Icebreaker Sadko

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Icebreaker Sadko was a Russian and Soviet icebreaker ship of 3,800 tonnes displacement. She was named after Sadko, a hero of a Russian bylina.

She was built in Newcastle upon Tyne (Great Britain) in 1912. The length of the ship was 78 m and its width - 11,4 m. The vessel was originally constructed for the Reid Newfoundland Company for the ferry service in Newfoundland and was part of the Alphabet Fleet and christened the SS Lintrose. She was sold to the Russian Government in 1915. In 1916, she sank in Kandalaksha Bay with a payload for the construction of the Kandalaksha-Murmansk railroad.

In 1932 Sadko was salvaged by the EPRON team, and on July 9, 1934 was on a trial voyage once again. In 1935 she took part in an expedition of the deep-sea research in the Arctic Ocean led by Georgy Ushakov.

Iin the summer of 1937 the Sadko sailed from Murmansk. Its original goal was to sail to Henrietta, Zhokhow and Jeanette Islands, in the De Long group and carry out scientific research. The purpose of the expedition was also to find out how could the Northern Sea Route be used for regular shipping. But the Soviet naval authorities changed the plans and the ice-breaker was sent instead to help ships in distress in the Kara and Laptev Seas.

The Sadko, however, became itself trapped in fast ice at 75°17'N and 132°28'E in the region of the New Siberian Islands. Other two Soviet icebreakers, the Sedov and the Malygin, in the same area researching the ice conditions, became trapped by sea ice as well and drifted helplessly.

Owing to persistent bad weather conditions, part of the stranded crew members and some of the scientists could only be rescued in April 1938. And only on August 28th 1938, could icebreaker Yermak free two of the three ships stuck at 83°4'N and 138°22'E, the Sadko and the Malygin. The third ship, the Sedov, had to be left to drift in its icy prison and was transformed into a scientific Polar Station.

She sank in 1941 in the Kara Sea.