, it
cracks at the place at which 1t might crack
in ho n, hn,, olq IL.
of temperature of a degree or so, or with
the beginning of pressure. The big foe
cracks more easily than the small foe,
which sometimes is pushed by the Ship
and goes In front until it manages somehow
to pass ON one side of the ship or the other
Fields of hummocky ice are liable to
crack even more than fields of plain ice.
In charging that ice the ships bow rises to
nine feet: then the field cracks the ship
falls down and goes ahead, moving aside the
debris of the ice field. 1t Is a most exciting
scene to see some of the big pieces of ice
falling down into the water and the others
coming to the surface from a great depth
every detached piece trying to find a new
position. while the ship itself, being always
pushed ahead by her machinery. gradually
advances. maybe rises again, and gives an
other crack to the field ice. We took some
cinematosraph pictures, which show how
much the ship lifts herself up in the ice,
ana That gives us means of calculat ting
what weight Is applied to crack the foe of
lce Ii the ice is in the period of pressure
progress is not so easy: on one occasion it
took me four hours to make two miles,
While usually the ship went by zigzags with
a speed of three and a half knots making
good two and half knots an hour
There is a great difference in ice-brea king
IN the Baltic sea and the polar regions
Hummocks in the Baltic sea are never high
above the level, but sometimes they are
very deep. According to our measurement
they go down to as much as twenty feet.
On one occasion we measured twenty-seyen
feet down and six feet up, the total being
thlrty-three feet. Such hummocks are com.
posed OF pieces one to three feet thick.
Many hummocks are formed at the time
when ice is moved by the swell; the result
or this Is that every piece of ice finds its
pest position, and the whole hummock is
very compact. When the ship charges into
1t it does not always form long cracks, but
breaks under the ship, producing no heavy
erect upon her skin. When the ship passes
half of its length in such a foe, she touches
SO many fragments of ice that they stop
the progress of the ship by the friction and
the pressure upon the skin of the fore part
of the ship. When the ship stops there is
no other way than to go back and charge
again This time, before the bow of the
ship touches the solid ice it has to run
through one hupdred feet or so Of broken
Ice. that 0imintShaS