MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS Correspondents Yulia Ostrogozhskaya, Irina Skalina/. Otto Schmidt - a scientist, a walking encyclopedia, mathematician, geographer, astronomer, an Arctic explorer and a conqueror of the Pamirs. He used to study subjects so deeply that often became a pioneer. In mathematics - an abstract theory of groups, in geophysics and astronomy - the Earth formation (and many more). The Great Soviet Encyclopedia project was one of his efforts. While exploring the Arctic, he discovered new lands. However, his probably most famous project was the expedition on the Chelyuskin.

Chelyuskin expedition

The Arctic expedition onboard the Chelyuskin icebreaking steamer, about which millions of people across the globe have learned eventually, was very important for this country. In 1932-1933, the Soviet Union's Arctic studies were so active that the country managed to become a leader among countries claiming Arctic territories.

The Soviet Union had the world's northernmost polar station on the Rudolf Island, and stations on Cape Zhelaniya, Cape Chelyuskin, the Kotelny Island, and on Cape Severny. Studies continued in almost all seas in the Soviet Arctic. The expedition on the Chelyuskin was intended to verify the navigation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which already back then the country eyed as a very important route.

Expedition purpose

The Chelyuskin expedition was to pass the Northern Sea Route within one navigation season. The route was supposed to serve supplies to the Far East and Siberia. Additionally, the expedition was supposed to prompt how a non-icebreaking ship could sail along NSR.

A year earlier, the Soviet icebreaker Alexander Sibiryakov made a successful voyage from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait, and right after that the country organized the Northern Sea Route's managing company - Glavsevmorput. Its tasks were to develop the route, to create settlements and infrastructures along it. Otto Schmidt was appointed to run Glavsevmorput.

Back then, nobody could imagine the Chelyuskin expedition, even though the steamer sank, was destined to become Schmidt's finest hour, to glorify him and other participants all across the globe, and also to emphasize the scale and fundamental nature of the USSR's work in the Arctic, as well as the skill and superiority of the Russian aviation. It was for the first time in the history of Arctic exploration, that an expedition, moreover, so numerous, was rescued fully.

How expedition began

Before the expedition, the ship sailed from Leningrad (St. Petersburg presently) to Murmansk to have all detected defects fixed and to have the final list of the expedition participants.

Here is what Schmidt wrote about it: "The choice of people is the most important part of any business. This is especially true for expeditions, where people will have to work together for a long time, and where it won't be possible to replace those who turned out to be unsuitable. In that expedition, the selection was especially difficult due to its large size and the variety of tasks."

Most team had participated in the Alexander Sibiryakov expedition. Other team members were researchers, radio specialists, business executives, the "machine" personnel, representatives of the press and arts, whose presence Schmidt considered very important, construction workers, as well as cleaners. "In fact, I believe it's quite acceptable for women to participate in expeditions, but for the difficult work of cleaners, frankly speaking, I would prefer to have men. The women have worked, however, superbly," Schmidt wrote in the Chelyuskin's Campaign book.

On August 10, 1933, the Chelyuskin departed from the Murmansk port at 4.30 a.m. without much fanfare heading for Vladivostok. The plan was icebreakers would lead the ship in difficult areas.

On board the vessel were 53 crew, 29 expedition members, 18 explorers to stay for the winter on the Wrangel Island, and 12 builders. On the Chelyuskin also were: 2,995 tons of coal, 500 tons of water, food for 18 months, supplies for the Wrangel Island for three years, 26 cows and 4 piglets, which grew into adult hogs over the expedition. The cattle were supposed to be the source of fresh meat.

Unexpected drift

At first, everything went well: the Chelyuskin was sailing along the route. However, as soon as the steamer entered the Kara Sea, well known for its bad temper, a hull deformation and a hole were detected. On August 13, 1933, a leak began. The team was discussing how the expedition could return, but eventually the plan was to move on.

There, in the Kara Sea, happened a positive event: a daughter was born in the family of surveyor Vasiliev. The place of birth prompted the girl's name - Karina.

In September, when the Chelyuskin was in the East Siberian Sea, in the heavy ice there the ship received two more dents on both sides. The leak intensified.

However, by early November, 1933, the steamer had almost completed the planned route entering the Bering Strait. On November 6, 1933, a radiogram to Moscow read the steamer was near the Diomede Island, some 20 km from free water. The information rushed across the country, but the Chelyuskin expedition failed to make it to free water or to Vladivostok.

The ice was moving backwards, trapped the Chelyuskin, and the ship, badly damaged already, was thrown back into the Chukchi Sea. The Chelyuskin froze into a large ice floe and was drifting with it for a few months. The expedition feared the ice that could start moving any moment could crush the ship. This was exactly what happened.

How Chelyuskin sank

By late November, the fears the Chelyuskin would not make it out of the ice were growing. From Vladivostok planes flew to Providence Bay to rescue people. Pilots Lyapidevsky, Konkin and Petrov were practicing to rescue people amid ice.

On February 13, 1934, the Chelyuskin was 144 miles from Cape Uelen and 155 miles from Cape Severny. The ice crushed the steamer, which sank within 2 hours. Polar radio operator Ernst Krenkel in a message to Moscow reported the sunken ship.

Onto ice could get 104 people, including ten women and two children. Earlier, the rest of the expedition left the steamer near Cape Chelyuskin for various reasons, mainly due to illness. The last to step on the ice floe were Captain Voronin and the expedition leader Schmidt. One person - caretaker Boris Mogilevich, who lingered on the deck, was crushed by a barrel. This was the expedition's only victim.

Schmidt wrote with restraint about the evacuation: "The exit was made in an exceptionally disciplined manner. There was not a single manifestation of panic, not a single order breach."

