Stepan Makarov - Lake Baikal Icebreakers

Lake Baikal Icebreakers

Makarov also designed two icebreaking steam ships to connect the Trans-Siberian Railway across Lake Baikal: the train ferry SS Baikal built in 1897 and passenger and package freight steamer SS Angara built in about 1900, based upon his study of similar vessels on the American Great Lakes.

Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, built the ships in kit form and sent them to Listvyanka on Lake Baikal for reassembly. Their boilers, engines and some other components were built in Saint Petersburg. Baikal had 15 boilers, four funnels, was 64 metres (210 ft) long and could carry 24 railway coaches and one locomotive on her middle deck. Angara is smaller, with two funnels.

Baikal was burnt out and destroyed in the Russian Civil War. Angara survives, has been restored and is permanently moored at Irkutsk where she serves as offices and a museum.