On August 17, 1977, at 4:00 am Moscow time the Arktika legendary icebreaker became the first surface ship ever to reach the North Pole. This happened 35 years ago.
On August 17, 1977, at 4:00 am Moscow time the Arktika legendary icebreaker became the first surface ship ever to reach the North Pole. This happened 35 years ago.
On July 3, 1971, construction of the icebreaker began at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad. It was launched on December 26, 1972, and began actively operating on April 25, 1975. The national flag of the Soviet Union was hoisted over the icebreaker.
There was a crew of 150 aboard.
Superstition has it that a woman on board brings bad luck, but this is not the case with nuclear icebreakers. There were women aboard the Arktika.
Polar bear Mishka, the Arktika crew’s favorite, was brought along to the expeditions.
The icebreaker’s interior featured the latest trends in design.
The icebreaker was equipped with a helicopter pad. A helicopter was used for scouting expeditions.
The expedition to the North Pole included research and technical specialists. There were 207 people aboard the ship. Researchers from several institutions took part in the expedition.
A number of safety measures were taken for the difficult mission. This included bringing an emergency food supply, to last for eight months, and materials for the construction of an ice aerodrome.
The icebreaker sailed from the Kara Sea into the Laptev Sea by crossing the Vilkitsky Strait. After reaching the 130th meridian, the expedition turned north and followed the direction up to the North Pole.
The icebreaker covered 3,852 nautical miles, including 1,200 miles through perennial ice fields.
“We have crossed perennial ice floes with the Lenin and Arktika before, but we have never cut through ice several meters thick,” the icebreaker’s Captain Yury Kuchiyev recalled.
On August 17, the Soviet flag was raised at the North Pole. Captain Yury Kuchiyev fixed the pole from the flag of Georgy Sedov’s expedition to the flagstaff. The Arktika spent 15 hours at the North Pole. During that time, researchers conducted experiments and recorded observations.
