Where there are icy dawns

Russian settlers appeared on the shores of the White Sea at the beginning of the last millennium. They were attracted to these regions by rich fishing: on land - furs, poultry, salt; at sea - fish, sea animals, primarily walruses, whose tusks (“fish tooth”) have always been highly valued. In addition to mining, the desire to explore the world around us also attracted people to the North.

The northern lands were explored by different people: envoys of the Novgorod boyars and rich merchants, ushkuiniki, “dashing people”, runaway peasants... They usually did not settle on deserted shores, they chose places closer to the settlements of the indigenous inhabitants - Karelians and Sami, mixed with them or shared the shore, and then they were simply forced out. Over time, the firmly settled fishermen began to be called Pomors - “living by the sea”, and the entire area of ​​their settlements - Pomorie.

Already from the 12th century, Pomorie became the center of Russian shipbuilding. Here boats (sea and ordinary), ranshins, shnyaks and karbass were built. But the highest achievement of Pomor engineering was the kochi - special ships designed for long voyages in the northern seas.

How to survive in ice

Koch (other names - kocha, kochmora, kochmara), which appeared in the 13th century, was adapted both for swimming in broken ice and in shallow water, and for moving by drag. It is believed that its name comes from the word “kotsa” - “ice coat”. This was the name of the second hull skin, made of durable oak or hardwood boards in the area of ​​the variable waterline. It protected the main hull from damage when sailing among the ice. According to historian and archaeologist Mikhail Belov, the peculiarity of the kocha was its body, which was shaped like an egg or a nut shell. Thanks to this shape, the ship did not crush the ice when compressed, but simply squeezed the ice floes onto the surface, and it could drift along with them. During new excavations in 2001-2009 in Mangazeya, archaeologists collected many ship parts. It is possible that their analysis will be able to change the prevailing ideas about ships sailing in the Arctic seas.

Koch had two anchors of four and a half pounds each and several smaller anchors - two pounds. They were used both at sea and for portage: if the ship was in ice fields and could not sail or oar, the sailors descended onto the ice, inserted the arm of the anchor into a cut hole, and then selected the anchor rope and pulled the ship through.

The boat craftsmen did not have drawings and during construction relied on experience and their own instincts. The master outlined the contours of the vessel with a stick in the sand. The construction of the kocha began from the bottom: it was most destroyed when swimming in northern seas, so it was made especially durable. The kocha's keel reached 21.6 m in length. It was protected from damage during dragging or grounding by a false keel - boards or beams sewn from below. This invention of the Pomors was subsequently borrowed by foreign craftsmen - it was used until the end of the era of wooden shipbuilding.

The parts of the ship were sewn together using spruce or pine roots (vica). This made koch cheaper and easier. The side plating boards were joined in a special way: at the seams they were covered with strips attached to the sides with small staples - a method of sealing the sides typical for Northern Russian shipbuilding. To completely “scrape” the koch, several thousand metal staples were required. The grooves of the sheathing were caulked with tarred oakum. On top of the main sheathing, a kotsa was attached - an ice sheathing, the boards of which were nailed smooth.

The koch had an original part that had no analogues either in Russian or Western European shipbuilding - koryanik. It formed a bend in the side and gave it additional rigidity. The width of the koch reached 6.4 m. Although the large width-to-length ratio (8:17) made the vessel yaw, this was eliminated due to the increased rudder area.

The stern of the kocha along the waterline had a point of about 60°. Above the waterline, the stern point turned into a round stern. This design first appeared among the Pomors. The stern was almost vertical, the bow strongly inclined. The maximum draft of the koch was 1.5-1.75 m, giving it the opportunity to move at shallow depths. The hull was divided into compartments by transverse bulkheads. In the bow compartment there was a cockpit for the crew, and a stove was also laid out there. The middle part of the ship was allocated for cargo hold, and the hold hatch itself was waterproof. In the aft compartment there was a helmsman's cabin. The carrying capacity of the koch varied from 500 to 2500 poods (8-40 tons).

Pomeranian faith

The Pomors walked “according to their faith” - that is, according to their handwritten directions. They described noticeable and dangerous places, shelters from a formidable wave and from the winds, approaches to them, anchorages, the time and strength of the tides, the nature and speed of sea currents were indicated. The first directions were written on birch bark. Seafaring experience was highly valued, and the records made were passed down from generation to generation.

