Charting the Russian Northern Sea Route: The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition 1910-1915 9780773593916

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CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

L. M.Starokadornskiy (1921)

CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition1910-1915

L. M. STAROKADOMSKIY translated and edited by WILLIAM BARR Arctic Institute of North America McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal and London1976

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Research Council of Canada using funds provided by the Canada Council The Arctic Institute of North America would like to acknowledge its deep appreciation of the financial and other assistance provided by Federal Commerce and Navigation Limited and March Shipping Limited, both of Montreal, and by the Arctic and Antarctic Institute, Leningrad, U.S .S .R. © McGill-Queen's University Press 1976 International Standard Book Number o 7735 oz 10 6 Legal Deposit fourth quarter 1976 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec DESIGN BY PAT GANGNON PRINTED IN CANADA BY THE HUNTER ROSE COMPANY

CONTENTS Illustrations xi Maps xii Translator's Preface xiii Introduction xv Note to the Third Russian Edition xxvi Author's Preface xxvii CHAPTER 1 66 PREPARATIONS FOR THE GREAT VOYAGE a Echoes of Tsushima The tragedy of Tsushima. Organitation of a committee to investigate a Northern Sea Route. Plans for the expedition's work. 7 On Board Taymyr The building and fitting out of the icebreakers. Recruitment of expedition personnel. Preparations for departure on a long voyage. Provisioning of the ships. 17 Through Four Oceans Departure on the voyage. Storm. Stop at Le Havre. Port Said. Ascent of the pyramids. New commander for Taymyr. Through the Red Sea. Indian Ocean. Djibouti. Unexpected stop. Shark fishing. Port of Colombo in Ceylon. Coconuts. Singapore. Saigon. South China Sea. Shanghai. Arrival at Vladivostok. Command of Taymyr changes again. CHAPTER 2 66 VOYAGES OF 1910 AND 1911 30 A Reconnaissance Trip Arrival of the expedition leader. Preparations for an arctic voyage. PetropavlovskKamchatskiy. Storm in the Bering Sea. At Bukhta .Emma. First acquaintance with Eskimos. Diffident hospitality. Our icebreakers in the Chukchi Sea. The village at Uelen. Return trip to Vladivostok. Results of the first voyage.

Vi CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

41 Voyage to the Kolyma Festive departure from the Zolotoy Rog. Vaygach's new commander. Back to Bukhta Emma again. Preparations for sailing. Out to sea. Stop at Uelen. Visit from Eskimos. Survey work. Another emergency stop at Mys Vankarem. Chukchi migration. Erection of a beacon on Ostrov Karkarpko. On the voyage to My Severnyy. Our first unsuccessful walrus hunt. Mys Severnyy. Hydrographical investigations. Pantopods. Mys Shelagskiy. Fishing. Both icebreakers aground. At the settlement of Sukharnyy. Vaygach heads for Ostrov Vrangelya. First bear killed. An incident with a ship's boat. 6o First Around Ostrov Vrangelya The history of Ostrov Vrangelya. Our trip to the island. A successful hunt. Survey of the shores of the island. 67 The Return Voyage Survey of Mys DeOneva. Stop at Bukhta Emma. Signs of the American telegraph company's sojourn. Storm on our trip to Avachinskaya Guba. Return to Zolotoy Rog. CHAPTER 3 66 FROM KAMCHATKA TO TAYMYR 7 2 Survey of the Kamchatka Coast Dreams about the through voyage. We set out on the voyage. Fishing at My .kmenniy. Fish canning plants. Klyuchevskiy volcano. Landing at Mys Afrika. Feathered inhabitants of Ostrov Toporok. Unexpected bath at Mys Goven. 78 To the Mouth of the Lena In the Arctic Ocean. The "inconvenience" of a sun that does not set. More zeal than sense. Reindeer hunting on Ostrov Chetiryekhstolbovoy. Survey of Ostrova Medvethii. Four islands receive names. Heavy ice on the voyage to Ostrov Koternyy. The vanishing island. Shore part' at Mys Svyatoy Nos. Meeting with hydrographer Neyelov's party. At My Muostakh. In Bukhta Tiksi. The yacht Zarya. Visit from a Tungus elder.

CONTENTS Vii

89 In Search of the Passage to the West Ice on our voyage from the Lena Delta. Refraction. Search for a route to the west. Disappointment. Vaygach's attempts to force her way west independently. Failure. The return voyage. Hot springs at PetropavlovskICanichatsky. End of the voyage. Journey to Villefranche. Russian marine zoological station on the Mediterranean Sea. CHAPTER 4 66 THE YEAR OF GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES! 104 Northwards! The new ships' commanders. Meeting with the American schooner Abler at Bukhta Emma. Expedition leader's illness. New leader. Laying in a supply of fish. Some words on the utilization of the resources of the Anadyr area by the Tsarist government. Vaygach's attempt to reach Ostrov Vrangelya. Meeting with the steamer Stavropol'. The green flash. Expedition's plan of work. 115 A New Island in the Arkhipelag De-Longa En route to Novosibirskiye Ostrava. Taymyr in a trap. An island to port. Hunting on the newly discovered island. Face-to-face with a hairy polar denizen. Rounding the north of Novosibirsk:ye Ostrava. 122 Bukhta Marii Pronchishchevoy Meeting of our two ships. On Ostrov Preobrazhenlya. New program of operations. Vaygach aground. Bukhta Marii Pronchischevoy. Survey work. 133

Discovery of an Archipelago Route to Mys Chelyuskina barred by ice. Course northwards. New island. Icebergs. Land ahead. Great geographical discovery. Raising of the Russian flag on the newly discovered land.

146 Ostrov Malyy Taymyr and Ostrov Starokadomskogo Exploration of Ostrov Maly) Tay:loin Still another island. I 'Valrus and bear hunt.

Vill CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

5o

The Extreme Northern Point on the Continent Sledge journey to My Chelyuskina. The Toll' expedition's cairn. Spending a night around the campfire. On the very northernmost point of the continent. The history of exploration of the area. Taymyr's cairn. Return to the icebreaker. Attempt to force a way westwards. Failure.

