A belyana (russian: Беляна) is a type of large

disposable ship A disposable ship, also called raft ship, timber ship, or timber drogher is a ship or sea vessel that is intended for use on a single voyage. At the final destination, the vessel is broken up for sale or reuse of materials. Until the end of the 1 ...

that was used for

timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mean ...

along the rivers

Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

and

Kama ''Kama'' (Sanskrit ) means "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature.Monier Williamsकाम, kāmaMonier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, pp 271, see 3rd column Kama often connotes sensual pleasure, sexual ...

from the end of the 16th century until the middle of the 20th century. Belyanas were among the largest wooden ships ever built, with the largest ones being up to long with a load capacity up to 12,800 tons. Belyanas were built in the Upper Volga region of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

without any special tools or plans. Never motorized, after 1870 they also had no sails and could only float downriver, using specialized anchors to turn and stop. Each year in the 18th and 19th centuries hundreds of belyanas were built and floated to

Astrakhan Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...

, where they were entirely dismantled and the wood sold. With the development of railroads in the Soviet Union, belyanas became too complex and too expensive; the last belyana was built in 1939. In 2015 tourists found the remains of a wooden ship in the

Vetluga river Vetluga (, , ''Vütla'') is a river in the Kirov Oblast, Kostroma Oblast, Mari El Republic and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast of Russia. It is a left tributary of the Volga. Belyanas were built since the 16th–17th centuries at the places of timber extraction in the

Upper Volga region The Volga Region (russian: Поволжье, ''Povolzhye'', literally: "along the Volga") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses the drainage basin of the Volga River, the longest river in Europe, in central and southern European Russ ...

and on the

, and were designed for a single trip downstream. The main cargo was timber, in some cases bark fibre, mats, and other similar goods. The length of the hull was up to 120 meters, the width 25 meters, the height 5 meters, the load capacity up to 12,800 tons. The hull was not tarred, which determined the name of such a ship, , derived from the Russian word , "white", as opposed to tarred ships, which were black. The cargo could be placed in the hull and in the superstructure with gradual expansion to the sides (up to 2.5–3 meters). There was no upper deck. Dense stacking of the loaded timber was used to achieve an acceptable structural strength of the ship. Two or three holes for anchors and probes were made directly above the laid cargo, and cabins were also erected, where the crew lived during the floating. The vessel traveled 2000 to 3500 km during the trip. Small belyanas had a draught of 2.5 to 2.8 meters and could carry up to 1600 tonnes; medium belyanas had a draught of approximately 3.5 m and could carry 3200 tonnes; the large ones had a draught of 5 m and could carry between 7200 and 12,800 tonnes. Logging and sailing on the river were carried out in the absence of any mechanization. Workers went to cut wood in groups, bringing food from home. For three to four months they lived in the forest without returning home, contenting themselves with a meager and monotonous diet and sleeping in small winter huts that did not heat well. On the banks of the

Usta The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

and

Vetluga Vetluga (russian: Ветлу́га) is a town and the administrative center of Vetluzhsky District in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Vetluga River. Population: History It was founded in 1636 and granted town st ...

, the bark was peeled from the logs, and then the belyana was built and loaded. Some of the smaller vessels were assembled and disassembled twice in one season. These were the ones that went to places where the Volga is close to the

Don river The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its ...

. The ship docked at the shore, all the cargo was transported by horse- or ox-drawn carriage to the Don. The vessel was then disassembled, the material was transported, reassembled, reloaded and released to the lower reaches of the Don, where it was unloaded and dismantled a second time. In 1884 there were 120 belyanas on the Volga, and in 1885 152 were built.

Construction and equipment

About 240 pine and 200 spruce logs were needed to build a medium-sized belyana. The flat bottom was made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and the walls were made of

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

. The distance between the frames was not more than half a meter, due to which the strength of the hull was extremely high. The vessels were originally built without a single nail and only later, in the 19th century, did iron nails begin to be used. No tarring was performed, and the logs were simply tied tightly together. Стройка беляны на Милютинском лесозаводе, 1931 год.jpg, Hull planking. The hull is placed on stands, called 'gorodok' (Russian: ), that allow easy access to every part of it. Установка воробов на беляне.jpg, During construction Беляна за Волгой на Милютинском лесозаводе.jpg, Loading, sideview Погрузка беляны на Милютинском лесозаводе.jpg, Loading The load of logs, beams and planks was distributed in even rows with wide openings between them so as to provide quick access to its bottom in the event of a breach or other accident. In addition, properly laid logs dry faster, which protects them from rot. In order to withstand the pressure of the water from the outside, the internal load did not touch the boards, and wedges were driven between it and the boards. As soon as the load began to exceed the height of the board, the next logs were laid so that they protruded outwards and a new load was placed on them. Such protrusions were made bilaterally and very carefully so as not to disturb the balance of the ship. The resulting widenings sometimes protruded beyond the board by four or more meters—the total width of the vessel at the top could be much larger than the bottom. Belyana 20