Wooden crosses and houris (pyramids of stones that serve as identification marks) also helped to navigate the sea. In the White Sea and on the Murmansk side, on Matochka (Novaya Zemlya) and on Grumant (Spitsbergen), sailors encountered these signs, placed by someone unknown and when, and they themselves placed their own. Huge crosses were erected not only as identification markers, but also as votives, in memory of fallen comrades, successes or failures. They were distinguished by carved designs, copper icons mounted on them, and awnings for protection from rain and snow. And these special signs made it possible not only to identify the area, but also to determine the direction of the path - after all, the crossbar of the cross was always directed “from the night to the flyer” - from north to south.

Usually the pilot kept the pilot's guide on the ship in the headrest, and at home - behind the shrine. A prayer was written on the first page of some sailing directions: the sailors knew what a difficult journey they were embarking on. The Pomors were characterized by a special religious feeling, which combined love of freedom and humility, mysticism and practicality, reason and faith, as well as a spontaneous feeling of a living connection with God.

While signs are visible on the shore,— wrote Mikhail Prishvin (1873-1954), — Pomor reads one side of the book; when the signs disappear and a storm is about to break the ship, the Pomor turns the pages and turns to Nikolai Ugodnik.

The Pomors considered St. Nicholas the Wonderworker the patron saint of navigation. That’s what they called him - “Nikola the Sea God”. In the minds of the Pomors, he acted as a healer, a liberator, a driver on the waters of the sea of ​​life, a pacifier and calmer of storms and misfortunes. In addition, the North Sea residents had humble respect for “Father the Sea.” The Pomors perceived the maritime court as divine. They never said “drowned”, “died at sea”, they said: “The sea took over.” The righteous judgment of the sea took place on a ship, which is why it was called a “ship,” that is, the place where the fate of the human soul is decided. It is not for nothing that there was a widespread saying among the Pomors: “Whoever has not been to the sea has not prayed to God.”

Permanent proximity to dangerous area sea ​​(just like the connection of the Russian Cossacks with the “wild field”) determined such properties of the Pomeranian character as love of freedom and liberty. It was in these areas of the Russian state that the traditions of popular self-government were preserved for the longest time.

Pomeranian language

Northern Russian sailors went fishing not only in the White and Barents Seas. They possessed the secrets of navigating many sea routes in the Kara, Norwegian and Greenland Seas. At the end of the 15th century, the Pomors went to north coast Scandinavia along east coast White Sea and the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula with portage through the Rybachy Peninsula. In Pomeranian navigation practice, this path was called “Going to the German end.” In the 16th-17th centuries, the area of ​​fishing and trading activity expanded even further. Fishermen and sailors explored new sea routes and lands - they went to the polar territory of Western Siberia to Mangazeya and the mouth of the Yenisei, at New Earth and to Spitsbergen.

Of the European peoples, the Pomors interacted most closely with the Norwegians. Russian sailors have visited their shores since the 14th century. These frequent contacts led to the development of their own language among Russian and Norwegian industrialists, traders and fishermen - Russenorsk. It contained about four hundred words, of which approximately half were of Norwegian origin, slightly less than half were of Russian origin, and the remaining words were borrowed from Swedish, Lapp, English and German. Roussenorsky was used only during the period of navigation and fishing, therefore the concepts it contained were limited to the area of ​​\u200b\u200btrade and maritime life. It is interesting that the Russians, speaking Russenorsk, were convinced that they were speaking Norwegian, and the Norwegians did the opposite.

Great Expeditions

However, it would be a mistake to think that the koch, created as a fishing vessel, was used only by industrialists and traders. Koch turned out to be indispensable in great expeditions.

To implement this plan, a special vessel was required. An ordinary ship would inevitably be crushed by ice. Resistance to ice pressure was the main idea in the construction of the Fram. Nansen clearly imagined what this ship should be like and described it in detail. When reading this description, one gets the feeling that he was going to build a koch.

