Video: Death of "Chelyuskin": 2 months of ice captivity and miraculous rescue of 104 people
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The history of the Chelyuskinites is known not only to those born in the USSR. In the 1930s, news of the rescue of 104 crew members of the Chelyuskin ship, which sank in the Arctic ice, spread all over the world. The team included 10 women and two children. People spent 2 long months on the ice, and it was possible to find them only thanks to the heroism of the Soviet pilots.
The voyage of the Chelyuskin ship was a real gamble. In the 1930s, the Land of the Soviets faced the difficult task of developing the Northern Sea Route, a canal that could connect Europe and the Far East. The famous scientist Otto Schmidt accepted this idea with enthusiasm. In 1932, he successfully conducted an expedition to the Barents and White Seas, and, inspired by the result, began to insist on an end-to-end voyage. For the second time, Schmidt decided to cross this difficult section of the Arctic Ocean, which has gained notoriety for its heavy ice, on an ordinary cargo ship.
After the expedition route was approved, the vessel was also picked up. The choice fell on the steamer "Lena", the construction of which had just been completed by the Danes. Of course, for such an important event, the ship was renamed: it received the proud name "Chelyuskin" in honor of the Russian explorer of the Arctic. Vladimir Voronin was appointed to command the voyage. Approaching the issue more responsibly, he did not approve of the rash decision to sail on an unprepared ship, but Schmidt's optimism and self-confidence turned out to be a more weighty argument for the Soviet government than all Voronin's doubts. No one doubted the reliability of the ship, this is evidenced at least by the fact that one of the crew members went on a dangerous expedition with his wife, who was literally on the demolition. By the way, she gave birth right on the ship, and later lived for several days with a baby on a drifting ice floe.
Schmidt's frivolity led to an accident that almost turned into a tragedy. Looking ahead, let's say that after the crash, only 1 person from the whole team died, all the rest were saved. But at what cost was this achieved?
Under Schmidt's leadership, the Chelyuskin departed Murmansk and passed through the Chukchi Sea. The calculation was that the drifting ship would independently reach Wrangel Island, but these plans were not destined to come true. During the expedition "Chelyuskin" was captured by ice several times: the first time the ice drift "Krasin" saved it, the second time the captain of the ice drift "Litke" offered help, but Schmidt could not afford to admit his defeat. It took him 10 days to finally assess the scale of the disaster, but this time was too long, and "Litke" was no longer able to get to the Chelyuskinites through the ice cover.
Heavy ice floes ripped open the belly of the ship, the evacuation was carried out promptly, and "Chelyuskin" went to the bottom in a matter of hours. The evacuation of the victims took place by aviation. The Chelyuskin camp was discovered on March 5 by the pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky, having made 28 unsuccessful flights before. It was he who evacuated the first group - women with children. I wanted to believe that the rescue was near, but his plane had technical problems, they were able to continue rescue work only on April 7. On April 13, the last members of the crew were evacuated from the ice floe (including Captain Vladimir Voronin), and the next day, the oncoming storm blew away everything that was left of the camp. 7 pilots took part in the rescue operation, all of them received state awards.
Setting out on Antarctic expeditions, Soviet explorers were prepared for the most unpredictable situations. For example, the doctor Leonid Rogozov was forced to operate on yourself, since there was no second medic in the group.
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