157 To the Memory of Edward Toll' History of the Toll' expedition. Search for the expedition's collections. Erection of a cairn and a memorial to the lost members of the expedition. Survey of Ostrov Bennett. 166 In Kolyuchinskaya Guba We emerge into open water. Death of sailor Belyak. In Kolyuchinskaya Guba. Belyak's funeral. Visit from the Chukchi. Survey work in Kolyuchinskaya Guba. 171 Visit to Alaska The storm. Emergency call at the American settlement of St. Michael. Sensational accounts in the American newspapers. Voyage to Petropavlovsk. Storm. Return to Zolotoy Rog. Journey of part of the expedition personnel to Peterburg. Report on the expedition's geographical discoveries. CHAPTER 5 66 THE THROUGH PASSAGE 18o Return to Ostrov Vrangelya Preparation for the through passage. Composition of the expedition. Equipment. A new task for the Hydrographic Department. Call at Hakodate. At Petropavlovsk. Nome. News about the World War. We are ordered to continue our voyage. Unsuccessful attempt to reach Ostrov Vrangelya. Chukchi camp on the ice. 193 High Latitudes To Ostrov Vil'kitskogo. Discovery of another island. Exploration of the island. Voyage to Mys Chelyuskina.

CONTENTS i..1C

197 In Icy Fetters Heaping up of the ice at Mys Chelyuskina. Survey of the coasts of Severnaya Zemlya. Progress through heavy ice. Taymyr suffers serious damage. Unexpected contact with the Eclipse expedition. In icy fetters. Wintering inevitable. 210

The Wintering Begins We prepare our ships for a protracted wintering. Melancholy prospects. Wintering conditions. Program of scientific observations. Construction of a shore base. Ice motion. A visit from Vaygach's commander.

217 The Arctic Night Humdrum winter routine. Aurora borealis. Christmas trees. Welcoming the New Year. Contact with the outside world. 225

Death of Lieutenant Zhokhov Illness and death of A. N. Zhokhov. Funeral on land. Second grave on Mys Mogiliney.

228 Appearance of the Sun Holiday carnival in honour of the sun's appearance. Trips ashore. Sleeping bag experiments. Repairing the damage. Scientific observations. Easter celebrations. The arctic day—its influence on the human system. Snow blindness. Trips to Zaliv Tollya and Zaliv Gafnera. Use of aerosled on our trips. Arrival of spring. 238 In the Event of a Second Wintering A dispatch to the head of the Hydrographic Directorate. Plans of assistance for the expedition. Preparations to transfer part of the expedition personnel. Sverdrup's visit to Taymyr. Celebrations on the occasion of Norway's national day. Departure of some of the expedition personnel. Death of stoker Myachin. Begichev's arrival at Eclipse. Greetings from the mainland. Begichev's party arrives safely at Dudinka. 250

Free Sailing Again The ice breaks up. Free sailing again. Taymyr aground. Her release. Heave-to in Arkhipelag Nordenshel'da. Hunting. Supply depot

X CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

in Bukhta Kohn Archera. Grave on My At Ostrov Diksona. The last lap. Our welcome in Arkhangelsk. Epilogue. EPILOGUE 263 NOTES 275 GLOSSARY 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 INDEX

317

ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece Dr. L. M. Starokadomskiy, 1921 PLATES BETWEEN PAGES 178 AND 179

Vaygach under way in the Gulf of Finland, 1909 Eskimos from Bukhta Emma visit Taymyr, autumn 1910 3 Taymyr's bosun hunting, August 1911 4 A polar bear is hoisted aboard Vaygach, 1911 5 Walrus killed by Taymyr's crew, September 1912 6 The enigmatic icebergs sighted north of Mys Chelyuskina, September 1913 7 Meteorological instruments being sent aloft by kite from Taymyr, September 4, 1913 8 Cairn erected by Dr. Starokadomskiy, Lieutenant Lavrov, and their party at Mys Chelyuskina, August 29, 1913 9 Ice at Mys Chelyuskina blocking further progress west, September 1913 o Taymyr's propeller, damaged by ice, 1913 Taymyr and Vaygach coaling from Tobol' in Bukhta Emma, July 29, 1 914 iz Aleksandrov's floatplane during tests at Bukhta Emma, August 2, 1914 13 Eskimo but on the Diomede Islands, August 1914 14 Manning the air pump on Vaygach as a diver is sent down to free the propeller, August 1914 5 The diver about to inspect Vaygach's propeller 16 Carrying out ice thickness measurements, winter of 1914-15 17 Skull and tusks of mammoth discovered near Taymyr's wintering site, June 1915 18 Arrival of Otto Sverdrup and his sledge party at Taymyr, May i z, 1915 19 Dr. L. M. Starokadomskiy, 1915 20 Eclipse during her career as a Scottish whaler zi Two of Taymyr's officers cruising on a lead, August 191 5 zz The weather station at Dikson, August 1915 23 Taymyr in dry dock at Arkhangelsk, September 1915 24 Dr. Starokadomskiy in his later years

MAPS x The Soviet Arctic xxx 2 Northeastern Siberia and Bering Strait xxxi 3 The Laptev and East Siberian seas xxxii 4 The Kara Sea, Poluostrov Taymyr, and Severnaya Zemlya xxxiii 5 The west coast of Poluostrov Taymyr xxxiv

