The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1916-01-24
THE KEY TO RUSSIA'S DOOR
(By Leroy Kenneth, in the February
Number of Popular Mechanics Mag

! (By Leroy Kenneth, in the February
Number of Popular Mechanics Mag
azine.)
The success or failure of the "Min
to-" the ice crusher Canada has sent
to clear the way at Archangel, mans
victory or disaster to the Russian ar
my.
Russia is dependent on the outside
world for her military supplies. Her
Baltic Ports are closed by the German
navy. Her Black Sea ports can only
gs seldom begin as such. Us
be reached through the Dardanelles,
and the allies have failed to force that
passage. Supplies through Waldo
stock must cross Siberia on a rail-
road lacking in rolling stock and not
completely double tracked. Archan-
gle is her only remaining door to
the world. The Mimic" is keeping
that door open.
Last winter, Canada's new ice break
er the Earl Grey" with the New
Bruce" and the "Lintrose" from New
foundland. and Russia's "Merrimac,"
all ice breakers-tried to make Arch
angle a winter port. And last winter
the campaign of the Russian army
astonishes the whole world-unti1 its
munition gave out; then it was fore
ed to retreat and its defeat became
nearly disaster The failure of
the Russian army to hold the terri
tory it won was the direct result of the
failure of the ice fleet at Archanglc.
When Russia realized the allies
might not succeed at the Dardanellcs
she placed immense orders for rails
and rolling stock in this country;
but the slide in our own Panama Can
al held the boats carrying the ed
uipment in h A ad rly la nd
uipment in the Atlantic and forced
them to choose between making the
long trip around Africa or Drawing
the submarines in the Mediterranean
The delay allowed the early Siberian
winter to set in V1adivostok is
crowded with supplies and the rail
road service to Europe is stoi1l in
adequate.
Russia must beat the ice at Arch
inc. Jack Frost has always been
pictured as her ally, but now he is
fighting on the other side. He is try
ing to seal up Russia's only door
The Mimic" is keeping the door OPP
en-.
The Kyle" the Bellaventure,"
the "Boneventure" the "Biothic" and
"Misceotropic" have been added to
the fleet that failed last winter; they
are all ice breakers, but the Mimic"
is not an ice breaker; it is an ice
crusher. The ice breakers have sharp
prows that cleave through the ice,
principle that works rapidly and we'll
until the ice grows thicker than the
draft of the ship, then the ice break
er is helpless.
The Mimic" has no keel forward
of amidships; instead, its bottom slants
away abruptly at the water line. In
the water, it looks like tramp down
at the stern; but its bow and bottom
are heavily reinforced. When it rams
an ice field at full speed, it climbs
onto ii until its weight brushes thru.
] In the shallow St. Lawrence Gulf
waters; where the fresh water ice
from the river sometimes banks un-
til it rests on the bottom, the ice
breaker is more us%ul, but in the
Hudson Bay and the arctic the ice
crusher is still king. The White Sea-
is deep at Archangle. The Mimic"
is willing boat, and brave, and the
fate of Russia depends on it's success
Through forty miles of heavy ice
the feet must keep channel. Night
and day the ice-breakers patrol the
course up near the arctic circle. When
wireless calls the blunt nosed Min
to-" it bucks lead through, and Rus
Isias door to the world is kept open