Yermak (1898 icebreaker)

Yermak on the Baltic Sea before 1917
History
Name:	Yermak
Builder:	N. I. Yankovsky, R. I. Runeberg, Armstrong Whitworth and others
Yard number:	684
Laid down:	1897
Launched:	17 October 1898
Completed:	1899
Acquired:	1899
Out of service:	1963
Fate:	Scrapped 1964
General characteristics
Displacement:	8730 tons
Length:	97.5 m
Beam:	21.6 m
Draught:	7.3 m
Ice class:	Icebreaker
Installed power:	9000 hp
Propulsion:	4 shaft, 8 VTE steam engines, 6 boilers
Speed:	12 knots
Crew:	102

Yermak (Russian: Ермак; IPA: [jɪrˈmak]) was a Russian and later Soviet Union icebreaker, the first polar icebreaker in the world, having a strengthened hull shaped to ride over and crush pack ice.

Yermak was built for the Imperial Russian Navy under the supervision of vice-admiral S. O. Makarov by the members of his commission, which included D. I. Mendeleev, engineers N. I. Yankovsky and R. I. Runeberg, admiral F. F. Wrangel, among others. It was built in Newcastle upon Tyne at its Low Walker yard and launched in 1898. She was named after the famous Russian explorer of Siberia, Don Cossack ataman Yermak Timofeyevich.

She was commissioned on 17 October 1898. She arrived in Kronstadt on 4 March 1899 after breaking through ice and a formal reception was held to mark her arrival. Later in 1899 she reached 81°21'N north of Spitsbergen. She had been constructed to break through heavy ice (up to 2 m in thickness).

Yermak had been used in the winter of 1899–1900 to set up the first radio communication link in Russia between Kotka and Gogland (Suursaar) island (distance 47 km). In 1900 she came to the aid of the cruiser Gromoboi which had grounded in the Baltic.

Between 1899–1911 Yermak sailed in heavy ice conditions for more than 1000 days.

During World War I she assisted the Baltic Fleet during the Ice cruise when the fleet was evacuated from Helsinki to Kronstadt in February 1918.