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE L. M. Starokadomskiy's account of the voyages of Taymyr and Vaygach in 1910—I5 was not published until more than thirty years after the event. The first edition of his book, entitled The Arctic Ocean Expedition, 191a-191f, appeared in 1946. This permitted the author to introduce into his narrative some discussion of events subsequent to the expedition, demonstrating how the work of the officers and men of Taymyr and Vaygach had contributed to the later development of the Northern Sea Route. A second edition, entitled Five voyages in the Arctic Ocean, appeared in 1953, and a third, with the same title, in 1959. It is largely from this third edition that I have produced my English translation. Subsequently it was brought to my attention that significant editorial changes had been made between the first and later editions. This necessitated a detailed comparison of the first and third editions, and the present English translation represents an amalgam of both. All additions to, or deletions from, the first edition are indicated by footnotes. The changes were almost entirely politically motivated, reflecting the fluctuations in the political climate between 1946 and 1959. The most striking change is the total deletion from the later editions of all reference to Captain Kolchak, commander of Vaygach on the cruise from the Baltic to Vladivostok, and on the brief sortie into the Chukchi Sea in 191o. This, of course, was motivated by his assumption some eight years later of the role of Supreme Ruler of all the Russias and leader of the White forces in Siberia, an episode which lasted from November 1918 until January 1920, when it ended before a firing squad at Irkutsk (Fleming, 1963). Another very noticeable difference between the editions is the strongly anti-American flavour instilled into the later editions. This emerges for example, in the comments about the role played by Rodgers and Corwin in the exploration of Ostrov Vrangelya. Moreover, a few remarks by Starokadomskiy which might vaguely be construed as pro-American have been deleted from the later editions. An example is his comment to the effect that the American approach to liquor control at St. Michael's seemed to be effective. Dr. Starokadomskiy's book was, of course, aimed at the Russian reader, and this is reflected in many of the allusions made in the text. Where reference is made to some person or incident possibly unfamiliar to the

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English reader, an explanatory note has been included. The result of this, I hope, is that the English translation can stand by itself. To set the scene, I have included a brief historical introduction, tracing exploration of the Russian Arctic and attempts at forcing the Northern Sea Route, from their earliest beginnings. The termination date of this historical survey is 1905, the date of the Battle of Tsushima. The rationale behind this choice is that the Russo-Japanese War in general, and that battle in particular, formed the stimulus that provoked the building of Taymyr and Vaygach and the organization of the expedition which forms the topic of Dr. Starokadomskiy's narrative. Inevitably, there is some minor duplication in the notes on the text of material in the historical introduction. Dates are in new style throughout. There are many people who have assisted me with this work and it is impossible to thank them all adequately. However, I should like to acknowledge in particular the generous help I have received from Dr. Terence Armstrong and the staff of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, especially during my sojourn at the Institute in the summer of 1973. The late Dr. B. A. Kremer, a veteran of the Soviet Arctic and a personal friend of Dr. Starokadomskiy, provided photographs of the author and an invaluable resume of his career. I am enormously indebted to Dr. A. F. Treshnikov, director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in Leningrad, for permitting the reproduction in this book of photographs taken during the expedition, and to Kenneth de la Barre, of the Arctic Institute of North America, for arranging that this material be made available. I also wish to thank David Henderson of the Dundee Museum, Scotland, for supplying the photograph of Eclipse, and my brother, Douglas Barr, for preparing the maps. My thanks are due to the British Council for generous support of my summer in Cambridge, to the University of Saskatchewan for a grant from the Principal's Publications Fund to cover typing costs, and to the Institute for Northern Studies, Saskatoon, for help with copying. Grateful acknowledgement is made to Alan Cooke, former editor of Polar Record, for permission to reprint passages from this translation that have appeared in that journal. I should like to thank my good friends and colleagues, Dr. Walter Kupsch, Dr. Robert Bone, and Dr. Leslie Neatby for their unfailing encouragement in what has been quite a lengthy undertaking. Finally, I should like to thank my wife, Mary-Ann, for her patience, her superb typing, and her many hours of tedious proofreading. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

WILLIAM BARR

INTRODUCTION The work of the Imperial Navy icebreaking steamers Taymyr and Vaysach during the period 1910-15, which forms the substance of Dr. Starokadomskiy's book, represents the first modern attempt at a systematic survey of the arctic waters to the north of Siberia, through which runs the transport artery known as the Northern Sea Route. Since those initial surveys, and particularly since 1934 under the Soviet regime, the Northern Sea Route has become an important communications artery of the Soviet Union. While nothing approaching a comprehensive statement of current movements of vessels, or volumes of shipping, along the Northern Sea Route is ever published by the Soviet authorities, an expert such as Dr. Terence Armstrong of the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge is able, by painstaking scrutiny of Soviet newspapers and journals, to extract quite a detailed picture of what happens on the Sea Route florn year to year. It goes without saying, however, that this applies only to commercial craft; no mention of strategic use of the Sea Route ever finds its way into the press, and hence we can only guess as to its strategic importance. With this proviso, it is fair to say that Dr. Terence Armstrong's annual notes on the Northern Sea Route, published in the Polar Record, provide the most complete available picture of its year-to-year use, and it is from these sources that the present comments on the current status of the Sea Route have been compiled. The general picture is of convoys of ships, with icebreaker escort, sailing each summer from Arkhangelsk or Murmansk in the west to the OW and Yenisey. Meanwhile convoys from Pacific ports pass through Bering Strait and serve the major eastern Siberian rivers, the Lena, Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma, but particularly the latter. Through voyages along the entire route can be and are made as occasion demands, but this would be a negligible fraction of the tonnage involved in the two movements already mentioned. The main elements of the Yenisey traffic are timber from Igarka and copper/nickel ores from the mines at Noril'sk from Dudinka. In 1972 Dudinka had handled 165 seagoing ships by October 27. The volume of the Igarka timber traffic is of the order of 600,000 metric tons annually. An interesting new development in the west is the growth of the port of Nadym on Obskaya Guba as a major centre in the rapidly developing Northwest Siberian gas field. In this connection, there was extensive