The most important thing in such a vessel is that it is built in such a way that it can withstand the pressure of the ice. The ship must have such sloping sides that the ice pressing against it does not receive a foothold and cannot crush it[…] but they would squeeze it upward […] For the same purpose, the vessel should be small in size, since, firstly, it is easier to maneuver in ice with a small vessel; secondly, during the compression of ice, it is more easily squeezed upward, and it is easier to give the required strength to a small vessel[…] A ship of the indicated shape and size cannot, of course, be comfortable and stable for sea navigation, but this is not particularly important in ice-clogged waters […] True, before you get to the ice area, you will have to go a long way open sea, but the ship will not be so bad that it is impossible to move forward on it at all.

The trans-Arctic drift of the Fram brilliantly confirmed Nansen’s calculations: after spending almost three years in captivity in the ice, the Fram returned to Norway

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FEBRUARY 2010

What types of ships are there?

POMORian VESSELS

In the previous issue, in the story about Viking ships, we noted that the Scandinavian traditions of ship building took root well in Rus'. It's time to get acquainted with our ancient ships.

Already in the 12th century, Novgorodians reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean. And later, in the Russian North, a unique seafaring culture of the Pomors, the Russian inhabitants of the White Sea region, developed.

Pomors already in the 16th-17th centuries. made long trips across the Arctic Ocean - to Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen (the Pomors called this archipelago from the Norman Grumant). They caught fish and sea animals at sea and traded with Norwegian ports. The sailors of the Russian North had their own names for the cardinal points and main compass points (directions), and special designations for navigational hazards - pitfalls and shoals.

Navigation conditions in the Arctic Ocean are very difficult for wooden ships. Any collision with a large ice floe threatens death. The ship's hull, sandwiched between ice fields, can easily be crushed. To sail in the Cold Sea, the Pomors learned to build special vessels - kochi. Kochi were very strong, with additional ice belts on the sides. The body of the koch was shaped somewhat like a nut shell and was pushed upward when the ice compressed. The plating of Pomeranian ships was somewhat reminiscent of the plating of Scandinavian ships - it was also made “overlapping”, with the plating belts superimposed on each other. But when assembling their ships, the Pomors used a very interesting technique. The plating of the kochs and other northern ships was assembled not on nails, but on juniper pins - they did not loosen over time and did not leak.

Each large Pomeranian village had its own shipbuilding tradition. For short trips near the coast and for fishing, small karbas boats were built. For long-distance trade voyages on the White Sea, large three-masted vessels were used - boats capable of transporting large quantities of cargo. The Pomors rode on such boats northern Norway, reaching the city of Tromsø. And in the east, Pomeranian ships were used for voyages along the Siberian rivers and polar seas off the coast of Siberia.

OUR REGATTA

And the new question of our Regatta is connected precisely with the voyages of Russian sailors of the 17th century, or more precisely, with the pioneers of Siberia and the Far East.

A Russian explorer first passed through this strait in the 17th century, a second time it was discovered and mapped by a Russian navigator in the first half of the 18th century, and the strait received its name in honor of this navigator already in the second half of the same century from one of the participants in the expedition of the famous English traveler. It is necessary to name the strait, both its discoverers and the English navigator.

In the Far North of our Motherland, back in the 16th century, Pomors built kochis - seaworthy vessels adapted for navigation in ice. The Pomors rode on Kochs to Novaya Zemlya, to Grumant - Spitsbergen, along the Beloye and Kara Sea reached the shores of distant Chukotka and even went to Pacific Ocean. If the koch got stuck in the ice, this did not frighten the brave sailors. The special shape of the underwater part of the koch contributed to the fact that when the ice compressed, the koch was “squeezed out” and remained unharmed. During the long polar months, the Pomors drifted along with the ice, and in the spring they set sail again. The small draft of the nomads made it possible to use these vessels on the rivers of Siberia.

There is information that the Pomors used a magnetic compass during ice voyages.

Koch was a typesetting vessel. At the ends of the keel beam, stems and tree trunks were attached - tree trunks with roots, which formed, as it were, the skeleton of the ship. The stems and poles were attached to the keel beam using locks - special cutouts and dowels - wooden round rods, as well as iron nails. The bottom was made from strong tree trunks, sawn into two parts. Boards were placed above the waterline. The builders of the kochs paid special attention to the strength and waterproofness of the bottom as the most wearing part of the koch and the one most quickly subject to destruction in water and ice.

