NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL mostly given as N.V. GOGOL

[aukepalmhof]

The oldest working side-wheel paddle steamboat in Russia.
Type: Passenger River steamer
Home port: Severodvinsk
Shipyard: Nizhny Novgorod Sormovsky Machine Factory, (Sormovo) and launched in 1911
Length: 70.7 m.
Width 14 m.
Average draught of 1.4 m
Technical data:
Power unit; Two boilers heating area with 83.4 sq.m, one inclined triple expansion steam engine 380 HPScrews
2 outboard propeller wheel Power: 380 HP
Speed of 18 km/h
Endurance 62 tons of crude oil, 6 running days
Passenger capacity up to 695 reconstruction (including deck passengers) now 140 passengers

NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL was built in 1911, in Nizhny Novgorod at the Sormovsky plant for the Northern Shipping Society in Archangel. She was equipped with the latest technology of the time. The cost of the vessel was 140 thousand Roubles.
The NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL transited to her home port via the Volga, Šeksna, North-Dvina system, through Lake Kubenskoye and Sukhona River. Because the size of the locks on the North Dvina system were too small, the vessel had to be divided into three parts: a fore, middle and aft. She was rejoined in the Northern Steamship Society workshops at St. Michael in Ustyug.
In 1911, the steamer ran on the Vologda-Archangel route. The journey from Vologda to Archangel took three days, nine hours and the return voyage lasted four days and nineteen hours. NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL was popular with passengers thanks to a good library and a wide range of dishes in the restaurant.
During the civil war NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL was used as a hospital ship and military transport.
In the autumn of 1919, the steamer was disassembled, the sections were transported by train to Petrograd for repair. Repairs lasted two years, after which the steamer was back on the Archangel – Vologda route. Twenty years later between 1939-1941, NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL was overhauled. And the accommodation was replaced with the accommodation, i.e. from a vessel, built in 1911, only the steam engine and steam boilers, were installed in a new built ship. The old vessel has been used for several years as a hotel.
During the great patriotic war the NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL served as a floating hospital. After the war she worked on the Kotlas-Archangel route.
In 1958-1959, the NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL was again renovated in the course of which boilers were converted from coal to oil heating.
In 1972 NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL became a floating recreation base for the State Engineering Enterprise Zvezdochka in the city of Severodvinsk. That is why she has not been scrapped unlike other steamers of the same era. In 1972-1973, the steamer was redesigned. In 1973, the NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL conducted cruises on the Northern Dvina for factory workers.
In 1994 -1996, the NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL undertook yet another reconstruction. While preserving the historic appearance of the vessel the internal fittings were retrofitted to meet modern requirements for cruise ships.
NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL continues to be used on the Northern Dvina, now as a cruise ship.
She has now thirty passengers cabins and can accommodate fifty-three passengers.
(Apologies if the English does not always read correctly. The only information I could find was in Russian and this has been through translation software.)

Guine Bissau 2009 600 FCFA sg?, scott?
Mozambique 2018 116mt sg?, scott?

Sources: Wikimedia Commons - http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D._%D ... %BE%D0%B4);
http://www.riverships.ru/photos/gogol_bn.jpg
http://www.riverships.ru/photos/gogol_zs.jpg (could be the source of the image on the stamp)
http://www.pomorland.info/02_english_ve ... view&id=21
http://steamboats.com/museum/russia.html

There is an article on Russian paddler N.V. Gogol of 1911 in Steamboat Bill Winter 2002 - Number 244; see https://ssl-001.9netave.com/cgi-bin/ux2 ... _store.cgi (I was unable to open this link !).

Peter Crichton
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