Yermak (First Icebreaker)

The Yermak was the world's first icebreaker. This ship was also the first vessel to sail through the Arctic. Launched in 1899, it was designed by Admiral Stepan Makarov, who was an engineer and inventor. He was convinced Russia needed a strong and powerful vessel capable of forcing its way through the Arctic and even reaching the North Pole.

The Yermak entered service with the Russian Navy, under the Russian Empire, in 1900. It would endure the storms of revolutions, wars, and political upheavals, and it was still in service when the Soviet Union launched its first nuclear vessels. Before sailing through the Arctic, its first mission was to rescue the battleship Apraksin, which ran aground on the rocks of Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland, taking on hundreds of tons of water. Trapped in the ice, the vessel faced destruction. Only the first icebreaker could reach it and save the crew.

During World War I, the Yermak led warships convoys from Reval to Helsingfors (Helsinki), carving channels for the Russian Navy's vessels to sail through and escape from the powerful German fleet. Later, when the Germans closed in, the Russian ships had to be evacuated from Helsinki itself. At the head of the icebound column stood the black hull of the icebreaker, dragging Russia’s warships through frozen seas to safety. Within weeks, the city fell, but, by then, the Russian fleet had gone.

By the 1930s, the Soviet Union was slowly recovering from civil war and chaos. The government needed to revive Arctic shipping, and the old icebreaker was called back into service. In 1934, for the first time since Makarov’s era, the Yermak pushed north into the Kara Sea. The ship had aged, but it was far from obsolete. Engineers fitted it with an amphibious aircraft – a striking innovation for its time. With aerial reconnaissance, the icebreaker could scout floes and channels far ahead, dramatically improving its effectiveness.

Specifications

Type: icebreaker

Displacement: 8,730 tons

Length: 97.5 m

Beam: 21.6 m

Draft: 7.3 m

Propulsion: 8 steam engines, with four shafts, fed by 6 boilers, generating 9,000 HP.

Maximum Speed: 12 knots

Compliment: 101.

Above, design drawing of the Yermak.

The first ice breaker. Photo taken in 1916.