XVi. CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

dredging of the navigation channel between Nadym and the sea in 1972. Most of the freighters used on the Sea Route are ice-strengthened. They are of relatively small tonnage (less than 15,000 tons deadweight). This is probably due to the limitations posed by the shallowness of the Kara Sea, and even more so by that of the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea. For this reason, too, the Soviets have evinced little interest in the cruise of the giant tanker Manhattan through the Northwest Passage in 1969, and there is little likelihood that they will introduce such giants into the Northern Sea Route. Some fourteen icebreakers are normally deployed along the route during the navigation season. They include the atomic-powered icebreaker Lenin, the first in the world. After a major refit, including the installing of new reactors, which involved her being taken out of service for four seasons, she returned to the Northern Sea Route in 1971. Another atomic-powered icebreaker, Arktika, has recently been launched. The entire length of the Northern Sea Route has now been furnished with automatic radio beacons with a range of i5o km. Automatic lightbeacons and manned polar stations at strategic points have also greatly eased navigation along the route. The use of helicopters, flying from the icebreakers, is as general on the Northern Sea Route as it is in the Canadian Arctic; they are invaluable for ice reconnaissance. Soviet ice forecasters, like their Canadian counterparts, are making increasing use of satellite photographs. Another innovation, providing clearer imagery, is the use of Toros radar equipment, mounted in AN-24 aircraft. This provides an almost synoptic picture of ice conditions; since the survey is flown at 6,000 m it provides a clearer picture than does the satellite photography. The shipping season normally begins in early July and finishes by late October. A recent development, however, has been a late-season convoy to the Yenisey, greatly lengthening the normal season. The first of these was in 197o. Thus in 1972-73 nine freighters arrived at Dudinka around December zi, left again on January iz, and arrived back at Murmansk on January z7. They were escorted by five icebreakers, including Lenin. Each year the Sea Route is also used for transporting river craft to the various Siberian rivers from the White Sea. An interesting feature of the 1970 season was the movement of the floating power station Severnoye Siyaniye along a large portion of the Sea Route, from the Ob' to Zelenyy Mys at the mouth of the Kolyma. Built at Tyumen, and designed for use at major construction sites on the Siberian rivers, Severnoye Siyaniye had first been tied in to the local grid of the Bilibino gold-mining area. The power station, which is not self-propelled, was towed along the Sea Route,

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the Northern Sea Route. The first group of Russians reached the Lena delta from upriver in 1633 (the year of the founding of Yakutsk) (Belov, I 95 6 : I yo; Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973: 184; Armstrong, I 965 : 23). Within a decade expeditions coasting east and west from the Lena had explored the entire coast from the Olenek east to the Kolyma, a distance of over goo miles (Belov, I 9 5 6 : I 50-5 3 ; Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973 : 184-88). Within a few years, trading kocbi were moving regularly along this section of the coast and up and down the major rivers. By the 168os, however, the voyages from the Lena to the Kolyma and back had declined drastically, and by the end of the century they were almost a thing of the past. The cause was a shift in emphasis of the fur trade from the northern river basins to the more southerly ones such as the Penzhina, Gizhiga, Okhota, and to Kamchatka (Belov, 1956: I 81). With this, the stress shifted to more southerly river and overland routes, and the northern coastal route quickly declined. The mid-seventeenth century saw attempts at exploring two other sections of the Northern Sea Route; one was irrefutably successful, while the other ended in tragedy. First of all, in the east in 1648 a group of kochi under the protection of the cossack Semen Dezhnev sailed east from the Kolyma. Several of the vessels successfully rounded Mys Dezhnev, passing through Bering Strait, and Dezhnev's storm-blown hcb finally reached Mys Olyutorskiy, from where he and his party reached the Anadyr' (their goal) overland (Belov, r 9 5 6 : I 64-6 5 ;Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973 : I 90-9 1). Although Golder and more recently Neatby (1973 :40-49) have attempted to prove that Dezhnev could not have rounded Mys Dezhneva, these arguments have been more than adequately countered by Berg (1920)~ Belov (1956: 203-13), Fisher (1956), and Morse (1973). The other venture alluded to above was a seventeenth-century attempt at rounding Mys Chelyuskina, the northernmost tip of Eurasia. On the basis of artifacts, including coins, found on Ostrov Faddeya and Zaliv Simsa off the northeast coast of Poluostrov Taymyr in the 1940s (Okladnikov, 1951;Armstrong, 1958 : I 33-44), Okladnikov deduced that a Russian seaborne expedition, eastward-bound round Poluostrov Taymyr in approximately 1619, had been shipwrecked at this site. More recently (Troitskiy, 1973; Barr, 1974), Troitskiy has put forward a convincing argument that the expedition occurred somewhat later, probably in the 164os, and incidentally was westward-bound rather than eastward-bouna. However, the important point is that attempts were being made to sail around Poluostrov Taymyr in the first half of the seventeenth century. While this particular attempt was clearly unsuccessful, others may have met with better luck.

XViii CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

the Northern Sea Route. The first group of Russians reached the Lena delta from upriver in 1633 (the year of the founding of Yakutsk) (Belov, 1956: 15o; Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973: 184; Armstrong, 1965: z3). Within a decade expeditions coasting east and west from the Lena had explored the entire coast from the Olenek east to the Kolyma, a distance of over 900 miles (Belov, 1956: 50-5 3 ; Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973: 184-88). Within a few years, trading kochi were moving regularly along this section of the coast and up and down the major rivers. By the 168os, however, the voyages from the Lena to the Kolyma and back had declined drastically, and by the end of the century they were almost a thing of the past. The cause was a shift in emphasis of the fur trade from the northern river basins to the more southerly ones such as the Penzhina, Gizhiga, Okhota, and to Kamchatka (Belov, 1956: 181). With this, the stress shifted to more southerly river and overland routes, and the northern coastal route quickly declined. The mid-seventeenth century saw attempts at exploring two other sections of the Northern Sea Route; one was irrefutably successful, while the other ended in tragedy. First of all, in the east in 1648 a group of kochi under the protection of the cossack Semen Dezhnev sailed east from the Kolyma. Several of the vessels successfully rounded Mys Dezhnev, passing through Bering Strait, and Dezhnev's storm-blown koch finally reached Mys Olyutorskiy, from where he and his party reached the Anadyr' (their goal) overland (Belov, 1956: 164-65; Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973: 19o-91). Although Golder and more recently Neatby (1973: 4o-49) have attempted to prove that Dezhnev could not have rounded Mys Dezhneva, these arguments have been more than adequately countered by Berg (1910), Belov (1956: 203-13), Fisher (1956), and Morse (1973). The other venture alluded to above was a seventeenth-century attempt at rounding Mys Chelyuskina, the northernmost tip of Eurasia. On the basis of artifacts, including coins, found on Ostrov Faddeya and Zaliv Simsa off the northeast coast of Poluostrov Taymyr in the 194os (Okladnikov, 1951; Armstrong, 1958 : 133-44), Okladnikov deduced that a Russian seaborne expedition, eastward-bound round Poluostrov Taymyr in approximately 1619, had been shipwrecked at this site. More recently (Troitskiy, 1973 ; Barr, 1974), Troitskiy has put forward a convincing argument that the expedition occurred somewhat later, probably in the 164os, and incidentally was westward-bound rather than eastward-bound. However, the important point is that attempts were being made to sail around Poluostrov Taymyr in the first half of the seventeenth century. While this particular attempt was clearly unsuccessful, others may have met with better luck.

