The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-05
WHAT THE YERMAK DID.
ADMIRAL M1KEROFF'S ICE

NussIun Inventor DeseriUes HIS oo"t-
Experiments North of spi,zbergen-
DeIiverance of the ReveI Fleet
Stronger Boat Fecded TO Reach tn
Pole.
The ce-breaker was built in Engan'
by Sir w. G. Armstrong, and the name
of the conqueror of Siberia, Yermak
was given to her. Her length is three
hundred and five feet; breadth, seven
ty-one feet; displacement with three
thousand tons of coal, eight thousand
| tons; and in this condition she draws
twenty-five feet Her bow is inclined
seventy degrees from the vertical; hel
stern is sixty-fve degrees, and her sides
are twenty degrees from the vertical
In whichever direction she moves in the
ice she is bound to rise on it, and break
it with her weight. She has four en-
gnes, working four Independent pro
| pellers, one in front and three at the
stern. Each engine develops twenty
| five hundred horsepower, so that the
| total force Of the ship is ten thousand
| horsepower. The ship has a double
bottom and double Sides she is divided
into forty eight compartments, every
one of which was tried by filing with
water as high as the upper deck; one
compartment in the fore part Of the
ship, one at the stern and two at both
sides, are specially designed for chang
ing 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 exera auxiliary engine,
so that the main engine can be discon-
nected If necessary, and the propeller
worked from the auxiliary 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 New
castle to st. Petersburg. We entered
the ice at the meridian of Revel. and
had to force our way through one hum
dred and sixty miles of ice. 1t never
occurred to any one that the ship would
go to Cronstadt In winter time, and our
entering Cronstadt harbor caused quite
sensation.
Soon after our arrival in Cronstadt
telegram was received that thirteen
steamers We're caught in the ice near
Revel, and some of them were in dan
ger. The Yermak went at once to Rev
ell, and opened the way for these and
other steamers, the total being forty
one, partly blockaded in the Ice, and
partly waiting in Revel harbor and 9TH
er ports for several weeks This work
done, the Yermak proceeded again to
Cronstadt, and helped forty steamers
going to st. Petersburg
The ship was built for the Kara Sea,
where is one years ice, but it was re-
solved to try the ship in heavy polar ice.
Tn the month of June we made our first
trial in the polar ice, and found that the
ship had to be strengthened and the
forward propeller taken out. Then we
returned to Newcastle, and on August
we entered again the polar ice. This
time we were In the ice two weeks, COW
ering during that period two hundred
and thirty miles in eighty-seven hours.
The most interesting part of the ex-
pertinent 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. Elk
periments in the Baltic have shown that
a great deal of power is required to
propel the ship through the ice Ice
ridges in deep water, in the Baltic, new
ar attain any considerable height, but
the ice is difficult to pass through and
l...x L i L. .l.
10 higher than one or two feet, requires
more power than the Yermak can sup
ply. In these cases we We're obliged to
move the ship astern and charge at
full speed, gaining sometimes less than
The half-length of the ship at charge,
The fact is, that the Baltic ice, being
of pieces no more than two to
.hree feet thick, gives a very great skin
resistance to the ship. This was so to
such an extent that other ships follow
ng the Yermak in the canal opened by
Ter, on some occasions could scarcely |
proceed with full speed.
1t is quite another proceeding. break
ng the polar ice In some places Of the |
Baltic the icefield is uninterrupted from t
me shore to another. In the Arctic seas /
he ice is broken. Floes of ice might be
several miles or several fathoms in |
ength. Between icefloes are the lanes, |
which are very irregular. Sometimes |
cefioes are pressed against each other,
ind sometimes not. When the ice Is not |
,ressed, the progress of the ship is very |
asy, Floes of ice even a mile long |
move away and give passage to- the
hip. The sharp projecting angles of |
he foes break very easily, and some
lines it is preferable to shorten the |
way by cutting a foe right through. |
nick polar ice looks very heavy and
trong, and when walking on it, one
annot imagine that such a heavy thing
Guild be broken. But the fact Is that
ven ice fourteen feet thick cracks when
harged at by the ship, if there is room
0 remove broken parts.
The lower part of the polar foe has
onstantly, more or less, the same tenn
erature of the surface varies with the
of the air, which some
ines produces the. cracks, and some
ines prepares the ice for cracking.
he moment the ship charges the ice, it
racks at the place at which it might
rack in half an hour itself with an
ther change of temperature of de-
rec or so, or with the beginning of
ressure. The big foe cracks more cas-
y than the small foe, which some
mes is pushed by the ship and goes in
ont untilft manages somehow to pass
nr1n -il 49, lne .l,j,1 u, I