The Pomeranian Koch is adapted for swimming in the sea. Koch Pomeranian and the “new-style fleet”

However, in fact, the history of ice-going ships dates back to the 12th century.
Then enterprising Novgorodians came to the coasts of the White and Barents Seas. In search of fish and sea animals, they boldly set out into the Studenoye Sea and soon reached Novaya Zemlya, Pechora, Grumant (Spitsbergen), the islands of Kolguev and Vaygach.

At first, the Novgorodians sailed on boats that were no different from those on which they sailed in the Baltic Sea, but after some time they were adapted to the harsh conditions of the Arctic. Already “in the 12th century, northern Pomerania became the center of Russian shipbuilding, a Pomeranian boat was created, more advanced than the Novgorod one,” notes V.S. Shitarev, a researcher of domestic navigation in the Far North.

We are talking about a koch or kochmar, adapted for sailing or oaring along clean water and in broken ice, as well as for dragging across not very wide and relatively flat ice fields. Such vessels can withstand impacts from ice floes and are maneuverable, which is important when moving in bays, near the shore, in shallow water, and also in waterways. By the way, their shallow draft allowed the Pomors to enter river mouths and land on the shore almost anywhere.

Main feature there was an ovoid shape of the hull, thanks to which, when the ice compressed, the ship was not crushed, but pushed upward.
(In 1891, having begun designing the research ship Fram, intended for long drift in the ice of the Northern Ocean, the Norwegian shipbuilder K. Archer borrowed the shape of a Pomeranian Koch for it, and the Fram successfully withstood a number of very strong ice movements. Russian Admiral S.O. Makarov did the same when creating the world’s first Arctic icebreaker “Ermak”)
And then, in the 12th - 13th centuries, according to the chroniclers, “they made strong kochi, and the wood in them was good, small, and sewed, and caulked, and resin, and did everything efficiently so that those kochi for the sea passage were reliable " In particular, the parts of the set were made mainly from pine and larch.
The keel was a “matitsa” - a trunk, at the ends of which inclined “corgis” (stems) were installed, and along the entire length, at intervals of about half a meter, “urpugs” (frames) and “hens” (ridges-hoops) were placed. From above, both were connected by “seams” (beams), and the upper deck was laid on them. Below it, to the frames, with staples and, more rarely, nails, they fastened battens and sheathing - outer cladding boards, filling the grooves with tarred tow.

Additional skin, the so-called “ice coat” or “kotsu,” was laid slightly above and below the waterline. Most likely, this is where the name of the ship itself comes from. Note that the kocha, invented by the Pomors, turned into a steel ice belt in the 20th century, which became an indispensable accessory of icebreakers and ice-going vessels.
Particular attention was paid to the strength of the bottom, which was most often subjected to impacts from underwater rocks and when dragging ships along strong and uneven ice.

The kocha body was usually divided into three “lofts” (compartments). In the bow there was a “fence” (kubrick) for the crew, and a stove was also placed there. A cargo hold with a waterproof “creature” (hatch) was installed in the center; passengers - merchants and industrialists - were placed here. The aft attic was allocated for the “breech” (cabin) of the helmsman - the captain.

One or two “shags” (masts) were installed above the deck, resting on the matrix, secured at the sides with “legs” (guys), in modern terminology - stays and shrouds. A strong “raina” (yard) “made of good mahogany” was hoisted onto the mast with wooden or, less often, iron rings freely sliding along it, to which a rectangular sail with an area of ​​up to 100 - 150 sq.m. was attached. Raina was raised using a rope “drogue”, and the sail was controlled by “vazhi” (sheets). By tightening them on one side and loosening them on the other, the helmsman placed the sail in the most favorable position relative to the wind. “It is difficult to say where the opinion came from that the Pomors set sail only with a fair wind,” writes V.S. Shitarev. “The rich maritime terminology of the Pomors convincingly indicates the opposite; their ships sailed in the wind on the same tacks as modern sailing ships . They were also familiar with the close-hauled course, when the ship goes steeply into the wind.”

By the way, for quite a long time there was an opinion that the Pomeranian Koch was an extremely heavy and clumsy vessel. And although the Arctic researcher, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V.Yu. Wiese stipulated that “Russian Kochi are vessels with undoubtedly very low seaworthiness, which is why it is customary in the literature to vilify them in every possible way (“fragile”, “somehow put together”, “ clumsy”, etc.), in this case, in comparison with foreign ships, rather represent some advantage, because they sailed ... not open sea, and near the shore, that is, along an extremely shallow fairway,” he thereby reduced them to small-scale coastal vessels.
But could the Pomors use such “watercraft” to reach the mouth of the Ob, to New Earth and Spitsbergen?