INTRODUCTION XIX

It is relevant to note (Belov, 1969: 109-13) that prohibitions of unauthorized trading, similar to that applied to the Mangazeya sea route, were widely applied on the river routes of Siberia at this period. In the light of these far-reaching prohibitions, it does not seem surprising that there would be clandestine attempts (cf. Lantzeff and Pierce, 1973: 184) to circumvent them by way of the Northern Sea Route, with vessels possibly attempting the voyage in both directions. Further, given such a situation, it is not at all strange that such reports as do exist about these voyages are extremely vague and imprecise; the participants would certainly not wish to advertise their activities. The first determined and concerted effort at exploring the Northern Sea Route occurred in the early eighteenth century: the Great Northern Expedition of 1733-43. Under the command of Vitus Bering, some 977 officers and men of the Imperial Navy (not counting a scientific support team), in seven separate detachments tackled the exploration of different sections of the Northern Sea Route, and also investigated the American coast and the route south to Japan (Belov, 1956: z65-33z). The combined results of this grandiose plan are truly remarkable. Through the efforts of officers such as Malygin, Ovtsyn, Minin, Pronchishchev, Khariton Laptev and his half-brother Dmitrii, Lasinius, and Chelyuskin, practically the entire mainland coast was explored by sea, from Arkhangelsk in the west to Mys Bol'shoy Baranov, east of the Kolyma, on the east. The only substantial gap, around the northern tip of Poluostrov Taymyr, was explored by Chelyuskin with dogteams in the spring of 1742. The Great Northern Expedition represents a remarkable achievement in terms of organization, perseverance, and courage, and it resulted in an incredible compilation of knowledge. In tangible terms, the expedition resulted in sixty-two maps and charts of Northern Siberia and Kamchatka, generally of a remarkably high standard. In terms of the history of the development of the Northern Sea Route, however, the Great Northern Expedition was a two-edged sword. The charts, soundings, and sailing directions compiled on the basis of the expedition would be invaluable to later navigators; at the same time, however, the failure, despite repeated resolute attempts, at rounding Poluostrov Taymyr in the central section of the route, and Mys Bol'shoy Baranov in the east, had led to the conclusion that the concept of a navigable Northern Sea Route was totally impracticable. Indeed, it was to be another 130 years before any serious attempt was made to disprove that view. In the meantime, admittedly, some progress was made in further exploration and resurveying of certain parts of the route. One should note particularly James Cook's penetration west from

XX CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

Bering Strait as far as Cape North (Mys Shmidta) in 1778 (Beaglehole, 1967: 426). Noteworthy examples of expeditions which resurveyed areas already explored, were Anjou's and Vrangel's expeditions of 1820-24 and 1821-24 (Belov, 1956: 502-507; Wrangell, 184o). Between the two expeditions, the entire mainland coast from the Olenek to Kolyuchinskaya Guba was resurveyed and accurately mapped. Due to Vrangel's efforts the gap along the north coast of Chukotka had been closed, but, it should be noted, by dogteam and not by ship. Furthermore, Anjou and his men had accarately mapped the whole of the Novosibirskiye Ostrova for the first time. The exploration of the various island groups: Novaya Zemlya, Novosibirskiye Ostrova, Ostrova Medvezh'i, and Ostrov Vrangelya was another feature of this relatively quiescent phase (as far as development of the Northern Sea Route was concerned) of the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The initiative for renewed efforts in navigating the Sea Route came from abroad, with those efforts being directed particularly at the western end of the route, with a view to developing the Kara Sea as a commercial route to the Ob' and Yenisey basins. In 1874 an English captain, Joseph Wiggins, successfully reached Obskaya Guba aboard the little steamer Diana (Johnson, 1907: 25); the following year the Swedish scientist Nordenskiold sailed the little sloop Proven to the mouth of the Yenisey (Pinkhenson, 1962: 78; Leslie, 1879: 278). From these small beginnings there quickly developed a considerable trade between the Ob' and Yenisey and West European ports. In the meantime, as a natural outgrowth of his voyages aboard Proven, and aboard Ymer in 1876, Nordenskiold decided to attempt a complete traverse of the Northern Sea Route from east to west. Aboard the whaler Vega, escorted by a small steamer Lena bound for the river of the same name, Nordenskiold reached Mys Chelyuskina on August 19, 1878 (Nordenskiold, 1881, I: 336). Continuing east, Vega passed Mys Shmidta, Cook's farthest point, on September 1 2; the link between the oceans had been forged. But Vega was not destined to reach the Pacific until the following season. On September z8 (Nordenskiold, 1881, I: 456), the narrow shore lead she had been following petered out, just east of Kolyuchinskaya Guba. Nordenskiold was forced to winter here, only 240 km from Bering Strait, but easily reached that goal on July 29, 1879 (Nordenskiold, 1881, II: 68). A considerable part of the same route was repeated fifteen years later by Nansen and his men aboard Fram. Determined to put to the test his hypothesis that a strongly-built vessel could safely drift across the Pole with the ice, Nansen had first to place his vessel in the ice at the appropriate