Along the edges of the sides, transverse beams were placed - beams, on which boards were laid to form the deck. There was a hatch on the deck through which one could get inside the koch along a ladder. After the ship was built, a tarred hemp rope was hammered into the grooves, and planks were placed on top of the rope, which were attached to the skin with iron staples. The boards were fastened to the frames with iron nails. A mast, a sail, and the necessary standing and running rigging were installed on the kokhas. The anchoring device consisted of one iron anchor weighing up to 100 kg with a hemp rope; sometimes there was a spare anchor and “cats” - small anchors weighing 30-35 kg. There was a gate on the deck to raise the anchor. For the purposes of reconnaissance and communication with the shore, a traveling kochik - a small rowing boat - was firmly attached to the deck of the kochik. The dimensions of the kochs were relatively large: length up to 20-25, width 4-5, draft about 1.5-2 m. The koch accommodated 10-15 crew members and more than 20 tons of cargo.

The very reliable sea vessels created by the Russian Pomors - kochi, which were successfully used in the harsh conditions of navigation in the waters of the Arctic Ocean and Siberian rivers, were Russia's national contribution to the history of the development of world shipbuilding.

The general view and drawings of the model of the northern Russian Koch are shown in Fig. 120 and 121. The first shows a view of the model from the side, from above and from the bow, showing the sails, side fastening and all the kocha equipment. In Fig. 121 shows frame templates, a longitudinal section and all the necessary details (the scale of some of them is enlarged).

The body of the model can be made from a piece of dry wood, but if you have enough experience, it is better to make the body in typesetting. The most suitable material for making a model is wood. You will also need some wire, tin, thread and fabric for the sail.

Making a model is quite accessible to any modeller. The experience gained during its construction will make it possible to make a more complex model of a historical or some other vessel. The kocha model is tabletop, its dimensions are: length 210, width 48 mm, which corresponds to group XIII of class “A”.

An attentive reader in my article about the Azov flotilla may notice an alleged inconsistency and ask the question - was this how Russian ships were built before Peter the Great or not?

I answer. Before Peter there was a fleet in Rus', and the “reformer” tsar practically ruined it, just as he ruined everything he could get his hands on with his playful little hands. I will not analyze the consequences of his activities in all spheres of life of a great country, this is a separate topic, I will limit myself to the “great leap” in the field of shipbuilding.

So, I repeat - there was a fleet in Rus'. According to ancient legends, the Kyiv princes Oleg and Igor did not go to Constantinople on rafts, but on boats and red plows. And Stenka Razin didn’t push his annoying lover off a cliff into the Volga, but threw it over the side of a sharp-chested canoe. By the way, he brought it, according to legend, from Persia, where the Cossacks went “for zipuns,” crossing, among other things, the Caspian Sea.

You say: “Fi, man! Me too, navy!

No more was required for combat operations. Just imagine a Spanish 50-gun galleon with a displacement of 1,500 tons on the Dnieper and Volga expanses! But a Caspian trade bead with the same displacement looked quite appropriate. Beads were built in the upper reaches of the Volga, loaded with goods and floated down on them, reaching Persia. There were no special requirements for seaworthiness or quality of construction, since these ships almost never returned home, but were sold along with the goods.

Peter I, preparing for the Persian campaign, forbade the construction of beads, and ordered the construction of ships according to the Dutch model, much more complex, and therefore much more expensive. The Persian campaign was very successful from a military point of view - to Russian Empire Western and South coast Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku. But after the death of Peter, Tsarina Anna Ioannovna successfully lost these possessions.

Along the way, the technology for making beads was lost.

A similar story happened in the North. Pomors living on the shores of the White Sea have long built kochis - magnificent ships, ideally suited for navigation in ice, unlike the high-speed European ones. The steep-sided body, reminiscent of a nut shell, simply squeezed out of the water when compressed. Suffice it to say that brave sailors on Kochs calmly went to Mangazeya - a city on the Taz River, northern Western Siberia, to Matochka - Novaya Zemlya, Grumant - Spitsbergen. Semyon Dezhnev and his comrades for the first time in the world passed the strait between Asia and America. But this strait bears the name of Bering, who passed the same way 80 years later. It’s good that the cape was named after Dezhnev.