Main characteristics of the Pomeranian Koch
Length, m 10 - 15 20 - 25
Width, m 3 - 4 5 - 8
Draft, m 1 - 1.5 2
Speed, knots 7 - 8
Passenger capacity up to 50 people
Load capacity up to 30 t

In the 60s and 70s, experts carefully examined fragments of nomads found during archaeological excavations. Then, based on them, they reconstructed a Pomeranian ship, organized experimental trips to the polar seas and... refuted such judgments.
In particular, it turned out that with favorable winds and seas, Pomors could travel up to 80 miles per day, and some even more, up to 120 miles. For comparison, English merchant ships sailing to Arkhangelsk in the 17th century traveled at best 60 miles per day, and Dutch ships even less.
It's not just about the experience of the feeders. The high driving performance of the kochs is explained primarily by the successful design, thoughtful contours of the hull, high quality work. It is not for nothing that the Pomors passed down from generation to generation the names of famous “nomadic craftsmen”, such as the Kholmogory residents Deryabins, Vargasovs and Vaigachevs, the Kulakov brothers from Arkhangelsk, the Pinezhans Pykhunov and Tarasov.

The history of the world's first ice-swimming ship ended at the end of the 18th century, when all Russian shipbuilders were ordered by the highest authorities not to be self-willed, but to work only according to Western European models. But among them there was nothing comparable to the Koch; they were created for sailing on the open sea. Since then, some historians of the Russian fleet have begun to characterize Pomeranian ships extremely negatively. Although they in no way deserved such treatment and were “rehabilitated” by the works of enthusiasts only in the second half of the 20th century.
Pavel Veselov.

The Russian fleet began not with the boat of Peter I, as is commonly thought today, but with the Pomeranian Koch.

Since the 12th century, when the Romanov surname did not yet exist, Pomors roamed the expanses of not only their “natives” of the White and Barents Seas. These northern sailors possessed the secrets of navigating many sea routes in the Kara, Norwegian and Greenland Seas.

At the end of the 15th century, the Pomors walked to the northern coast of Scandinavia along east coast White Sea and northern shore Kola Peninsula with portage across the Rybachy Peninsula. In Pomeranian navigation practice, this path was called “Going to the German end.” In the 16th–17th centuries, the area of ​​fishing and trading activity expanded even further. Fishermen and sailors explored new sea routes and lands - they went to the polar territory of Western Siberia to Mangazeya and the mouth of the Yenisei, to Novaya Zemlya and to Spitsbergen, which the Pomors called Grumant.

Axis of Russian navigation

Already in the 12th century, Pomorie became the center of Russian shipbuilding. Rooks, ranshins, shnyaks and karbasses were built here. But the highest achievement of Pomor engineering was the kochi - special ships designed for long voyages in the northern seas.

The Pomeranian Koch was a wooden sailing vessel 16-17 meters long, approximately 4 meters wide, with a draft of no more than one to one and a half meters, which allowed it to enter river mouths at any time of the year. Koch could take on board up to 30 tons of cargo and up to 50 crew members and passengers.

A characteristic feature of the kocha body was its ovoid shape, which was later used by Nansen on his Fram, and after him by the creator of Ermak, Makarov. When compressed in ice, such a vessel was not subjected to excessive overloads, but was simply squeezed upward, and this solution, simple at first glance, can easily be considered one of the most brilliant technical inventions.

Pomeranian sailors placed very strict demands on their ships, and this is understandable: during the short Arctic summer they had to cover thousands of miles, and in difficult ice conditions and severe storms. Hence the extraordinary strength of the heads, high maneuverability, and speed. It has been documented that in the 17th century, with favorable winds, kochi could travel 70-80 miles a day, and some skilled and successful sailors even squeezed out 100-120 miles.

For comparison, we note that English merchant ships calling at Arkhangelsk traveled no more than 45-55 miles per day, and Dutch frigates - 35-40 miles.

The Pomors treated the construction of the Kocha with exceptional responsibility; the work was supervised by experienced “nomadic craftsmen” - a title that denoted the highest qualifications of a shipbuilder.

The traditions of Pomor shipbuilders turned out to be so strong that even when Tsar Peter banned the construction of “old-fashioned” ships under the threat of terrible punishment, the Pomors, despite the ban, continued to create their kochi. The almighty sovereign turned out to be powerless before the centuries-old traditions and technical perfection of these ships.