INTRODUCTION XXi

spot, i.e. somewhere to the north of the Novosibirskiye Ostrova. With this aim, Nansen sailed east through Yugorskiy Shar on August 4, 1893; on September to, 1893 Fram passed Mys Chelyuskina (Nansen, 1897, I: 191). On September 25 Nansen put his ship into the ice to the west of the Novosibirskiye Ostrova, to begin her famous four-year drift (Nansen, 1897, I: 2.08). In 1900 another expedition set off to traverse approximately the same section of the Northern Sea Route. This was Baron Edward V. Tors expedition aboard Zarya, the main aims of which were the exploration of Poluostrov Taymyr and the Novosibirskiye Ostrova, and a search for the alleged Zemlya Sannikova to the north of the latter archipelago (Toll', 1909). Zarya passed Yugorskiy Shar on July 25, 1900 (Pinkhenson, 1961: 43z), but was forced to winter in Bukhta Kolin Archera on the west coast of Poluostrov Taymyr (Pinkhenson, 1962: 433). Getting under way again in the spring, Zarya reached Mys Chelyuskina on August 19, 1901. She wintered again at Nerpichaya Guba on the west coast of Ostrov Kotel'nyy, and after Tors disappearance on his visit to Ostrov Bennett in the summer of 19oz, Zarya proceeded south to Bukhta Tiksi, where she was abandoned for lack of fuel (Pinkhenson, I962 : 44o). Thus, in 1905, when the idea of a detailed and systematic survey of the Northern Sea Route and of building icebreaking survey vessels for that task was first proposed, the situation was as follows : only three expeditions had rounded Mys Chelyuskina, and only one vessel, Nordenskiold's Vega, had completed the through passage. While Nordenskiold, Nansen, and Toll' had accomplished much survey work, the only charts available for a considerable part of the route were those produced by early nineteenthcentury surveyors such as Anjou and Vrangel', or to an even greater extent by the officers of the Great Northern Expedition of the early eighteenth century. There were no weather stations, no lighthouses, no radio stations. While the Kara Sea Route might be said to have come of age with the massive expedition of 1905 to the Yenisey (four steamers, four tugs, eleven lighters, and two icebreakers), aimed at relieving pressure on the overstrained Trans-Siberian Railway during the Russo-Japanese War (Pinkhenson, 1962: 421-23), this was the absolute limit of commercial traffic on the Northern Sea Route. There was no commercial shipping east of the Yenisey or west of Bering Strait. Finally, and perhaps most surprising of all, one of the major arctic archipelagos still remained to be discovered: while Novaya Zemlya, Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa, Novosibirskiye Ostrova, Ostrova Medvezh'i, and Ostrov Vrangelya had all been explored and charted tolerably well, the presence of Severnaya Zemlya was quite unknown. None of the three

xxii CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

expeditions which had sailed round Mys Chelyuskina, or Semen Chelyuskin's overland expedition had spotted the mountains of Ostrov Bol'shevik, some Go km to the north. Further, in her drift north and west from Novosibirskiye Ostrova, Fram had passed well to the north of the unsuspected archipelago. Perhaps this is the true measure of how little was known of the Northern Sea Route in 1905. Stimulus for further interest in the Northern Sea Route at this time, to the extent of building the icebreakers Taymyr and I/aygach, and dispatching them on a five-year survey of the route was undoubtedly provided by the Russo-Japanese War. Part of the stimulus, as suggested earlier, was the inability of the Trans-Siberian Railway to handle the enormous traffic it was asked to move during the war. Probably a more telling argument, however, was the belief that had Rozhdestvenskiy's squadron been able to avail itself of a relatively short Northern Sea Route, paralleling the coasts of the Motherland all the way, rather than having to tackle the ten-month voyage via Cape of Good Hope, coaling at sea, or wherever neutral governments could be persuaded to allow the squadron to rendezvous with German colliers, the outcome of the Battle of Tsushima, and possibly even of the entire war, might have been vastly different. Whether this argument is valid seems doubtful (see, for example, Novikoff-Priboy, 1936; Westwood, 1970), but the outcome was the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition (1 910-15), in which the Imperial Navy icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach executed the first systematic survey of the Northern Sea Route from Bering Strait to the Yenisey. It is with this expedition that Dr. Starokadomskiy's book is concerned. It is very appropriate that Dr. Starokadomskiy should have written this account of the expedition which did so much to pave the way for the development of the Northern Sea Route. Quite apart from the fact that as medical officer aboard Taymyr he was one of the very few who stayed with the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition from beginning to end, as a naval doctor he continued to be involved with the Sea Route throughout his career. A native of Saratov, where he was born on April 8, 1875, Leonid Mikhailovich Starokadomskiy graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval Medical Academy in 1899 and was then appointed surgeon in the fortress at Brest-Litovsk. During a post-mortem, he cut his left hand; blood poisoning set in, as a result of which his arm had to be amputated above the elbow. (On occasion, as he himself relates, this handicap was to produce some hair-raising moments, but generally it seems to have inconvenienced him little in his chosen career as an icebreaker's doctor.)

