ARKHANGELSK, October 26. /TASS/. The museum of the karbas, a traditional vessel of the Pomors (or coast-dwellers), was opened on an island in the delta of the Northern Dvina River in the village of Kalkino near Arkhangelsk, a TASS correspondent reported. The Karbas is a sailing and rowing fishing and transport wooden vessel, common at least from the 15th century in the White and Barents Seas. Karbases are so common in the Arkhangelsk Region, that the world is practically a synonym of "boat".

The first syllable is stressed in the word "karbas." Karbases were mentioned in the Solovki Monastery notes in 1531. Apparently, by then, the White Sea coast inhabitants - the Pomors - had been actively using them.

"We have been building it for two years, quite a long time. The winters were so severe that it was impossible to work, and no roads to use. Now, we have here a museum that tells about the ancient history of karbases, and a club where everyone can learn how to sail karbases," Evgeny Shkaruba, leader of the Pomors' Shipbuilding Association, the project's author, told TASS.

The Karbas Museum's architecture is based on the Pomor wooden port structures of the 19th century: boat sheds, warehouses and fish warehouses that used to be built along coasts in berthing areas of the northern rivers and seas. The museum's building is divided into three zones. The first part is a museum, where a karbas is presented - it was built under the old technology without using nails. This part also hosts an exhibition about traditional Pomor boats.

The second part is a workshop where karbases are stored and repaired. Since 2017, the project participants have built 15 karbases using old technologies. The first one was built in the Arkhangelsk Region's Leshukonsky District back in 2017.

"We built the first karbas in 2017 together with Viktor Kuznetsov in Leshukonye," the project's author said. "It was a revelation. The main revelation was that the tradition, which is more than 500 years old, is still alive. This preserved karbas-building language is unique precisely due to its very long background. Over the time of the kind any structure develops to perfection."

The building's third part is the Karbas Club: a hall and a classroom for the theory of maritime affairs, a meeting place for members of the community that has formed around the Pomors' Shipbuilding Association's initiatives. The museum is located by the water, and four karbases are berthed by the pier there.

Houses made of ships

The island, where the museum was opened, is called the Krivaya Koshka (Crooked Cat). This is the territory of pilots, who used to settle there for several centuries. The Northern Dvina delta is very complicated for navigation, and thus the pilotage service was established in the area back in the 17th century.

Karbases were used for a variety of purposes. Some karbases were for hay delivery. Arkhangelsk is located in swamps, and hay used to be a problem there. Hay was delivered from the islands and from the Dvina's other side. People needed to have a lot of hay, as hay was practically gasoline of that time, said Evgeny Tenetov, the Northern Maritime Museum's director said. Other variations of karbases were built for herring, for sea hunting, and special pilotage karbases, which pilots used to approach vessels and board them.

"A karbas was in every yard, in every family. Sometimes even more than one - for different purposes," the Northern Maritime Museum's director said.

Interestingly, even houses in Calchino were built of ships. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Russian grain supplies to Norway ran through Arkhangelsk. From Vologda, grain was transported along the river on rough-hewn barges. Further on, the grain was re-loaded onto sea schooners, and the barges were dismantled. The locals used their parts to build pavements, warehouses, and parts of houses.

"If you walk along the streets of Calchino and take a closer look at the houses, you will see holes of the same diameter on the log cabins, and those holes are located more or less synchronously. These are the holes for the nails used to hold the logs together when they were not houses, but ships," the historian explained.

Ship houses and a historic island

Elena Kudryashova, Vice President of the Lomonosov Foundation, Chair of the Arkhangelsk Regional Branch and Vice President of the Association of Polar Explorers, told TASS that Calchino had been one of the biggest pilot villages in the Arkhangelsk Region. Nowadays, it is a very picturesque village, where has been erected a memorial cross in honor of the 400th anniversary of the pilotage service, and a museum of Pomors.

"Nikolay Portyanko, a well-known lawyer, lived here for many years and created a completely unique museum of everyday Pomor culture. He has completely renovated a traditional pilot house, and all rooms there have been turned into museum spaces. He was collecting furniture, utensils, paintings, carpets, and statuettes," she said. "The villagers are very sensitive to shipbuilding and to the development of marine spaces. Even on the playground there are two boats that were once used, but now the kids are playing on them."

The Karbas Museum project won the Museum 4.0 competition of the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation's Museum Without Borders charity program. The Karbas Club project's implementation was supported by the Arkhangelsk Region Governor's Center.