They also traded with Norway and even reached England. This was called the “move to the German end.” And everything would have been fine, but the crazy Tsar Peter, obsessed with the idea of ​​rebuilding Russia in a European way, was brought to those parts. Seeing the kochi with the ungodly contours of the hull, he became indignant, personally deigned to sketch out a drawing of a “correct” Dutch vessel and ordered to immediately begin building the same ones, according to the highest approved drawing. Don't believe me? Here is the original royal decree: “Upon receipt of this decree, announce to all industrialists who go to sea for fishing on their boats and boats, so that instead of those ships they make sea vessels galliots, gukars, kats, flutes, whichever one of them wants, and in order (while they are new by sea vessels will correct themselves) they are given only two years to wear their old ones.”

But the Pomors were in no hurry to switch to foreign cars and continued to build in the old fashioned way, fully aware that on the “new-style” ships they would only reach the first ice floe. Therefore, the renegades who reject progress, by decree of March 11, 1719, were ordered to “re-eagle” (brand) all the old sea vessels - lodyas, kochi, karbas and soymas, “to let those eagled reach, and again, not at all if, but if whoever begins to make new decree after this decree, those with punishment will be sent to hard labor, and the courts will chop them up.” Takhtovot!

And the tsar mobilized the bulk of the northern shipbuilders at the shipyards of Voronezh, then the Baltic. There they had to retrain on the fly, because there was a difference between a koch and a frigate.

Pomeranian shipbuilding was ruined. Well, not quite, of course, in remote corners, where the king could not see them with his eyes, kochis were still being built on the sly. And they lived until the 20th century! Fridtjof Nansen's famous Fram is a classic Koch, just with an engine.

I hear the question: “So how did it happen that there was nowhere for master shipwrights to come from in a land country?”

Russia, unlike England, is truly a land country. Pomors and Volgars made up a small proportion of the population, and the majority had no idea about any seas there. It was in states whose economy was based on the fleet that every boy dreamed of sailing the oceans. Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" write about this well. And in Russia the very idea of ​​sea voyages was incomprehensible to almost no one. “They’ll wander into the navy!” they said ominously to the young recruit, and in the dark night the guy tore his claws to the Don and Zaporozhye, just to avoid ending up in the terrible service. Is it any wonder that the expensive toy of the crowned “romantic” was immediately trashed after his death. The country was literally left with nothing.

And that’s not even the point. It’s just that a fleet in the form that Peter dreamed of having was not needed at that time. Russia did not face any tasks in which ocean-going ships could help. In the era of Catherine, when the state recovered from Petrukhin’s experiments and became sufficiently stronger militarily and economically, where did everything come from! Here you have a modern fleet, and Chesma, and Navarino, and Sinop... And trip around the world Ivan Kruzenshtern, and the discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen and Lazarev. And a whole galaxy of other brilliant naval officers, who felt equally relaxed and free both in the St. Petersburg palaces and on the bridge of warships, in contrast to Peter’s worn-out “nobles”, with their legs buckling from fear, catching his every word, rowdy, often against their will , in the “All-joking, all-drunken, extravagant cathedral.” Not to mention the serfs, who had hay and straw tied to their feet to teach them how to march. Disgusting, gentlemen...

Just don’t say that Peter laid the foundation for future victories. There was no continuity. This is like saying that Tsiolkovsky laid the foundations of astronautics.

Slaves cannot have their own fleet. If only as a rower on a galley... And don’t twist your finger at your temple. In the entire vast country there was only one free person - Peter the Great, completely undeservedly called the Great. But this is a topic for a separate article...

The first-born of wooden historical shipbuilding in the Maritime Center of Petrozavodsk was the recreated ancient Pomeranian koch, called "Pomor".

For hundreds of years in the waters of the Arctic Ocean, fishermen and hunters sea ​​beast sailed on Kochs to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and made long journeys along the Northern Sea Route.

Researchers believe that the name “koch” comes from the word “kotsa” - ice coat, i.e. the second hull skin, which protects the main one from damage by ice.

