in 1933 a Russian cargo ship was tasked
with making a groundbreaking trip across
Northeast Russia through the Arctic
Ocean in hopes of establishing a
permanent trade route known as the
Northeast passage like so many ships
before it got stuck in the increasingly
thick winter ice and was trapped for
months at the mercy of the ocean
currents below then one day in February
there was a deep groaning from the
ship’s Hall and immediately the captain
yelled for everyone to abandon the ship
and get onto the ice this is the story
of the main voyage of the SS
[Music]
chalus like the other countries that
border the most northern regions of the
map the Arctic holds deep significance
for the Russian people their exploration
of the era dates back to 1648 when a
small group of kacs sailed up the be and
around Northeastern Russia this journey
disproved the belief that Asia and North
America were connected by land but
instead were separated by water and
although a route across Northern Asia
known as the Northeast passage had been
theorized for some time this was more
proof that a route by seat was
potentially possible crucially this
meant that there was a potential route
that was much more direct from Europe to
the Pacific Ocean across the Arctic for
several centuries afterward the Northern
Shores of Russia were slowly exported
and several different countries
undertook Expeditions but these were
hindered by the long harsh Winters and
frozen water ships would often get stuck
in the ice and be forced to spend the
winter until Tha out many months later
several centuries later after the
Russian Revolution in 1917 and under the
new leadership of the Soviets Russia
established a series of ambitious plans
and goals Nationwide one of these goals
was a focused expansion of what was
named the Northern sea rout Siberia had
since been realized to be extremely
resourc rich and this route would help
facilitate the transfer people and goods
across regions and eventually across the
entire Russian Nation from west to east
however as with previous Expeditions and
exploration this meant crossing the many
icy Seas on the Northern Shores so to do
this they used The Fairly recently
invented ice breakers which are ships
made with reinforced holes and in a
shape that helped split the ice in
addition to these ice breakers aircraft
began to be used around this time and
planes would be stowed on deck and then
hoisted on two makeshift runways cut
into the ice the planes would then fly
ahead and Scout these safest route for
ships by the end of the 1920s both
pilots and ships were becoming famous in
Russia for this exploration and the
Soviet government was taking the
northern Roots more seriously then in
1932 the Soviet leadership set up an
Arctic commission to explore the region
in as much detail as possible the head
of this commission was appointed
Professor Otto Schmidt who was a
professor of mathematics at Moscow State
University a skilled geographer and the
director of the state publishing house
for scientific literature he also
happened to be a keen Mountaineer and
had led several expeditions to France
Joseph land which is an archipelago in
the Arctic Ocean to establish a
scientific research station during these
Expeditions much like he had come to
love mountaineering Otto also grew to
love the Arctic later that year Otto was
tasked with the first ever crossing of
the Northern sea in a single season this
Plan called for him to take a ship from
mermen on the Northwestern Shore all the
way across Russia then down through the
bearing straet to the Shores North of
Japan for this trip OT used Icebreaker
and was successful despite its propeller
shaft Breaking part of the way
incredibly using an improvised sail the
Expedition successfully finished the
final leg of voyage for the Soviet
government this was proof that the route
was feasible the problem that still
remained however was that most ice
breakers either weren’t made for
longdistance travel or weren’t big
enough to carry much cargo so even if a
route was technically possible it still
might not accomplish the goal of
establishing a proper trade route so
next in 1933 OT was tasked with
repeating the Journey but this time with
a brand new cargo vessel the SS chal
yusin the chalus skin had just been
built and was much stronger than most
cargo vessels Oto even called it a semi-
i breaker the H was specially designed
and reinforced it was twice as powerful
as a standard cargo ship and its cabins
were built to withstand the cold in case
it got stuck over winter at the same
time it was still never intended to do
something as challenging as a long
Arctic trip and despite how powerful it
was it didn’t have the horsepower to
break through thick ice like an actual
Icebreaker even still it was the best
option available at the time for this
second Crossing along with Otto was the
same Captain as the year before the ship
then officially began its Voyage on July
12th 1933 from what was then known as
lenrad which today is modern day St
Petersburg they reached Copenhagen on
the 16th and along the way calibrated
the new ship’s engines after Copenhagen
the ship continued on to mermans for a
last stop before making the crossing
finally they set up from manans on
August 10th to make a trip across the