"Sea God"

Pomor sailing directions were a type of folklore legend, supplemented by texts from the Holy Scriptures, and that the “driver” (“leader”) of the Pomors in their wanderings along the waves of the Cold Sea was Nikolai Ugodnik - “Sea God”. The significance of Nikola Morsky for North Russian sailors was noted in 1653 French traveler de Lamartiniere, who visited Pomerania. Local residents he called them “Nicholasians,” since in every home he saw an icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant. The naming of the Pomors “Nicholaists” is due to the foreign perception of St. Nicholas as a “Russian god”, whose own name becomes a common noun and denotes Russian people in general. “The veneration of icons was also associated with the God of the old North. The concept of this is given by the “Poem about Nicholas the Sea”:

We write to Nikola

Multi-colored vapes

Decorating Nikola

Stingray pearls

We put Nikola

To the cinnabar shrine

We warm Nikola

Voskoyarov candles

We incense to Nikola

Frankincense-thyme

We create Nikola

Prostrations to the ground.

Absolutely all Pomeranian boats were named after St. Nicholas and decorated with his carved image. Northern Russian sailors were sure that the saint in whose name the temple was built was himself this temple and resided in it. And the ship for them was a kind of church. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Northern Rus' was revered not only as a driver on the waters of the “sea of ​​life”, a pacifier and comforter of storms and misfortunes, but also as an “ambulance”.

An attentive reader may notice an alleged inconsistency and ask the question - was this how Russian ships were built before Peter the Great or not?

I answer. Before Peter there was a fleet in Rus', and the “reformer” tsar practically ruined it, just as he ruined everything he could get his hands on with his playful little hands. I will not analyze the consequences of his activities in all areas of life great country, this is a separate topic, I will limit myself to the “great leap” in the field of shipbuilding.

So, I repeat - there was a fleet in Rus'. According to ancient legends, the Kyiv princes Oleg and Igor did not go to Constantinople on rafts, but on boats and red plows. And Stenka Razin didn’t push his annoying lover off a cliff into the Volga, but threw it over the side of a sharp-chested canoe. By the way, he brought it, according to legend, from Persia, where the Cossacks went “for zipuns,” crossing, among other things, the Caspian Sea.

You say: “Fi, man! Me too, navy!

No more was required for combat operations. Just imagine a Spanish 50-gun galleon with a displacement of 1,500 tons on the Dnieper and Volga expanses! But a Caspian trade bead with the same displacement looked quite appropriate. Beads were built in the upper reaches of the Volga, loaded with goods and floated down on them, reaching Persia. There were no special requirements for seaworthiness or quality of construction, since these ships almost never returned home, but were sold along with the goods.

Peter I, preparing for the Persian campaign, forbade the construction of beads, and ordered the construction of ships according to the Dutch model, much more complex, and therefore much more expensive. The Persian campaign was very successful from a military point of view - Western and South coast Caspian Sea with the cities of Derbent and Baku. But after the death of Peter, Tsarina Anna Ioannovna successfully lost these possessions.

Along the way, the technology for making beads was lost.

A similar story happened in the North. Pomors living on the shores of the White Sea have long built kochis - magnificent ships, ideally suited for navigation in ice, unlike the high-speed European ones. The steep-sided body, reminiscent of a nut shell, simply squeezed out of the water when compressed. Suffice it to say that brave sailors on Kochs calmly went to Mangazeya - a city on the Taz River, northern Western Siberia, to Matochka - Novaya Zemlya, Grumant - Spitsbergen. Semyon Dezhnev and his comrades for the first time in the world passed the strait between Asia and America. But this strait bears the name of Bering, who passed the same way 80 years later. It’s good that the cape was named after Dezhnev.

They also traded with Norway and even reached England. This was called the “move to the German end.” And everything would have been fine, but the crazy Tsar Peter, obsessed with the idea of ​​rebuilding Russia in a European way, was brought to those parts. Seeing the kochi with the ungodly contours of the hull, he became indignant, personally deigned to sketch out a drawing of a “correct” Dutch vessel and ordered to immediately begin building the same ones, according to the highest approved drawing. Don't believe me? Here is the original royal decree: “Upon receipt of this decree, announce to all industrialists who go to sea for fishing on their boats and boats, so that instead of those ships they make sea vessels galliots, gukars, kats, flutes, whichever one of them wants, and for this purpose (until they are corrected with new sea vessels) they are given only two years to sail on the old ones.”

But the Pomors were in no hurry to switch to foreign cars and continued to build in the old fashioned way, fully aware that on the “new-style” ships they would only reach the first ice floe. Therefore, the renegades who reject progress, by decree of March 11, 1719, were ordered to “re-eagle” (brand) all the old sea vessels - lodyas, kochi, karbas and soymas, “to let those eagled reach, and again, not at all if, but if whoever begins to make new decree after this decree, those with punishment will be sent to hard labor, and the courts will chop them up.” Takhtovot!

And the tsar mobilized the bulk of the northern shipbuilders at the shipyards of Voronezh, then the Baltic. There they had to retrain on the fly, because there was a difference between a koch and a frigate.