The idea of ​​​​building a kocha in our time - a kind of example of Pomeranian ships of the 15th-17th centuries - could only be realized by obsessed people. The long-standing debate about what Koch looks like has reached a dead end as authoritative historians have intervened. Perhaps that is why, not famous shipbuilders, but a newcomer to shipbuilding, Viktor Dmitriev, took on the task of reviving a remake of a forgotten ship - the kocha. It was with this type of ship, which had been forgotten for two centuries, that the Polar Odyssey decided to begin its shipbuilding activities. We prepared for work for many years: we made search expeditions, worked in museums, archives, and libraries.

At the end of January 1987, Dmitriev, with the help of the Komsomol city committee instructor Veniamin Kaganov, got an appointment with the director of the Avangard plant, Valery Vasilyevich Sudakov, and brought eight versions of the drawings. Having familiarized himself with them, Sudakov, surprisingly, agreed to allocate a workshop for laying the kocha, and on February 7, six volunteers from the Polar Odyssey club, collected by Dmitriev, laid the keel of the vessel. The mentors were the experienced boat master Nikolai Mikhailovich Karpin, nicknamed “Grandfather,” and the plant foreman Pavel Novozhilov.

On June 5, 1987, the ceremonial launching of the Pomeranian Koch, named “Pomor,” took place. And already on June 25, 1987, the koch began a test voyage in the White Sea and appeared on the roadstead of the Solovetsky Monastery, arousing the admiration of numerous tourists. This was the first experimental natural model of the oldest Pomeranian ship in the USSR, intended for navigation in high latitudes. Koch "Pomor" retained all the features of ships of this type.

Koch left Arkhangelsk on July 10 and six days later reached the Kanin Peninsula in its middle part, where the Pomors since ancient times crossed the narrow isthmus by dragging and ended up in the Barents Sea. However, checking the ancient path showed that it was not for Pomor. And strong northern and northwestern winds did not allow the koch to go around Cape Kanin Nos. The team's vacation was coming to an end. We decided to end the voyage here.

The expedition members went home by passing transport. Dmitriev, together with his assistant Sergei Zhelezov, sailed to Mezen, and then, towed by passing ships, reached Petrozavodsk. Here Dmitriev summed up the results of the campaign. Traveled under our own power (by oars and sail) 530 miles with average speed 3 knots. Maximum speed under sail exceeded 6 knots. The shipbuilding parameters of the kocha even surpassed the known parameters of ancient ships.

Dmitriev prepared carefully for the next navigation and selected a friendly team. However, a test voyage along the route of the White Sea "round the world" Belomorsk - Arkhangelsk - the throat of the White Sea - Kandalaksha - Belomorsk revealed some shortcomings in the design of the rudder. Therefore the upcoming long voyage They decided to travel to Spitsbergen accompanied by a specially built motor-sailing boat "Grumant".

The reconstruction of the kocha has a double skin, an egg-shaped hull, and a false keel, which protects the vessel from damage by ice and helps lift it onto the ice surface to avoid compression by ice.

The kocha deck with hatch covers has a forecastle and a deck. Transverse bulkheads The ship is divided into three sections:

In the bow there is a cookhouse with a metal stove, a table suspended on chains, and sleeping places for a crew of 10 people.

At the stern there is a "breech" - the helmsman's cabin.

The middle part is the hold.

In 1987-1988, the Pomor koch was tested on long voyages in the White Sea. In 1989, under the leadership of V.L. Dmitriev conducted an expedition to historically model the voyages of Pomeranian ships along the ancient sea ​​route from the White Sea to the Spitsbergen archipelago and back. The escort functions were performed by a specially built Pomeranian sailing-motor boat "Grumant".

In 1990, the koch "Pomor" and the boat "Grumant" sailed along the "Scandinavian Ring" route along the routes of trade relations between the Pomors and the "Norwegians".

In 1991-1992, sailing from Cape Schmidt in the Chukchi Sea to Alaska, along the shores of the former “Russian America” under the Russian Columbus program. Visit to Seattle (USA), wintering at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Canada. Return to Petrozavodsk in 1993.

The vessel is currently anchored at Maritime Museum "Polar Odysseus"as an interesting exhibit. Unfortunately, the museum (which operates exclusively with money from sponsors and self-financing) does not have enough money for the proper preservation of the ship. In a few years, the koch will completely rot, in reproach to officials broadcasting from various platforms about the development of tourism, patriotic education of youth and others beautiful things...