Vladimir Voronin (captain) - The Cheliuskin Expedition

The Cheliuskin Expedition

In 1933-34 Voronin commanded another icebreaker on a dramatic, albeit not so fortunate, expedition. In July 1933 the Cheliuskin sailed from Leningrad before a large crowd. However, in September icebreaker Cheliuskin got stuck in pack ice in the Chukchi Sea near Kolyuchin Island. The crew worked hard to free the ship from the surrounding ice, succeeding after almost a week. But the ship became stuck again and drifted in the general direction of the pack ice toward the Bering Strait. By the end of November it became obvious that the Cheliuskin would not break free from the pack ice and would have to winter on the Chukchi Sea. Eventually the ship was squeezed by large ice floes and was in danger of sinking. Captain Voronin ordered the crew to unload equipment from the ship and set up a camp site astern of the ship. But cracks in the ice formed under the tents, forcing the crew to load their equipment back onto the ship. The Cheliuskin drifted for the next two months in the Chukchi Sea to the east of Wrangel Island.

Finally, increasing pressure resulted in the ship's creaking and eventual breach by ice. Voronin and Otto Schmidt managed to jump off just in time before the Cheliuskin sank close to Kolyuchin Island. Thus only one crew member went down with the ship. The crew then set up tents on a part of the ice surface that was named Camp Schmidt. The crew made radio contact with the village of Uelen on the Chukotka Peninsula and asked for help. During a dramatic rescue operation, pilot Anatolii Liapidevskii sighted Camp Schmidt, landed his plane on the ice, and rescued the women and children before returning to Uelen. The remaining passengers and crew of the ill-fated icebreaker Cheliuskin were rescued later and flown to Cape Vankarem on the Chukotka Peninsula. Due to severe weather conditions, the rescue took one month with planes trying hard to carry out the rescue operation from Khabarovsk; Nome in Alaska; and Cape Oliutorskii until they were successful.