Chelyuskin: construction to ice-pack capture (data entry sample)

Boat built

From: 1933-03-11
To: 1933-03-12
At: location
Org: Soviet government; shipyard Burmeister and Wain, B&W

Steamship Chelyuskin, named after the 18th century Russian explorer, was built for the Soviet government by the famous Danish shipyard Burmeister and Wain (B&W, Copenhagen). It was classified by Lloyd as "+100 A1 strengthened for navigation in ice."

From Copenhagen to Leningrad

From 1933-06-03 to 1933-06-05 at location,
Soon after its maiden voyage on May 6, the ship sailed to Leningrad, where the expedition was to originate. The head of the expedition was Otto Yuliyevich Shmidt, and the ship's captain was V. I. Voronin.
The shipping lane from the Barents sea to the Pacific is known as The Northern Sea Route (Russian: Се́верный морско́й путь, Severnyy morskoy put’, shortened to Sevmorput' ). It runs along the Russian Arctic coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait and Far East. The entire route lies in Arctic waters and parts are free of ice for only two months per year.
With the Soviet Union isolated in the 1920s and 1930s, and many sea lanes unavailable, the Northern Sea Route became very important. The intent was to make it a major connecting route between Western Russia and tbe Pacific, carrying commercial goods and also slave labor to the camps. The Soviet Navy intended to use the route to send war ships from the Baltic to the Far East, and indeed such a voyage was undertaken when there were tensions with Japan later in the decade.
Chelyuskin was to be the first ship that was not an ice-breaker to make the voyage without wintering. There was much speculation as to why this very important expedition started so late in the season. Combined with the fact that for a long time the ship's remains could not be found at the recorded point of sinking, these speculations gave rise to various theories about how the ship was, in fact, accompanying a prison barge, and sank in a different place together with the barge and its cargo. The wreck of the ship was finally discovered in September 2006 at a depth of about 50 metres in the Chukchi Sea. It was sent to Copenhagen for identification and was confirmed as authentic. This has not stopped the conspiracy theories.

Leningrad to Murmansk via Copenhagen

From 1933-07-16 to 1933-07-24 at location,
The first leg of the expedition was from Leningrad back to Copenhagen, to correct minor defects discovered in testing. From there, the ship continued to Murmansk.

Murmansk to Cape Chelyuskin

From 1933-08-02 to 1933-09-01 at location, First ice was encountered after sailing out of the Matochkin Straight into the Kara Sea. Helped by an ice-breaker, the ship managed to get through solid ice and continue the voyange on its own, reaching Cape Chelyuskin on September 1.

Cape Chelyuskin to Chukchi Sea

From 1933-09-01 to 1933-09-23 at location, Continuing its journey, the ship reached Chukchi Sea where it was caught in solid ice packs.