Arctic
the route across Northern Russia takes
ships through a series of six different
Seas the baren sea which is first was a
smooth ice free Crossing this is
typically the least treacherous among
them because it stays warmer due to the
influence of the warm North Atlantic
current the Cary which is next wasn’t as
forgiving the first time the chalus can
hit the ice plates on the stern bent in
cracking part of the hall this wasn’t
enough to end the void but it wasn’t
encouraging either considering the ice
would only get worse but this bad news
was quickly followed by good news just
before the ship reached an area known as
Cape chal yusin one of the four female
crew members on board gave birth to a
daughter she was named Karina about a
month later in September the chusan
became one of 11 ships that passed the
cape just that year in contrast before
1933 only nine chips had ever gone that
way showing just how focused the Soviet
leadership was on opening that route in
addition all the other vessels that year
had been icebreakers so despite the
damage in the car SE the cha yusin had
already made an impressive Journey after
passing the cape the ship entered the
lapv sea and then the Eastern Siberian
sea which were already 90 to 100%
covered nice thankfully because it was
still fall though it was thin enough for
the chel yusin to push through and any
of the damage was minor enough that it
could be repaired when they reached the
Chuck Chi SE though which is the last
stretch before entering the bearing
Street things began to look much worse
this was where the ship on the previous
Expedition had broken its engine and the
ice was even thicker this time around
the chal use continued to push through
the ice for a time but their speed got
slower and slower frustratingly at one
point they took an aircraft up and found
Open Water just 16 Mi away but by then
it was too late on September 21st the
chel yusin ground to a halt the ship was
officially trapped in the ice and its
Rudder was Bent by 20° all the boat
could do was drift East with the ice
toward a bay Northeast of the bearing
straight that particular Bay runs deep
into the mainland and sea currents push
ice flows into It smash them together
and compact in the ice it’s also an area
that’s prone to White outs so using
their plane or getting to them by plane
was next to impossible so with no other
options the crew resigned themselves to
having to wait until the weather
improved and focused on other work a
little over a week later on October 1st
Otto heard a sound in the distance
through the white out he could hear dogs
in the distance barking and howling at
first this was faint but the noise kept
getting louder and louder until dog
slits appeared at the Mist it was a
party of Chuck chees who are natives
from that area Apparently after one of
them had spotted the stranded ship they
launched a rescue party and made a
journey of 25 km by doglet to get out to
them Otto then asked a crew member who
spoke their language to go to shore with
him the Chuck Cheese offered to take as
many people as they could down the
bearing Street where they knew an
iceberger known as the lit key was mored
unfortunately with only a few dog slits
they would only be able to take a few of
the over 100 crew it was also a journey
of more than 330 km through Frozen seir
as winter was fast approaching because
of this OT chose to send one man who was
close to passing away unless he saw a
doctor right away and six other men he’d
promised to send back to their day jobs
if the ship got stuck after the natives
left and in order to make it through The
Long Winter OT began preparations to
build a base nearby in the ice but then
on October 5th the wind changed
Direction and split the ice where they
were setting up the men who were outside
working only just managed to scramble on
board with their tools before the water
surrounded the ship once again
incredibly the Chalin was moving in and
even better while it had been stuck in
the days before they’d managed to repair
the rudder as well instantly the cruise
morale lifted and an Air Relief spread
throughout the boat only to be crushed
again a few hours later when the ice
retook its hold from this point onward
they would be at the mercy of the ice
and the water currents below it for more
than a month the chalus can drift in
circles with ice at the mouth of the
bearing Street and no one on board had
any idea if or where they might get free
on November 3rd the ice they were
trapped in actually floated into the
straight but they were still stuck
several times they even floated South
past the St damid Islands at the
midpoint between Alaska and Russia
before being dragged back up north by
the powerful Pacific current on one of
these Cycles this movement North was so
rapid that OT was worried that there was
a good chance they were being dragged to
the interior of the Arctic Circle that
meant they wouldn’t get free within the
year and the ship itself was at risk
from the weight of the ice now Otto had
previously contacted the lit key to ask
for help but when he had they explained
him they had their own problems their
engines weren’t running at full power so
ice breaking was difficult if not
impossible on November 10th though with
