The coastline of Russia along the Arctic Ocean is so great that the country needs an icebreaker fleet. But icebreakers operate not only in the North. They conduct ships all year round, both on freezing seas and rivers.
History of the Russian icebreaker fleet
Icebreakers have long been used on the northern rivers of Russia. The first icebreaking ship was built in Kronstadt in 1864, and already at the end of the 19th century an icebreaking fleet was officially created. The famous icebreaker "Ermak", the idea of creating which belonged to Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov and the famous scientist D. I. Mendeleev, was laid down at an English shipyard in 1897.
The Maritime Ministry of the Russian Empire in 1913 announced a competition for the construction of twelve linear and port icebreakers. The world's first linear icebreaker, Svyatogor, was built in 1917 by Sir Amstrong & Co., according to a design by S. O. Makarov. Later it was renamed and began to bear the name "Krasin".
The first Soviet icebreakers were built at domestic shipyards in 1938-1941. The ice fleet of the Soviet Union consisted of vessels of domestic, British, German, Danish, Finnish and Canadian construction.
The Soviet icebreaking fleet was the first in the world to be replenished with the atomic icebreaker Lenin in 1959, built at the Admiralty Shipyard.
Diesel icebreakers for the Soviet fleet were built at shipyards in Finland. These were powerful Moscow-type vessels and Kapitan Sorokin-type icebreakers with a capacity of 16.2 MW, intended for navigation at the mouth of the Arctic rivers and in areas with shallow depths at temperatures of -50 ° C, as well as Mudyug-type icebreakers. By the end of Soviet history, the domestic icebreaking fleet totaled 36 vessels.
Mudyug Island
In the White Sea, near the mouth of the Northern Dvina, there is an island with picturesque nature, which attracts tourists with its beauties, clean sea air and terrible history. Mudyug for Arkhangelsk was of strategic importance, the same as Kronstadt for St. Petersburg.
During the First World War and at the beginning of the Civil War, there was a concentration camp for prisoners of war created by the interventionists, which later became a forced labor prison. In the camp, and then in the prison, there were inhuman conditions, few survived there, so Mudyug was called the "island of death."
Now the island has a historical and natural reserve, which includes the remains of the camp and prisons, the leading mark of the lighthouse in 1875 and the lighthouse built in 1938.
A monument to the victims of the intervention was erected in memory of those killed on the island in 1928, first in stone and cement, and in 1958 it was replaced by granite.
The ship is named after the island. Mudyug is a 7 MW diesel-electric icebreaker built in 1982.
Icebreaker Mudyug
The translation of this name from Finno-Ugric is “winding river”. The name, in general, corresponds to the current work of the auxiliary icebreaker.
It was built in 1982 at the famous Finnish shipyard “Värtsilä” (Finland’s icebreakers break the ice in all the icebreaking fleets of the world), like the other two icebreakers - “Dikson” and “Magadan” - after it.
Mudyug began his career with work in the Murmansk Shipping Company, then was transferred to Arkhangelsk. In 1987, Mudyug was redone according to a Swiss project. The front half of the icebreaker was completely rebuilt, and now its nose resembles a gigantic galosh. The vessel’s tank became very spacious, but maneuverability worsened and the new nose, which was originally designed for the thin ice of Swiss lakes, could not break the thick ice of the Arctic. And the auxiliary icebreaker was transferred to St. Petersburg to the North-West branch of Rosmorport.
Now he cuts young ice on the fairway in the Neva Bay, and the strip of clean water after it remains wide and even for the pilotage.
Icebreaker Characteristics
The owner of the auxiliary icebreaker “Mudyug” is the North-Western Basin Branch of FSUE “Rosmorport”, it is assigned in the port of St. Petersburg. Rosmorport ships provide safe shipping in the Russian ports on the Baltic Sea and on the approaches to them.
An icebreaker with a driving power of 7.3 MW develops a clear water speed of 16.5 knots. Its length is 111.6 meters, width - 22.2 meters, draft - 6.8 meters, height - 38 meters. The total displacement of the icebreaker is 8.154 thousand tons, ice penetration is 115 centimeters.
Ice patency is the ability of an icebreaker to move in continuous ice at full engine power, it shows the ice qualities of the vessel and is measured by the maximum thickness of the ice in which the vessel can move continuously with minimum speed.