Pomeranian shipbuilding was ruined. Well, not quite, of course, in remote corners, where the king could not see them with his eyes, kochis were still being built on the sly. And they lived until the 20th century! Fridtjof Nansen's famous Fram is a classic Koch, just with an engine.

I hear the question: “So how did it happen that there was nowhere for master shipwrights to come from in a land country?”

Russia, unlike England, is truly a land country. Pomors and Volgars made up a small proportion of the population, and the majority had no idea about any seas there. It was in states whose economy was based on the fleet that every boy dreamed of sailing the oceans. Stevenson's "Treasure Island" and Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" write about this well. And in Russia the very idea of ​​sea voyages was incomprehensible to almost no one. “They’ll wander into the navy!” they said ominously to the young recruit, and in the dark night the guy tore his claws to the Don and Zaporozhye, just to avoid ending up in the terrible service. Is it any wonder that the expensive toy of the crowned “romantic” was immediately trashed after his death. The country was literally left with nothing.

And that’s not even the point. It’s just that a fleet in the form that Peter dreamed of having was not needed at that time. There were no problems facing Russia that they could help solve ocean ships. In the era of Catherine, when the state recovered from Petrukhin’s experiments and became sufficiently stronger militarily and economically, where did everything come from! Here you have a modern fleet, and Chesma, and Navarino, and Sinop... And trip around the world Ivan Kruzenshtern, and the discovery of Antarctica by Bellingshausen and Lazarev. And a whole galaxy of other brilliant naval officers, who felt equally relaxed and free both in the St. Petersburg palaces and on the bridge of warships, in contrast to Peter’s worn-out “nobles”, with their legs buckling from fear, catching his every word, rowdy, often against their will , in the “All-joking, all-drunken, extravagant cathedral.” Not to mention the serfs, who had hay and straw tied to their feet to teach them how to march. Disgusting, gentlemen...

Just don’t say that Peter laid the foundation for future victories. There was no continuity. This is like saying that Tsiolkovsky laid the foundations of astronautics.

Slaves cannot have their own fleet. If only as a rower on a galley... And don’t twist your finger at your temple. In the entire vast country there was only one free person - Peter the Great, completely undeservedly called the Great. But this is a topic for a separate article...

A marine wooden single-deck, single-mast, sailing, rowing vessel with a shallow draft (the sail was set with a fair wind). Length up to 25 m, load capacity up to 30 tons. Used in the North of Rus' in the 16th - 17th centuries. * * * KOCH KOCH, sea wooden... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

An ancient Pomeranian decked single-mast sailing and rowing vessel. Its designs are similar to those of the rook, to which it was inferior in size. They were adapted to swimming in ice. EdwART. Smart Military maritime Dictionary, 2010 Koç seaworthy sailing... ... Marine Dictionary

koch.- koch. nomadism Dictionary: S. Fadeev. Dictionary of abbreviations of the modern Russian language. St. Petersburg: Politekhnika, 1997. 527 p. koch. nomad...

KOCH- frequency cutoff box KOCH relative sensitivity coefficient characteristic of a laser mass spectrometer Source: http://www.naukaspb.ru/spravochniki/DEMO an chim1/7.htm … Dictionary of abbreviations and abbreviations

A marine wooden single-deck, single-mast, sailing, rowing vessel with a shallow draft (the sail was set with a fair wind). Length approx. 20 m, load capacity up to 30 tons. Used in the north of Rus' in the 16th and 17th centuries ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Noun, number of synonyms: 1 vessel (401) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

koch- koch, ah, creative. p. eat (ship) ... Russian spelling dictionary

koch- Koch: stroller, chaise... Explanatory Ukrainian dictionary

koch- the name of the human race, a type of stroller, arch chaise... Spelling dictionary of Ukrainian language

koch- KOCH, historical, dial. – A large sailing ship, a common means of navigation on northern rivers in the 17th century. – The interpreter says that it’s a day’s walk to the possessions of the Ostyak prince Namak on heavy trucks (1. 13). Sl.RYA XI XVII 7. 390: kochi “large sailing ship” ... Dictionary of the trilogy “The Sovereign's Estate”

Books

• , K. Koch, I. Ovidko, S. Sil, S. Veprek. In the book offered to the reader by famous authors: Professor Karl K. Koch (USA), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Ilya Ovidko (Russia), Professor Sudipta Seal (USA) and Professor Stan...
• Structural nanocrystalline materials. Scientific foundations and applications, K. Koch, I. Ovidko, S. Sil, S. Veprek. In the book offered to the reader by famous authors: Professor Karl K. Koch (USA), Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Ilya Ovidko (Russia), Professor Sudipta Seal (USA) and Professor Stan...