As planned, and even beyond the plan, food, fuel and building materials were evacuated from the Chelyuskin.

Expedition on ice floe

Between February 13 and April 13, 1934, the expedition members had to remain on the ice floe. Not in the open air though. The explorers managed to arrange a "quite OK" life, which everyone tried to make "most cultured and good" (Schmidt). A wooden barrack of the "ice camp" was built of the materials the people managed to rescue from the ship. They also built a bakery, and even organized the editorial office of the Don't Give Up! placard newspaper.

The people were preparing an airfield, even though at times the ice got covered with cracks, hummocks, snowdrifts, and was crushing constantly.

The expedition was receiving radio messages with reports on preparations for the rescue. "We were sure we would be rescued," Schmidt wrote later. Additionally, since the camp was drifting, the expedition had to update its exact coordinates for pilots.

Expedition Rescue

It is not an exaggeration to say the whole world followed the expedition. While the expedition has glorified the polar explorers, its rescue was the triumph of the polar aviation that received invaluable experience in using aircraft in the harsh and unpredictable Arctic conditions.

The camp put together a list, according to which women and children were the first to be taken ashore. "The women, who behaved greatly on the ice floe, were very reluctant to see they have privileges. The published list in fact caused a lot of upset, as those due for an earlier dispatch were proving very insistently they are happy to offer their turns to others. However, the list order was strictly observed," Schmidt wrote.

Anatoly Lyapidevsky's crew was the first to land an Antonov ANT-4 in the camp in the spring of 1934. The search was very complicated: in the polar night, strong winds blew up every now and then, blizzards, and the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees. Lyapidevsky's plane had made 28 attempts to locate the expedition, and only the 29th attempt was successful. Noteworthy, the pilot managed to land on the pad three times smaller than necessary. During the rescue operations, the pilots did not spare the highest effort and resources. They were true heroes.

Ten women and two children were taken out of the camp on the first flight, but then the aircraft, exhausted in the excessive exploitation in particularly difficult conditions, failed. The massive and successful evacuation of polar explorers resumed later on, when pilots Slepnev, Kamanin and Molokov arrived there to help.

Expedition results

Though the Chelyuskin failed to reach the Pacific Ocean, the main goal was achieved - the expedition proved the Northern Sea Route was navigable.

Another conclusion was the country needed to build up the ice breaking fleet and place vessels correctly along the route. As for the navigation aspect, specialists gained an understanding about how Arctic steamers must be designed.

In scientific terms, the Chukchi Sea was extensively studied: its currents, the interaction of those currents, winds, the coast resistance to ice movement. Certain scientific results emerged from observations in hydrology, hydro-chemistry, hydro-biology, aerology, meteorology.

Return to Moscow

While the USSR continued the rescue mission, the Western media spread false information: Germany's Voelkischer Beobachter wrote: "The measures taken so far to rescue the Chelyuskin expedition have been hasty and lacking a plan... Planes are sent to crush of icing there. Every landing is a risk and is only a chance." Denmark's Politiken even reported Schmidt's death: "On the ice floe, Otto Schmidt met an enemy that no one could defeat yet. He died as a hero, a man whose name will remain among names of the Arctic Ocean conquerors." Prager Presse, a Czechoslovak newspaper, picked up the panic: "A quick rescue by aircraft is impossible not only because there are never enough necessary planes in such remote places, but also because the season is not good for flying: fogs, blizzards, strong winds."

The pessimists, however, had to admit they were wrong. By April 13, 1934, the Chelyuskin expedition was rescued.

The pilots - Anatoly Lyapidevsky, Nikolay Kamanin, Vasily Molokov, Sigismund Levanevsky, Mikhail Vodopyanov, Mauritius Slepnev and Ivan Doronin - were awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union. The polar explorers, with the exception for children, were awarded the Orders of the Red Star. Two Americans were also awarded - flight mechanics William Levery and Clyde Armstead. They received the Orders of Lenin.

Huge crowds of people hailed the expedition participants as the trains were crossing the country. At every station, people were congratulating them and gave gifts. Everywhere, they were met and honored as true heroes.

Search for sunken ship

Attempts, though unsuccessful, to find the Chelyuskin have been undertaken in different years. In September 2006, an expedition led by Oleg Kozhemyako, the then governor of the Koryak Autonomous Region, and Director of the Russian Underwater Museum Alexey Mikhailov, on the Rogachevo trawler went to the location. For a few hours, Alexey Mikhailov, Alexander Fedoseev and Alexey Koshelev conducted an area search and found an object on the 13th tack.

Dives started as soon as it was determined the found object was the Chelyuskin. Searches and vessel surveys continued for several hours in cold (up to minus 1°C) water at a depth of up to 49 meters.

The Chelyuskin remained in a 3-meter layer of silt, and the elevation from the bottom was 13 meters. The visibility at the depth of 35 m was only 20 cm. At the boat deck, specialists with great difficulty managed to separate two fragments of the vessel - a guard rail with rings and a bracket and a ventilation grille.

The found fragments and metal samples were sent to Copenhagen - to the Burmeister and Vane Shipyard, where the ship had been built. According to Iosif Rabinovich, the expedition's scientific secretary, Denmark confirmed the fragments belonged to the Chelyuskin. This was the logical conclusion of the heroic epic.

Nowadays, nobody doubts the Chelyuskin's hull remains at the bottom of the Bering Sea, northwest of Cape Dezhnev. The nearest land and settlement from the crash site is the village of Vankarem, 135 km to the southwest. In 2020, the expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Northern Fleet managed to examine the vessel and make a video from an underwater craft. Lifting the Chelyuskin is still problematic due to difficult working conditions - drifting ice and muddy water.