FEODOR LITKE icebreaker

[shipstamps]

The stamp issued by Russia in 2000 features the picture of V. Yu. Vize. On the left there is a composition devoted to the scientific activity and practice of V. Yu. Vize. In the center of the picture there is the icebreaker (FEODOR) LITKE which for the first time covered the Northern sea-lane in on sailing from the East to the West in 1934. During this sailing (passage) V.Yu. Vize worked a lot. In the foreground there is a polar station in the Tikhaya Bay in Franz Josef Land Archipelago, where V. Yu. Vize was in the expedition of G. Ya. Sedov. Above there is a map with the Northern sea-lane marked.

V.Yu Vize (1886-1954). A meteorologist and oceanographer, an Arctic explorer, an associate of the USSR Academy of Sciences. A participant of the expedition of G. Ya. Dedov (1912-1914), expeditions on the icebreakers TAIMYR (1921-1922), MALYGIN (1924-, 1928, 1931), SEDOV (1929), SIBIRYAKOV (1932) (FEODOR) LITKE (1934).
V. Yu. Vize was the author of some works on oceanography, meteorology, the history of the Arctic exploration.

Built under yard No 385 as an icebreaking ferry/cargo vessel by Vickers, Sons & Maxim Ltd. Barrow, U.K. for the Canadian Government Department of Marine and Fishery at Ottawa.
18 June 1909 launched under the name EARL GREY. She was named after the Canadian Governor Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl of Grey.
Tonnage 2.357 grt, 375 nrt, dim. 265.0 x 47.7 x 24.1ft (draught).
Two 6-cyl. triple expansion steam engines, manufactured by the shipbuilder, 6.500 ihp., twin screws, speed 18 knots.
Cargo capacity 600 ton. Two decks.
August 1909 delivered. Building cost around $ 500.000

She was designed by Charles Duguid the naval architect of the Department, for the service across the Northumberland Strait between Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Borden-Charleton on Prince Edward Island.
She did have spacious first class accommodation and was very popular with travelers. During the summer season the Governor used her for his travels around Canada as his yacht.
30 December 1909 was her first crossing across the Northumberland Strait.

When during World War I the port of Archangel became important for the transport of war supplies by the Allies to Russia, the Russian Government in Petrograd bought icebreakers and cargo vessels to keep the waterways to the Northern ports open, one of these vessels was the EARL GREY; she was sold for $493.000 in 1914.
She was delivered to Russia under a Canadian Naval crew and Canadian flag at Archangel, where she was commissioned on 01 November 1914 under the name KANADA.
January 1917 after a collision off the island Medvezji she sank, but was salvaged and repaired.
End 1918 she sailed to the U.K. for repair and overhaul, thereafter was she placed by White Russian Government in 1919 under the management of the Ellerman’s Wilson Line Ltd., Hull, renamed in CANADA.
1920 She returned to Russia and under Soviet Government control, 15 May 1920 renamed TRETIJ INTERNATIONAL.
June 1921 Renamed in THEODOR LITKE and owned by the Sovtorgflot (Black & Azov Sea Steamship Co., Odessa.
1923 Based at Leningrad. From 1925 till 1928 based in the Sea of Azov.
1928 Renamed in FEODOR LITKE, and owner given Tzoumor, Odessa.
Spring 1928 she sails via the Suez Canal to Vladivostok, and in August 1929 she reached as first ship the colonists on Wrangel island.
1932 Her owner given as Sovtorgflot, Vladivostok/Archangel and renamed FEDOR LITKE.
In the season 1934 she makes the first east-west passage along the north coast of Russia, she sailed on 28 June 1934 from Vladivostok, rounded 22 August Cape Tseljoeskin and arrived Murmansk 20 September.
From June 1941 until February 1944 in Soviet Navy service and used as an auxiliary patrol vessel SKR-18.
After World War II refitted and repaired in the U.K., thereafter used as an Oceanographic research vessel in the Arctic waters.
On 11 October 1955 she reached a position 83 11N, 400 mile from the North pole, at that time not any vessel under her own power had reached this latitude.
1958 Out of service.
1959 Broken up in the U.S.S.R, she was deleted from Lloyds Register in 1960.
Her wheelhouse and radio shack you can find in the Maritime museum in Moscow. (can not find a maritime museum on the net in Moscow.)

Source: Register of Merchant Ships Completed in 1909. Wilson Line by John Harrower. Watercraft Philately. http://www.ccg-gcc.ge.ca/usque-ad-mare/ ... 4-03_e.htm