These wooden ships were shaped like a nut shell. When huge ice floes tried to catch them in their traps and destroy them in an icy embrace, they “jumped” to the surface. Pomors learned to build them back in the 13th century - specifically for sailing in the northern seas. The homeland of these ships is the White Sea coast. And they called them kochas.

Living by the sea

At the beginning of the last millennium, Russian settlers appeared on the White Sea. They were attracted by rich fishing: on land - furs and poultry, on the sea - sea fish, animals and “fish tooth” - the highly valued walrus tusk. The first to come to the North were the ancient Novgorodians. These were different people: envoys of the boyars and other rich people, and free ushkuiniki, and “dashing people” who fled from serfdom and the Tatar yoke. As a rule, they settled not on deserted shores, but in the settlements of the indigenous inhabitants - Karelians and Sami, in some places they mixed with them, and in others they shared the shore and crowded out the locals. Gradually, the settlers formed their own camps. The fishing population that settled permanently began to be called Pomors, which means “living by the sea,” and the entire coastal region was called Pomorie. “The sea is our field,” says a popular saying.

Life on the shores of the “Icy Sea” in a harsh climate made the Pomors strong and hardworking. The spirit of freedom, free-thinking and camaraderie was in the air in Pomerania. In these parts, “peace” - self-government was especially strong: many Pomeranian cities adopted its democratic and veche rules from Veliky Novgorod. Pomors have had connections with the West since ancient times. The proximity of the Russian North to the Scandinavian lands, communication with Europeans, knowledge of European foundations - all this supported democratic traditions.

In the 12th century, Pomorie became the center of Russian shipbuilding - this was facilitated by the development of sea and river industries. The most advanced ships at that time, intended for ice navigation, were built there. These were ships different types: sea and ordinary boats, ranshins, shnyakis, karbass. The development of sea and river fisheries required the Pomors to create heavy-duty and stable vessels adapted to local navigation conditions. This is how the idea of ​​a new fishing vessel, the kocha, was born. According to historians, Kochi appeared in the 13th century.

Secrets of Pomeranian shipbuilding

Koch (in different dialects - kocha, kochmora, kochmara) is a vessel adapted for sailing on broken ice, and for dragging. Scientists believe that the name of the ship comes from the word “kotsa” - ice lining, ice coat. This was the name of the second hull skin, which protected the main skin from ice damage; it was made of durable oak or hardwood boards at the variable waterline. Another feature of the koch was its body, shaped like a nut shell. This design protected the ship from destruction when colliding with large ice floes. When the koch got stuck in the ice, it was not compressed, but simply squeezed out to the surface, and the ship could drift along with the ice.

The ship had two anchors of four and a half pounds each, and sometimes two-pound anchors were also found. The Pomors also used an anchor when dragging: if the ship was in ice fields and could not sail or oar, the sailors went down onto the ice, inserted the anchor claw into the cut hole, and then selected the anchor rope and pulled the ship through. In the same way, they could drag the ship over ice bridges.

Lodey craftsmen did not have drawings and during construction relied on experience and instinct.

The master outlined the contours of the vessel with a stick in the sand. The construction of the koch began from the bottom: it suffered most from contact with ice, so it was made especially durable. The keel of the large kocha was about 21.6 meters long and consisted of several parts. This structure was protected from damage during dragging or grounding by a false keel. If it was destroyed, a new one was attached - the repair took a little time. This invention of the Pomors was subsequently borrowed by foreign masters; it has been used throughout the history of wooden shipbuilding.

The joints of the side plating boards had their own peculiarity: at the seams they were covered with strips attached to the sides with small staples - a method of sealing the sides typical for Northern Russian shipbuilding. To completely “scrape” the koch, several thousand metal staples were required. The grooves of the sheathing were caulked with tarred tow. On top of the main skin was attached a “fur coat” (kotsa) - an ice skin, the boards of which were nailed “smooth”.

The set of the vessel consisted of “kokory” - that’s what frames were called in the north. Koch had an original ship part that had no analogues either in Old Russian or Western European shipbuilding of the 16th-18th centuries - “koryanik”. This is a cork part that was installed on the bilge of the ship and was intended to form a bend in the side and give it additional rigidity.

The flat deck was also a feature of the kocha design - the surging storm wave flowed freely overboard. And on European ships the sides of the deck ended with a step. The width of the koch reached 6.4 meters. The small ratio of width to length - one to three or to four - made the vessel yaw, which was eliminated due to the increased rudder area.