INTRODUCTION XXiii

Dr. Starokadomskiy joined the Imperial Navy in 1903 and throughout the Russo-Japanese War worked in the naval hospital at the main Baltic naval base at Kronshtadt. Part of his duties involved organization of provisions for Rozhdestvenskiy's ill-fated squadron, which was dispatched from the Baltic to the Far East. After the Battle of Tsushima, in which that squadron was annihilated, and the subsequent peace treaty, Dr. Starokadomskiy was one of two naval doctors assigned to a commission for the repatriation of Japanese prisoners to Japan. Engaged in this work, he made two voyages from Vladivostok to Japanese ports, then returned to Odessa by sea. The North, and especially Chukotka, had long held a fascination for him, and when he heard of the plans for the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, he volunteered to be one of the expedition's doctors. Despite his physical handicap he was accepted. For the next five years he was solely responsible for the health of the fifty officers and men aboard Taymyr. The clean bill of health maintained throughout the expedition, and especially during the wintering of 1914-15, at a period when scurvy was still a serious threat on arctic expeditions, attests to his professional abilities. On the few occasions when it was possible, Dr. Starokadomskiy also made a point of ministering to the needs of the local people, especially to the Chukchi and Eskimo of Chukotka. His own account of how his ministrations to a young Chukchi were remembered twenty-two years later is quite revealing. On completion of the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, Dr. Starokadomskiy made the transition to the Soviet Navy, and rose to the position of head of medical services. He retired from the navy in 1930, but not from arctic work. In 1932-33 he took part in Narkomvod's Northeastern Polar Expedition, as medical officer aboard Fedor Lithe, flagship of the expedition. This expedition represented the first attempt at taking a convoy to the mouth of the Kolyma. The convoy was forced to winter in Chaumskaya Guba, and Dr. Starokadomskiy played a very active role, not only in looking after the health of the expedition members, but also in providing medical services in the neighbouring Chukchi settlements. I am indebted to the late Dr. Boris A. Kremer, honorary polyarnik, for the following account of this episode in Dr. Starokadomskiy's career and of his later years in Moscow, where he died on January z7, 196z. Dr. Kremer, whose death occurred at Moscow on January 13, 1976, spent many years in the Arctic in the Thirties and Forties, working as a weather observer at such isolated stations as Mys Arkticheskiy and Ostrov Domashniy in Severnaya Zemlya. After his retirement he wrote numerous

XXIV CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

articles on the exploration of the Soviet North and the development of the Northern Sea Route. During the wintering in Chaunskaya Guba (1932-33), a disturbing report reached Starokadomskiy that scurvy had broken out among the population along the lower Kolyma. Without hesitation and accompanied by only one dog-driver, Leonid Mikhailovich immediately set off by dogteam on the long and difficult journey to the Kolyma. Anybody who has had experience of long sledge trips in the arctic regions knows what hard work this is, not only for the driver, but also for the passenger. There is no room for one's legs on the top of the sledge, and one has to let them hang, which is very tiring, or rest them on the narrow runners, where they are constantly banging against "zastrugi" (hard snow ridges) or other obstacles; on hard, rough snow, the sledge tips first to one side, then to the other, and to prevent himself from falling off, the passenger has to hang on firmly, while among hummocky ice or going uphill in the mountains, the driver and he have to assist the dogs. The route from Chaunskaya Guba to the mouth of the Kolyma, a distance of about 40o km, lay across hummocky sea ice and along the barren sea coast. It is not difficult to imagine the labour and extreme exertion this journey must have demanded of Starokadomskiy, a man who was far from young, and also lacked a hand. Having reached the Kolyma after nine days travelling, Starokadomskiy spent two months there, rendering essential assistance to the sick, and then returned to the ships' wintering place at Chaunskaya Guba. On January 4, 1934 he arrived in Vladivostok aboard the flagship of the expedition, the ice cutter "Fedor Litke". But this time Leonid Mikhailovich did not spend long in the South; in March of that same year, he sailed as senior medical officer aboard "Stalingrad," one of the ships dispatched to rescue the members of the expedition aboard "Chelyuskin," crushed by ice and sunk in the Chukchi Sea. In late April or early May, when "Stalingrad" was lying in the ice near Ostrov Sv. Matveya in the Bering Sea, Starokadomskiy transferred by plane to Mys Yakan, where three ships of the Northeast Expedition, "Anadyr'," "Sever," and "Khabarovsk" had remained for a second wintering. With the beginning of arctic navigation, all these ships were released by the ice and reached Vladivostok safely. Starokadomskiy returned to Vladivostok with them. For the final years of his service activities, Starokadomskiy worked

INTRODUCTION XXV

in Moscow for the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of the Water Transport Health Services. In 1955, at the age of 8o, he retired on pension, but, as before, maintained a keen interest in affairs close to his heart in the areas of medicine and arctic navigation, and fruitfully occupied himself with literary work. In private life, Leonid Mikhailovich was a charming, kind, and convivial person. For my own part, as a "polyarnik," all these qualities of Leonid Mikhailovich's appeared with particular clarity in his relations with former shipmates on the Hydrographic Expedition, and with Soviet arctic sailors, pilots, hydrographers, and workers at the polar stations. The First World War and the Civil War had scattered the members of the Hydrographic Expedition all across the country and even beyond its borders; for the bulk of them contact was lost. The senior medical officer of the icebreaking steamer "Vaygach," E. Ye. Arngol'd, with whom Leonid Mikhailovich was linked by close ties of friendship, died soon after, and he was able to maintain constant contact with only one of his friends : N. I. Yevgenov, former navigation officer aboard "Vaygach" and famous arctic hydrographer, who in 1913 had been the first to sight Ostrov Malyy Taymyr, and simultaneously with Starokadomskiy, the main coast of Severnaya Zemlya. Then in 1946 Starokadomskiy's book, "The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition 1910-1915", appeared and soon Leonid Mikhailovich began to receive letters from his former shipmates in widely separated parts of the country. Several of his old shipmates turned out to be living close by, right in Moscow. Thus contact was re-established and thereafter maintained until the last few days of Starokadomskiy's life with the following people : "Taymyr" 's leading stoker M. I. Akulinin; doctor's assistant G. G. Gvozdetskiy (who had completed his higher education and become a doctor); "Vaygach" 's leading stoker F. S. Il'in; radio operator A. I. Kireyev; one of "Taymyr" 's sailors, V. N. Laptev (a Ratom people's artist of the Republic); junior warrant officer I. V. Prussov; and "Vaygach"'s diver I. Ye. Filippov. Starokadomskiy's guests at his Moscow apartment in Sytinskiy tupik also included "polyarniki" who had begun their activities during the Soviet period : the famous explorer of Severnaya Zemlya, G. A. Ushakov; the arctic pilot who in 1932 made the first aircraft flight to Severnaya Zemlya, A. D. Alekseyev; the well-known arctic radio operator, E. T. Krenkel'; pilot M. I. Kozlov; forecaster K. A. Radvilovich; and many others, including the author of these lines.