the situation getting much more
dangerous Auto sent a message begging
the lit key for help he knew was risky
for them but he felt he had no choice
however despite the condition of the
ship the captain of the lit key agreed
to do whatever he could at first he
tried to go directly breaking the ice
but that was too much for the half
powerered ship they then tried going
around one side of the ice sheet where
the edge was close to the chel yusin but
that also didn’t work quickly conditions
worsened and the ice got thicker and
wider the captain of the lit key then
suggested they mo at the edge of the ice
and the crew of the chus can walk over
but by then there was 50 km between them
Otto just couldn’t RK that another
option was to fly people over but when
the plane tried to take off it skated on
the ice and was damaged Beyond repair
this was unfortunately their last resort
so with a heavy heart Oto then told the
licky to stop trying to reach them while
all this was happening the Ice Flow they
were trapped on had been traveling in
all directions sometimes West sometimes
East for a while it even seemed to stop
near the coast of the Chuck ches sea
then in December the ice even melt
enough for them to get underway but just
like before it wasn’t long before they
got stuck again by then the sun had set
for the last time time and they would
have to endure months of darkness in the
long polar nights incredibly this was
also the least of their problems when
the route was planned Otto and the team
never anticipated spending the entire
winter on the boat this meant they had
to keep the ship warm for longer than
expected which also meant that the
amount of coal they had wasn’t
sufficient for the entire duration and
if they weren’t careful they’d run out
entirely so next it was the job of the
first class mechanic on board to bring
consumption down first he gave bonuses
to the engine stokers who used the least
coal then he tried cutting off the
heating for 8 hours daily but this
caused dampness to form in the walls the
living quarter so he tried switching the
heating off for 2 hours at a time
instead then he came up with the idea to
develop a new fuel using a mix of
paraffin crude oil waste oil animal fats
and anything else they had available
this proved to be enough to warm the
essential areas and reduce the coal they
were using but either way their coal
consumption would continue to be a
problem the other problem they had that
winter was water they’d run out of water
in late November and by the end of
December they had to melt ice for
drinking water afterward quite a few
crew members were tasked with Gathering
ice to bring back to be melted in a
boiler But as time went on and the crew
solved some of their more pressing
issues they began to settle into their
new life and even enjoyed some aspects
of it as weird as that might sound they
used the skis they had on board to scale
for suitable spots for planes to land
and in their downtime they’d even used
them to ski for leisure and found Rocky
outcroppings to ski and jump off of
several crew members even marked out a
course around the ship using flags for
racing they also engaged in hunting
competitions and in the evenings OT
would lecture on the latest scientific
theories followed by singing and music
from anyone who brought an
instrument by February of 1934 they
drifted right into the middle of the
chuckchi sea and over winter the ice
continued to become thicker and heavier
by the day and Oto knew it was only a
matter of time before the ship itself
would be in serious trouble then on
February 12th the ship’s engineer took
his team to inspect the hole because the
ice had been jolting The Vessel more
than usual now even though there are 24
hours of night in the polar Winters
there’s still an hour or so of dark
Twilight where it’s not Pitch Black
outside during this hour the men
descended from the ship in a 40°
blizzard and walked the lengths looking
for any damage luckily they didn’t find
any but they did find that a crack had
formed in the ice on the front right
hand side of the ship this might seem
like good news but the engineer knew it
meant the Colossal Ice Sheets Were
shifting and would soon put even more
pressure on the cusin hall the following
day at 1:00 p.m. shocks began to shake
the ship then 20 minutes later the crack
and Ice widened and Ice began to press
into the vessel at first it pushed the
chellin back any distance it could go
but then when there was no more space it
was pinned even tighter than the ice
after that the ice began to crush the
ship squashing the engine R and some of
the bunkers on the vessel’s right side
the plates on the upper deck began to
bulge and then burst while the crew was
thrown around by one violent jerk after
another this was followed by the chellu
conern to tip over to the left then for
a moment everything seemed to calm down
Otto had already organized emergency
storage to be put on deck in case
something like this happened so he
ordered everyone to help move the
supplies onto land they used this
leftward lean to lay planks over the
sides they could slide supplies down
before dragging them to a tent that had
been put up days earlier once that was
done everyone had just 5 minutes to get
their personal belongings an hour and a