According to Rosmorport, the Mudyug icebreaker can be in autonomous navigation for twenty-five days, and its navigation area in the Baltic Sea is not limited.
The purpose of the icebreaker
The auxiliary icebreaker “Mudyug” is intended for independent icebreaking assistance of large vessels, that is, the laying of a channel of clean water free of ice. Since the length of the caravan depends on the length of the clear water channel behind the icebreaker, Mudyug can carry out caravans from several vessels. It can also tow non-self-propelled vessels and floating structures not only in ice, but also in clear water. The specifics of the “ice cutter”, which leaves behind a wide even channel, allows it to tow vessels in a long tug.
Its equipment allows you to extinguish fires at any facilities, and not just at floating facilities, and perform work to assist ships that are in distress, both in ice conditions and in clean water.
Icebreaker Modernization Experiment
Initially, ice penetration was decided by increasing the mass of the ship and the power of its power plants. But it turned out that the option in which ice is cut at a certain angle, rather than crushing, as is customary, is more effective. At the same time, the special shape of the hull contours allows the ice to be pushed out on the sides of the ship under the ice massif, leaving a clear strip of water behind the icebreaker, and not fragments of ice, through which not every ship can pass.
The West German company Thyssen-Vaas cited the successful experience of modernizing the icebreaker Max Waldeck, and Mudyug got into trouble. The elongated nasal part and anchor coils deeply hidden under its blunt part gave reason for wits to call the icebreaker “galoshes” or “nostrils”.
Since sea trials took place in the summer, the ice in the Franz Josef Land region was not very thick, and the tests gave satisfactory results. But in winter, on the practical pilotage of ships, previously unaccounted deficiencies surfaced. In reverse, the ice drift could not move at all, and in the front it became jammed with ice. In addition, glaciologists proved that it is generally impossible to cut long-term ice with hummocks, in contrast to the one-year ice, which was cut by the Mudyug tests. The icebreaker was eventually transferred to the Baltic.
Icebreaker Festivals
In early May 2014, an icebreaker festival was held. It was held in St. Petersburg, was the first in the world and was dedicated to the fifty years of the Russian icebreaking fleet. Petersburg hosted a parade of icebreakers. On the first day of the festival alone, more than ten thousand people visited it. The famous Arctic icebreaker Krasin with a rich and heroic history; port icebreaker "Ivan Kruzenshtern", named after the great traveler Admiral I.F. Kruzenshtern; one of six icebreakers named after the famous Soviet captains "Captain Zarubin"; modern icebreakers with emergency rescue equipment for extinguishing fires on the high seas and oil spill response “Moscow” and “St. Petersburg” - in such a wonderful company the worker “Mudyug”, an icebreaker for escorting ships in freezing seas, took a worthy place.
The second time the festival was held in May 2015. It was dedicated to the seventieth anniversary of the Victory and the feat of the participants of the Polar convoys during the Great Patriotic War. And again, St. Petersburg hosted a parade of icebreakers. In addition to last year's participants, the icebreakers Krasin, Ivan Kruzenshtern, Mudyug and Moscow, the Nevskaya Zastava and Captain Sorokin participated in the festival.
The future of the Russian icebreaker fleet
A state program is currently being developed to create a new icebreaking fleet in Russia, since most of the existing vessels are subject to decommissioning.
Including diesel-electric icebreakers will be built: linear for operation in the Arctic, with shaft power of 25 MW; linear for freezing seas with a capacity of 16–18 MW; auxiliary with a capacity of 7 MW, like the Mudyug icebreaker.
By replacing the Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers, an LK-25D class icebreaker can provide cargo delivery and ship escort in the eastern and year-round in the western Arctic region, on the Yenisei, in the summer navigation.
Icebreakers of the LK-18D type, which are intended to replace Captain Sorokin-type vessels, can provide not only cargo transportation in the east of the Arctic and the Far East, but also in new promising directions in the Far Eastern basin.
Icebreakers of the LK-7D type will come not only to replace auxiliary diesel-electric ships of the Mudyug type.
A new generation icebreaker is needed both for the development of new transportation directions in the Far East and the Arctic, and for servicing new ports and terminals.