NOTE TO THE THIRD RUSSIAN EDITION L. M. Starokadomskiy was a member of the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition aboard the icebreakers Taymyr and Vaygach, which lasted from 19to until 1915. The expedition made a major geographical discovery, the discovery of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, and laid the foundation for the practical exploitation of the Northern Sea Route. This book is based on the author's personal diaries, on the logs of Taymyr and Vaygach, and on articles by other members of the expedition.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE In 1910 the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition began working in the ice-infested waters of the Arctic aboard the two icebreaking steamers Taymyr and Vaygacb. The expedition lasted for more than five years, until the end of 1915. Its work essentially laid the foundation for the practical exploitation of the great Northern Sea Route. It is true that the immense amounts of data in such fields as hydrology and meteorological observations, and the vast and rare collections of marine and terrestrial zoological specimens, geological and botanical collections have not yet been submitted to exhaustive scientific examination. But as early as 191 z navigation charts had been published which were compiled on the basis of the expedition's work. It was then, too, that there appeared the first pilot for the eastern part of the Arctic Ocean, from Bering Strait to the mouth of the Kolyma.1 Keeping pace with the progress of the expedition's work, and as the new data became available, the Chief Hydrographic Directorate published new charts and up-dated old ones. With all their imperfections, these charts and pilots for a long time served as the only source of information on navigation conditions in the seas around the periphery of the Arctic Ocean: the Chukchi, East Siberian, and Laptev seas. Accurate surveys of the coasts and innumerable series of soundings plotted on these charts have assisted safe navigation along the north coast of Siberia. In the Thirties, when on the initiative of the Communist Party and the Government of the USSR, work was set on foot on a wide front in the North, and the Soviet state raised the problem of opening the Northern Sea Route, sailors were still using, to a considerable degree, the charts and pilots compiled from the work of the Hydrographic Expedition of 19101915. The Northern Sea Route has now become a normally operating marine artery, along which many tens of ships proceed annually from west to east and from east to west. Air reconnaissance of the ice has achieved very wide scope. Ports have sprung up in the North, and a network of arctic stations has spread out. Coal for the icebreakers and cargo ships is produced from local arctic

XXViii CHARTING THE RUSSIAN NORTHERN SEA ROUTE

mines. Even in the difficult days of the Great Patriotic War, the work on developing arctic navigation was not interrupted. Scarcely has the ice receded to the north with the onset of the arctic summer than innumerable ships set out along the Sea Route. They carry cargoes for the people and the industries of the Far North, and often traverse the entire route. They are escorted through sections with very heavy ice by powerful icebreakers. Soviet arctic workers are conquering one Arctic stronghold after another. The blank spots remaining on the map of the North are becoming ever smaller. Even smaller are the secrets remaining hidden from mankind by stern nature in the North. At the present day, sailors, airmen, and researchers in the Arctic work under conditions that would never have been dreamed of by those who began the task of opening up the arctic seas. It is all the more necessary that Soviet arctic workers should know how their predecessors established the Sea Route. When Taynyr and Vaygach set out on their explorations, the Arctic was uninhabited and unknown. Only isolated ships had ventured to make the voyage to the mouth of the Ob' or the Yenisey. Later they began to sail from the east to the Kolyma River. The very idea of a regular shipping route through those icy seas was considered utopian. Aviation was then in a very embryonic form. The low-powered ships' radios could not maintain contact over any appreciable distance. Observation stations had only begun to be built along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and even then only in the west, at Yugorskiy Shar, Marresale, and Dikson. When they started on their voyage, our ships were entering the unknown. In the event of any accident, the expedition could count solely on its own efforts. The nearest inhabited centres lay hundreds of kilometres away. Particularly difficult was our period of enforced wintering off the coast of Poluostrov Taymyr. We felt the lack of continuous contact with the mainland and of moral support from our homeland very strongly. Few people even knew of the existence of the expedition; it did not enjoy popularity in the country. And only the consciousness of their own duty to the Motherland and to science inspired our Russian sailors, sent north in defiance of the sceptics, to find that elusive tortuous route through the ice, which was so vitally necessary to Russia. I decided to write about all these things in my book. The first edition appeared in 1946 (Ekspeditsiya Severnogo Okeana, Ivo-1917. Izd-vo Glavsevmorputi. M.-L., 1946). The second edition appeared in 1953. For the present edition, minor corrections and additions were made to the text of the book. The footnotes with the suffix "Ed." were inserted by the editor of the second edition, M. B. Chernenko.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE XXIX

The book is based on my own personal diaries, my earlier published articles, and also the logs of Taymyr and Vaygach, the reports of the Chief Hydrographic Directorate, the detailed notes of hydrographer A. M. Lavrov, courteously made available by him for the present edition, and numerous published works. In this category fall particularly the small books and articles of expedition members A. Ye. Arngol'd, N. A. Arbenev, B. V. Davydov, G. A. Klodt-Jurgensburg, A. M. Lavrov, K. K. Neupokoyev, and N. A. Tranze. All dates in the book are in the new style, heights and depths in metres, and distances in miles and kilometres. L. M. Starokadomskiy, formerly doctor on board the icebreaker Dowry, and member of the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition, 1910-1915.

CHUKCHI SEA 0. VRANGELYA

ARCTIC OCEAN

BARENTS SEA

EAST SIBERIAN SEA

SEVERNAYA ZEMLYA

MYS OLYUTORSKIY MYS GOVEN

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MYS SVYA NOS

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SEA OF OKHOTSK

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The Soviet Arctic

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The Kara Sea, Poluostrov Taymyr, and Severnaya Zemlya. The asterisks mark the wintering sites of TAYMYR, VAYGACH, and ECLIPSE in the winter of 1914-1

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