half after the first crush a violent
shutter hit the vessel another part of
the ship caved in then a series of small
jerks one after the other rocked the
boat as water burst from one part of the
ship to the next this extra weight then
pulled the ship’s bow under the sea and
water began to rush over the front of
the bow in the chaos they sent one last
radio message before dismantling the
radio equipment and sending off the ship
then Otto and the captain ordered all
but essential Personnel into the ice at
the same time he and the captain and a
dozen other crew members began throwing
anything of use from the deck they tried
to round up the animals they’ taken on
board but in the chaos the animals ran
wildly the only choice they had was to
slaughter them and throw their carcasses
overboard to be eaten later water then
began to cover the passenger deck and
then the ship tilted forward the captain
then shouted for everyone to get onto
the ice and then everyone made a run for
it Otto and the captain then made it to
the gangway but only just and as they
ran along the passenger deck the upper
deck even broke above them a plank broke
from the gangway stairs and knocked the
captain off the ship and onto the ice
meanwhile anyone left on board at this
point poured out and jumped from
wherever they could disregarding the
height of the fall to the ice below
finally the only man left on board was
the quartermaster he ran over making it
to the side of the ship but then just as
he began Stepping Over The Vessel
flipped with such force that the engine
and Rudder were pushed out of the the
water and into the air any remaining
store barrels and what was left in the
upper deck then fell onto him knocking
him out a few seconds later the chus
skin disappeared under the water and the
crew could only watch as it dragged
their quartermaster down with it now
after watching the horrific scene unfold
the crew were tired shocked and scared
Otto decided the best thing to do would
be to set up the radio tent then their
living tents then have something to eat
and then get some sleep for the night
after doing exactly that they woke up in
the morning of February 14th and assess
their situation the good news was that
quite a few extra supplies like fuel
barrels and building materials had
floated up from the ship’s wreck for the
first few days Auto put the crew to work
fishing out whatever they could and they
also got the radios working and when
they radioed home a plan was made to
mount to rescue a government commission
decided that the best plan was to get as
many of them as possible by air while
providing dogs sleds and air support for
the rest at this point the crew was
stranded 80 Mi or 130 km from the coast
the nearest town was Cape van carum so
the crew would be taken there and then
to Alaska before traveling back to
Russia via London and Berlin at least
that was the plan in order to make this
rescue possible their first task would
be to build an air strip in the ice for
planes to land on this became the main
focus of work in the camp as they used
whatever resources they had to make the
landing as safe as possible they also
knew it’ be some months before being
rescued so they had to keep the air
strip in good condition in fact this was
exceptionally challenging due to the
shifting ice 13 times the ice under the
runway broke and each time the whole
operation base had to be either patched
up or moved entirely while this was
happening OT was coordinating the rescue
and was busy figuring out who would fly
out and who would be traveling by dog
slit some of the women on the trip were
annoyed to find out that he’d given them
seats on planes along with the four
children and those who showed signs of
illness the reason they were annoyed was
that they’ been working just as hard as
the men and thought other weaker members
should take their place but OT was
adamant the planes were to take the
women children and the sick until then
all they had to do was focus on keeping
the Airfield in one piece and wait they
came to call this temporary Camp Schmid
unfortunately flying to cam Schmidt
proved to be almost as dangerous as
sailing through the northern passage on
February 14th so the day after the
chusan sank a pilot named sigismund
leneski was listening to His Radio when
he heard what had happened he was a
well-known and well-respected pilot and
he suspected they would be using
aircraft to get the stranded crew he
then telegraphed Moscow offering his
services and the following morning he
was contacted and told he would be part
of a special Mission he was then filled
in on the details of the rescue
operation and their takeoff point in
Alaska thankfully the was still pre-old
war and the Americans were happy to lend
the Russians a couple of planes to help
save their men afterward a coordinated
effort was undertaken for a precise
rescue this meant getting everything in
place as quickly as possible so that by
the time they were ready to launch it
wasn’t too late in the spring when the
ice would begin to break up and the
planes could no longer land sigi was
then sent to Fairbanks Alaska with a man
named Georgie usikov who is an
experienced Arctic Explorer who’s going
to cordinate the rescue then on March
26th everything was set and sea took his
