Taimyr and Vaigach

[shipstamps]

The left-hand of the pair shows the ice-breakers Taimyr and Vaigach, which in 1913 attempted to sail along the Northern Siberian and Russian coastlines from east to west under Comdr. Vilkitski, departing from Anadyr Bay on August 4.
After rounding Cape Dezhnev he continued to Chaun Bay, but were unable to reach Wrangel Island and proceeded to the new Siberian Islands and thence to the Taimyr Peninsula. Later, meeting solid ice, he sailed in a north-easterly direction in an effort to get through, eventually discovering a new island, which he named Nicholas II Land. (Since the revolution it has been known first as Lenin Land and subsequently Northern Land.) After surveying 20 miles of its eastern coastline Vilkitski had to turn back on September 4 and wintered in Petropavlovsk. Despite the outbreak of the First World War, in which Russia was engaged, Vilkitski was ordered to renew his attack on the North-East passage and in 1915 he succeeded in being the first to sail from east to west.
In 1937 the Taimyr, with the ice-breaker Murman, rescued four Russian scientists who were adrift on an ice-flow only 30 yds. by 50 yds. and broken in four places. They had been on the floe for 274 days and had drifted 1,500 miles from the North Pole. The event was commemorated by a set of four stamps issued by the U.S.S.R. in 1937, two showing the ice-breakers which effected the rescue, with the four scientists waving to them. The Taimyr was built in 1909 and had a displacement of 1,290 tons and a speed of 10.5 knots. She is the vessel nearest to the four scientists on the stamp illustration. The nuclear ice-breaker Lenin is depicted in the Arctic on the second setenant stamp. SG3199,3200 Sea Breezes 6/66

[aukepalmhof]

Both icebreaking cargo vessels were built by the Nevskiy Shipyard for the Russian Imperial Government, when in 1908 launched she got the names TAIMYR and VAIGACH also given as TAYMYR and VAYGACH.
Tonnage 1.290 tons, displacement 1.500 tons, dim. length 60 x 11.9 x 6.7m (draught)
Powered by a triple expansion steam engine, 1.200 hp steam engine, speed 10½ knots.
Range 12.000 miles with an average speed of 8 knots. Could store provision for up to 15 months.
End 1909 completed.
She were specially designed for, and to explore the Northern Sea Route, both could break ice with a thickness of 2 to 3 feet.
Crew 5 officers, one engineer, one doctor, one cook and 39 men.

After completing both vessels sailed from the Baltic via the Suez Canal to Vladivostok in mid-July 1910.
Both ships used Vladivostok as their winter base.
During the summer season both vessels proceeded northward into the ice-free Chukotskoe and East Siberian seas, exploring, surveying and charting, also she placed beacons.
The first two seasons the VAIGACH was commanded by Kolchak, while the maiden voyage of the TAIMYR was made under command of Matisen, but Captain Davydov soon replaced him.
Both ships under the overall command of Sergeyev sailed in the end of August 1910 from Vladivostok, she steamed to a position 18 miles of Uehlen before in early October the ice forced there return to winter-base in Vladivostok.
The next season both ships voyaged the seas westward as far as Kolyma River, placing beacons, surveying and visiting some small villages along the coast. The same season the VAIGACH circumnavigated Wrangel Island.
During the summer season of 1912 both ships charted the northern coastline to Bukha Tikhaya and she completed the survey between the River Kolyma and the River Lena.
She named Medvezhii Island and charted the island, she sailed around 11.000 miles that season before returning to Vladivostok.
In 1913 both captains were replaced, Captain Novopashenny took command of the VAIGACH and Boris Andreyevich Vilkitsky became commander of the TAIMYR. Vilkitsky did have the overall command.

Both vessels sailed from Vladivostok in 1914 and during this passage she discovered Severnaya Zemlya, what is now known under the name Vilkitsky Island, the islands Maliy, Taimyr and Starokadomsky
1915 She arrived at Archangelsk. (Could not find anything more on this voyage, so additional info is welcome)

During World War I both where armed with 4 – 75mm, 2 – 37mm guns and two machine guns, and used as transport in the Baltic Fleet.

19 February 1938 the TAIMYR together with the ERMACK and MURMAN took the members from Papanin North Pole Expedition from a drifting ice floe. They had been on this ice floe for 274 days.

The TAIMYR was deleted in 1969
VAIGACH, struck an underwater rock in 1918 in the Yenisei Bay of the Kara Sea where after she sank.

On Russia 1938 10k and 20 k sg 787/788 she is the vessel in the background.
On Russia 1965 4k sg 3199 the nearest vessel is the TAIMYR.
Russia 2013 15p sg?, scott? (The 100th Anniversary of the discovery of Severnaya Zemlya)
2008 Rumania postcard.
1965 Russia envelope.

2016 Djibouti ILLEGAL issues



Source: http://www.northpolevoyages.com/pdf/ Navicula. Watercraft Philately. Various other websites.
Gennadiy Sitnikov