The stern of the kocha along the waterline had a point of about 60°. Above the waterline, the stern point was rounded. This design first appeared among the Pomors. The stern was made almost vertical, the bow – strongly inclined. The maximum draft of the koch was 1.5-1.75 meters. The shallow draft and inclined stem indicate the koch's adaptability to swimming in shallow water, broken ice and drags.

The hull was divided into compartments by transverse bulkheads. A stove was laid out in the bow compartment, and there was a cockpit for the crew. In the aft compartment there was a helmsman's cabin, and the middle part of the ship was allocated for cargo hold; The hold hatch was closed hermetically.

Depending on the sailing conditions, the design and size of the kochs changed slightly. For sea near-shore, river and portage areas, kochis with a carrying capacity of 500-1600 pounds (small kochi) were built, and for sea and river routes that did not require passage along dry portages - up to 2500 pounds (large kochi). By the beginning of the 17th century, the large koch was the main vessel in Siberian sea and river navigation.

"According to my faith"

The experience of seafaring skill was passed on from generation to generation in Pomerania. The Pomors walked “according to their faith” - according to their handwritten directions. They knew how much the transferred experience of sailing in the polar seas meant, and described in detail dangerous places, approaches to possible shelters from waves and winds, anchorages. Data were given on the time and strength of tides, the nature and speed of sea currents. The first sailing directions were written on birch bark, they were treasured and passed on by inheritance. Sons and grandsons replenished and clarified the records of their fathers and grandfathers: “And after us the Pomor will go fishing, how can we not leave a trace of ourselves for him.” This is how the famous “Nautical Book” was formed.

The driving directions marked the places where identification marks were placed - large wooden “council” crosses and gurias - pyramids of stones. In the White Sea and on the Murmansk side, on Matochka (Novaya Zemlya) and on Grumant (Spitsbergen), sailors encountered these signs, placed by someone unknown and when, and put up their own. “Ovet” crosses were placed not only as identification marks, but also in memory of fallen comrades, successes and tragedies. To the northwest of Kem there was a place called “The Crosses Are Frequent” - eleven crosses along the shore. They were distinguished by bas-reliefs, embedded copper icons, and decorative elements - special signs made it possible to identify the area. The crosses helped to accurately determine the course: the crossbar of the cross was always directed “from the night to the flyer” - from north to south.

The pilot kept the pilot's position in the headrest on the ship, and behind the shrine at home. On the first page of some sailing directions there was a prayer: the sailors knew what a difficult journey they were embarking on. The special Pomeranian faith combined love of freedom and humility, mysticism and practicality, reason and faith; During the voyage, the sailors felt a living connection with God. “While signs are visible on the shore, the Pomor reads a special part of the book, but when the shore dissolves in the distance and a storm is about to break the ship, the Pomor opens the first page and turns to Nikolai Ugodnik for help.”

The Pomors also treated “Father the Sea” with deep humility, who was revered as a deity. In the North Russian maritime culture, the Sea became the Supreme Judge - the Pomors perceived the “sea court” as the Court of God. They never said “drowned”, “died at sea” - only “the sea took”: “The sea takes without return. The sea will take it - it won’t ask. The sea takes over - it is empty. Our sea does not like condemnation. If you say anything wrong, he’ll get furious.” The “righteous judgment of the sea” was carried out on a ship, which was not accidentally called a “ship” - a place where on the day of judgment the duel between good and evil takes place. The Pomors united the sea and the monastery into a single space: “Whoever has not been to the sea has not prayed to God.”

Pomeranian sailors considered Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker their patron. That's what they called him - Nikola the Sea God. The Pomors revered him as “a pacifier and comforter of storms and misfortunes,” “a guide through the waters of the sea of ​​life.” In the religious view of the Pomors, the ship was likened to a temple, and Saint Nicholas acted as the Almighty.

"Nomadic" paths

Pomors went fishing not only in the White and Barents Seas. Northern sailors possessed the secrets of navigating many sea routes in the Kara, Norwegian and Greenland seas. At the end of the 15th century, the Pomors went to the northern shores of Scandinavia. In Pomeranian navigation practice, this path was called “Going to the German end.” It passed along the eastern coast of the White Sea and the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula with a portage through the Rybachy Peninsula. In the 16th-17th centuries, the area of ​​fishing and trading activity became even more extensive. Fishermen and sailors reached the polar territory of Western Siberia to the mouth of the Yenisei, went to Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen and the coastal islands of the Barents and Kara seas. This is what the main sea routes of the 16th century were called: “Mangazeya sea passage”, “Novaya Zemlya passage”, “Yenisei passage”, “Grumanlansky passage”.