plane to the skies for the first time
time the plan was to cover 500 Mi and
reach the town of gnome on the Alaskan
side of the bearing straight as they
made their way through suddenly their
speed began to drop as if the wind was
slowing them down sigi then radioed back
and asked what the weather was like
ahead and in response he was told there
was a blizzard starting ah at forcing
them to turn around and wait for better
weather 2 Days Later the plane took off
once again but this time they didn’t
even know what the weather was because
the weather station wasn’t functioning
properly but it was now or never because
the ice was weakening day by day so they
continued on and the conditions were
okay at first but eventually the snow
got worse and the clouds got so thick
that sigi had to fly low enough to use
Telegraph PS to guide him into the
landing strip in Gnome by some miracle
he managed to bring the plane down and
after landing in Gnome The Next Step was
to fly over the bearing straight to Cape
vanaram which is on the Far Eastern tip
of Russia the planes set off once again
the next day and because the weather
stations were working in it sounded like
it would be an easy flight they flew
over the straight and then along the
Russian Coastline and everything was
fine until they got to the chuckchi
peninsula at that point visibility was
reduced to almost zero and sigy dropped
load to see if he could find somewhere
to land after finding nothing he took
the plane back up to 5,000 ft and
carried on flying with only his eyesight
and his Compass to guide him then the
clouds became a snowstorm causing the
plane to shake violently then as they
continued sigy noticed a film of ice had
formed around the windows almost
simultaneously Georgie passed him a note
saying the whole plane was covered in
ice sigi then tried to climb over the
storm but as they ascended the air was
colder still and the plane got heavier
and harder to steer soon enough the
engines began to backfire and before
long all the instruments froze this
meant he had no idea how fast he was
going or what altitude he was at but
carefully he altered the plane’s course
to take them away from a hilly area it
was only a matter of time before they
went down and he could tell they were
dropping in altitude all he could do was
find as level ground as possible to land
the plane finally they reached the coast
and he could make out the ice Flows Down
Below them he then turned back toward
the mainland as best he could and as
they approached what he thought must
have been ground sigi pulled back on the
controls as hard as possible to avoid
smashing nose first into the ground sigi
was then overwhelmed by the sound of
metal scraping in the ice and then
everything went dark when sigi finally
came to Georgie was shaking him
desperately and asking him if he was
still alive Georgie then managed to pull
sigy from the cabin and bind the Deep
gash he’ gotten on his head after the
crash georg’s knowledge of the Arctic
saved their lives along with the lucky
location of their crash they had landed
in the same B that the CH yusin had
gotten stuck in several months earlier
the two men were then able to stay with
some of the locals and even arranged to
be taken to Cape van carum by dog sled
the next day and thankfully these
subsequent flights by other Pilots had
more luck as the two men traveled by
sled another pilot flew overhead in a
plane that the Americans had lent him
the weather had cleared by then and he
made it to the landing site in a nearby
town without an incident this Clear
Window didn’t last long and the weather
stayed bad until April 7th but when the
snowstorms ended he and the other Pilots
flew up to meet Georgia at cap van car
as soon as he landed Georgie had him
unload his cargo and take eight dogs and
a dog slot on board for the crew who
wouldn’t be airlifted before the weather
could turn again they took off toward
cam Schmidt and landed at the icy air
strip a few hours later after offloading
the dogs and sled and patching up the
aircraft he took off with a group of
passengers back to cap and Kum after
this first successful Landing he was one
of seven Pilots including sigy who flew
back and forth between vanum and the
makeshift airstrip getting 55 people to
safety that April by plane everyone else
was then successfully transported by
dogsled and despite being trapped in the
ice for eight long months just one
person died in the Expedition that was
the quartermaster who had gone down with
the
ship after the rescue the pilots
involved were given the title hero of
the Soviet Union Soviet leadership also
considered the trip successful as they
reached the bearing Straits and they
went on to develop stronger cargo ships
and started shipping on that route
1935 however even today with modern
ships and icebreaking and even the
changing clim
the Northern sea route isn’t nearly as
consistent as other routes due to ice
extreme weather and a lack of
infrastructure through the Arctic in
2006 fragments of a ship found 50 m
under the Chuck ches SE were confirmed
to be that of the chel
yusin if you made it this far thanks so
much for watching if you have a story
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hopefully I will see you in the next one