The deck was also a load, usually of cut boards, and was similar in size to that of a modern aircraft carrier. It had two to four holes for lifting heavy anchors and tightening the ropes holding the rudder. Two cabins were installed near the stern, and served as a balance and as quarters for the crew. A high transverse bridge was built between their roofs with a cabin cut in the middle, where the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

was located. This cabin was usually covered with wood carvings, and sometimes even painted with gold paint. Although the belyanas were functional vessels, they were richly decorated with flags—not only state and commercial, but also the flags of a particular merchant, which most often depicted the blessings of saints or some symbols appropriate to the occasion. Sometimes they were so large that they flew over the ship like sails. There were 15 to 35 sailors on a typical ship, and up to 100 on the largest ones. Most of them worked on the pumps that pumped water from the hull, which tended to flood during the journey. About 10 to 12 pumps were provided, and the ship was loaded so that its bow was immersed in the water deeper than the stern and all the incoming water drained there. Belyana 07.jpg, Hull planking underway Belyana 36.jpg, During construction

Origin and destinations

Wood for the building and loading of belyanas was sourced from the banks of the Volga and Vetluga tributaries: Medyana, Chernaya, Lapshanga, Sentyaga, Janushka, Usta, Bakovka, Belenkaya, and Yaktanga. Wood was gathered in winter; loggers spent the winter in the forest, cutting down the trees and preparing them for a transportation. Loggers lived in zimnitsa (Russian: ), temporary houses in a forest. In spring, logs were delivered to

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

s, where they were processed into marketable condition. When the river had returned to normal after the spring flood and all the logs were ready, construction of belyanas started. Typically, the construction took the entire summer, finishing in autumn. The first step was construction of a hull with fir beams and pine boards. After the core was built, the loading started. A belyana was loaded in a specific order, with the purpose to place as many goods as possible but also to maintain the buoyancy and stability of the vessel. This process was long and required many workers.

Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal ( rus, Влади́мир Ива́нович Даль, p=vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdalʲ; November 22, 1801 – October 4, 1872) was a noted Russian-language lexicographer, polyglot, Turkologist, and founding me ...

in his ''

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language The ''Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language'' (russian: link=no, Толко́вый слова́рь живо́го великору́сского языка́), commonly known as ''Dal's Explanatory Dictionary'' (russian: � ...

'' wrote that in the Russian language there is a saying: “You can disassemble the belyana with your hands and you won't be able to assemble it with the help of an entire city”. In the spring, the floods floated the belyana, and its 2000–to–3500 km trip to the Lower Volga started. Frequent destinations for belyanas were

Saratov Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...

Tsaritsyn Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...

(today's Volgograd), and

, where the timber and hull were dismantled for firewood or went to sawmills for final processing. The boats' cabins were sold as ready-made houses. Belyanas did not go further than Astrakhan on the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

. Only the smallest belyanas, loaded with fish in Astrakhan, went back, pulled upstream by

burlak A burlak ( rus, бурла́к, p=bʊrˈlak) was a towpath puller in Russian Empire. Overview The exact origin of the word is unknown. Different versions include old middle-German ''bûrlach'' (working team with fixed rules, artel), or Tatar ''b ...

s. Maintaining a vessel for more than one season was unprofitable. In particularly active years, up to 60 to 150 belyanas sailed the Volga. The value of a belyana could be between 100,000 and 150,000 rubles (c. 1910). Belyanas flourished in the middle of the 19th century, at the beginning of the massive arrival of

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

s on the rivers. At first, steamboats exclusively burned wood, which had to be brought to the towns of the lower Volga, where the steppe expanses dominated. Up to 500 steamships on the Volga needed large quantities of firewood to propel them.