The “Mangazeya sea route” is the route to the north of Western Siberia, to Mangazeya - a city on the Taz River, a stronghold in the development of the polar Siberian lands of the 17th century. He walked along the coast Barents Sea, through the Yugorsky Shar Strait into the Kara Sea to west bank Yamal Peninsula, where ships were dragged through a drag. The “Yenisei Road” led from Pomorye to the mouth of the Yenisei River, and the “Novaya Zemlya Road” led to the northern regions of Novaya Zemlya.

The “Grumanlansky course” is a route from the White Sea along the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula to Bear Island and further to the Spitsbergen archipelago, where Russian Pomors carried out intensive fishing activities. The route to Spitsbergen was considered relatively easy: in free sailing conditions it would take eight to nine days, while to Mangazeya it would take more than six weeks, with two portages to overcome.

"Loss to the Treasury"

Europeans actively participated in merchant shipping: Mangazeya was at that time shopping center Siberia. In Moscow, they began to fear that Western sailors would sail to the Ob, bypassing the “ship haven” in Arkhangelsk, which brought considerable income to the state. They were also afraid that Russian merchants “would start trading with the Germans, hiding in Yugorsky Shar, on Kolguev, on Kanin Nos, and the sovereign’s treasury would suffer hysteria in taxes.”

In 1619, the Mangazeya sea route was banned by government decree and another route to Mangazeya was opened - a river one. The Pomors wrote petitions: “...from Mangazeya to Rus' and to Mangazeya from Rus', continue to sail in the big sea, so that you don’t have to go forward without trades...” But from Moscow came a “strong order” that disobedient “... be executed by evil deaths and destroy houses to the ground..." In the Yugorsky Shar Strait, on the island of Matveev and the Yamal portage, guards were posted, designed to monitor the implementation of the decree, and also "... to check on the German people, so as not to go to Siberia, to German people did not find Mangazeya by water or dry roads...” In 1672, the city of Mangazeya was abolished by decree of Alexei Mikhailovich.

Most of all, the Pomors interacted with the Norwegians: Russian sailors had been going to Norway since the 14th century. As a result of close communication between the two peoples, Russian and Norwegian industrialists, traders and fishermen arose their own language - “Russenorsk”. It contained about 400 words, of which approximately half were of Norwegian origin, slightly less than half were of Russian origin, and the rest were borrowed from Swedish, Lapp, English and German languages. "Russenorsky" was used only during the period of navigation and fishing, therefore the concepts presented in it were limited to the nautical and trading areas. It is interesting that the Russians, speaking Russenorsk, were convinced that they were speaking Norwegian, and the Norwegians did the opposite.

Polar expedition vessel

It would be a mistake to think that the koch, which originated as a fishing vessel, was used only by industrialists and traders. Koch, who embodied all the many years of experience of Pomeranian sailors, was born for great expeditions.

It was at night that Semyon Dezhnev and Fedot Popov made a voyage from the Kolyma River around the Chukotka Peninsula to the Anadyr River in 1648. On June 20, six kochs set out to sea from the Nizhnekolymsky fort. The seventh joined the expedition without permission - there was a group of Cossacks on it under the command of Gerasim Ankudinov. Two Kochas crashed on the ice during a storm before reaching the Bering Strait. Two more Kochas disappeared in an unknown direction. But the three remaining Kochas, under the command of Dezhnev, Popov and Ankudinov, rounded the extreme eastern tip of Asia on September 20. Dezhnev called it the Big Stone Nose, and subsequently described its location and geographical features of these places. Now this cape bears the name of Dezhnev. Koch Ankudinov was broken up at the cape, Ankudinov and his crew moved onto Popov’s ship. Having rounded the eastern tip of Asia, the ships of Dezhnev and Popov entered the Pacific Ocean. In the strait between Asia and America, the sailors continued their journey on two boats. They were the first Europeans to sail the North Pacific Ocean.

The last ships of the expedition were separated by a storm. Dezhnev and his comrades managed to avoid death: their koch was carried to the southwest and washed ashore south of the mouth of the Anadyr River. Koch Popov was carried away by a storm towards Kamchatka. Until now, nothing is known about their fate.

Impact on Pomeranian shipbuilding

The first Russians came to Kamchatka on Kochs. In the summer of 1662, Ivan Rubets repeated the path of Dezhnev-Popov across the strait. He left Yakutsk in June, and in August he already reached the Pacific Ocean. The sailors were interested in walrus fishing near the mouth of the Anadyr River, but they did not find a walrus rookery and went further south. So they reached the eastern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula, where two Russian Kochas first dropped anchor at the mouth of the Kamchatka River.

During the era of Peter the Great, Pomeranian shipbuilding suffered a severe blow. Construction major port at the mouth of the Northern Dvina and the creation of a merchant fleet based on European models led to the fact that small shipbuilding in Pomorie lost all importance in the eyes of the government. Peter I demanded the construction of more modern ships. On December 28, 1715, Peter I sent a decree to the Arkhangelsk vice-governor, which stated: “Upon receipt of this decree, announce to all industrialists who go to sea for fishing on their boats and boats, so that instead of those ships they make sea ships galliots, gukars, kats, flutes, whichever one of them wants, and for that (until they are corrected by new sea vessels) they are given only two years to use the old ones.” In 1719, the Pomors wrote a complaint to the Tsar that “for navigation they are ordered to build river boats.” Peter allowed the existing ships - karbasy, soyma, kochi - to remain, but he forbade the construction of new ones, threatening with exile to hard labor. A special act prohibited the sending of cargo from Arkhangelsk on ships of the “previous business”. However, this decree was subsequently not implemented, like many other decrees of Peter: the traditional designs of Pomeranian ships were much more consistent with the conditions of coastal navigation and navigation in ice. Despite the ban, shipbuilders outside Arkhangelsk sought to supply fishing cooperatives with vessels from the “former business.” And later in Pomerania they refused to build ships according to new drawings, since neither the prescribed designs nor the dimensions met the conditions of Pomeranian navigation.

In the 30s of the 18th century, the authority of the Koch was officially recognized again. The Siberian (Great Northern) expedition was organized, conceived by Peter I. Its main goal was to describe the coast from Arkhangelsk to the mouth of the Ob. And here the koch came in handy again: the government was forced to use it as the most reliable vessel for navigation in these conditions. In July 1734, kochi were built and, under the command of lieutenants S. Muravyov and M. Pavlov, they left the White Sea to the shores of Yamal.

After Peter's reforms, Kem became the center of shipbuilding in Pomorie. There, the construction of “old-style” ships continued, intended for industrial and transport navigation in northern waters. In the 19th century, from the White Sea to St. Petersburg, around Scandinavia, they sailed not only on new ships, but also on ships of the “previous business”. In 1835, Ivan Ivanovich Pashin from Arkhangelsk made such a voyage on a kocha, leaving Kola. The appearance of the White Sea Koch at the St. Petersburg roadstead amazed the residents of the capital.

"Fram" Nansen - Pomeranian Koch?

Fridtjof Nansen sang a paean to the “old-fashioned” Koch. The outstanding polar explorer, when building his Fram, came up with a similar design for the vessel! The plan of his Arctic expedition was original and daring: to moor to a large ice floe, “freeze into the ice” and drift with it. Nansen hoped that the polar current would take his ship to the North Pole and then carry it out into the North Atlantic.

To implement this plan, a very special vessel was required. An ordinary ship would inevitably be crushed by ice. Resistance to ice pressure is what shipbuilders wanted from a future vessel. Nansen clearly imagined what it should be like and described it in detail. You read the description and understand that it is Koch who is being described.

“The most important thing in such a vessel is that it is built in such a way that it can withstand the pressure of the ice. The ship should have such sloping sides that the ice pressing on it would not receive a fulcrum and could not crush it... but would squeeze it upward... For the same purpose, the ship should be small in size, since, firstly, it is easier to maneuver in ice with a small vessel; secondly, during the compression of ice, it is more easily squeezed upward, and it is easier to give a small vessel the necessary strength... A ship of the indicated shape and size cannot, of course, be convenient and stable for sea navigation, but this is not particularly important in ice-clogged waters... True, before getting into the ice region, you will have to go a long way on the open sea, but the ship will not be so bad that it is impossible to move forward on it at all.”

“We also sought to reduce the length of the ship’s hull to make it easier to maneuver between ice fields; the greater length also creates a greater danger during compression. But in order for such a short ship, distinguished, among other things, by its strongly convex sides, to have the necessary carrying capacity, it must also be wide; The width of the "Fram" was about one third of its length."

“On the outside, the frames were protected by a triple skin... The third, outer, so-called “ice skin”... like the first two, went right up to the keel... This skin was fastened with nails and “ruffs” that did not pass through the other skins, so the ice could have torn off the entire “ice lining” and yet the ship’s hull would not have suffered much damage from this.”

The trans-Arctic drift of the Fram brilliantly confirmed Nansen's calculations: after spending almost three years in captivity in the ice, the Fram returned to Norway. This ship, called “one of the most amazing ships in the world,” then made two more remarkable voyages: in 1898-1902, an expedition to the Canadian Arctic archipelago worked on the Fram, and in 1910-1912, Amundsen sailed on it to the Antarctic . In 1935, the Fram was installed on the shore in Oslo. Now this historical ship is a museum of an outstanding polar expedition. But at the same time it is a monument to the legendary kochas - wooden ships that sailed in the ice of the Arctic seas.

Selection of illustrations - " Kola cards", 2009