Floating

The floating of belyana required special skills. There were no sails, and boatmen labor was not used. The pilot, who drove the belyana, had to perfectly know the river and the vessel. For this reason, the pilot was present during the construction phase, as all belyanas were individually built. The control was carried out with a huge rudder placed in the stern, which was rotated by means of a large, long and thick rod, taken out of the stern of the deck. For this reason the vessel moved not with the nose forward, but with the stern, in order to provide an ability to operate with a lot—a round iron casting with the "ear" for tying the rope with—that should always be dragged behind the vessel. To control the rudder, two iron lots, a riskovy (swivel) anchor and parking anchor were used. The right lot was bigger, weighing between 3200 and 4000 kg for large belyanas and 2400 to 3200 for smaller ones, the left lot was smaller, weighing between 2880 and 3200 kg for large and 1600 and 2400 kg for small vessels. The rudder at the vessel can be effective in cases when the ship speed is less than the flow rate or exceeds the latter. To adjust the speed of the ship and maneuver, two lots were lowered into the water from both sides of the vessel. If both lots simultaneously touched the bottom, the motion of the belyana was stopped. If the right lot was lifted off the bottom, the belyana turned left; if the left one was lifted, it turned right. The riskovy anchor was used at very tight turns. In order to maintain the belyana on its way, the vessel was equipped with three special boats, called zavoznya (Russian: ) and four to five boats of various sizes. A zavoznya was a big boat with a carrying capacity of 5–10 tons, used to operate lots and anchors. A belyana should have one nine-meter-long zavoznya and two smaller, seven-meter-long ones. Light boats were used in cases when it was necessary to examine the river bed, go to the shore, etc. Lots were not used before the 1870s, and belyanas were operated by 60–80 rowers; the vessels also had a mast with a big sail. Instead of the lot the big anchor was used for deceleration. Zavoznya with a big riskovy anchor was also used in order to avoid dangerous places. After the lots were invented, masts and sail were no longer erected on the vessels and there were 30 to 40 members of the crew. A crewmember earned 30 to 40 rubles for a passage. The pilot was paid 400 to 600 rubles. Belyana 18.jpg, Belyana with at least 7 spans Belyana 09.jpg, Belyana with 5 spans. The value of this belyana was between 80 and 90 thousand rubles in 1910/1911. Belyana 17.jpg, Belyana with 5 spans Belyana 05.jpg, Decorated belyana with 4 spans

In the Soviet Union

Belyanas were used in the early years of the Soviet Union. They were built at Milutin factory,

Cheboksary Cheboksary (; russian: Чебокса́ры, r=Cheboksáry, p=tɕɪbɐˈksarɨ; cv, Шупашкар, ''Şupaşkar'') is the capital city of Chuvashia, Russia and a port on the Volga River. Geography The city is located in the Volga Upland reg ...

. The last known belyana was built in 1939, though there is anecdotal evidence that two or three belyanas were built after the Second World War and sent to

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

for city rebuilding. Their usage ended because their construction was time-consuming and special skills were needed to float such unique vessels; with the development of the railway system, the cost of transportation by rail became cheaper than by water, so the use of belyanas ended for purely economic reasons.

Archaeological finding

In 2015, tourists found remains of a wooden vessel in a bank of the Vetluga river. It was later determined to be a belyana that had caught fire and been abandoned by its crew. In 2016, archaeologist Yuri Philippov started to work on the site. In 2017, 28 square meters of the site was inspected and the vessel was uncovered. The finding is 80 meters long, 20 meters wide, and approximately 1.5 meters high. It is the only belyana of which remains have been found. Scientists determined the age of the vessel to be approximately 350 years.

In art

* Poet

Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922) was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of th ...

mentioned belyanas in his poems, for example in this unnamed one (1915): : He also wrote in a letter to his friend in 1915, that "it would be great to hold an

Argonaut The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, ''Argo'', ...

trip on a special belyana for a lotus from Perm to Astrakhan". * Science writer

Yakov Perelman Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (russian: Яков Исидорович Перельман; – 16 March 1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books, including ''Physics Can Be Fun'' and ''Mathematics Can B ...

mentioned belyanas in the first edition of his book ''Mechanics for entertainment'' (1930), as an example of how such a big vessel can maneuver using a rudder and a lot, without any engine. * Several artists created pictures of belyanas: File:Gorbatov Belyany.jpg, Belyanas. Painting by Konstantin Gorbatov (1914) File:Kitezh.jpg, Konstantin Gorbatov painted the town of

Kitezh Kitezh (russian: Ки́теж) is a legendary and mythical city beneath the waters of Lake Svetloyar in the Voskresensky District of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in central Russia. Reference to Kitezh appears for the first time in ''Kitezh Chronicle ...

on Belyana (1913) File:Беляна на Волге. 1929 г. х.м. Я. Вебер.jpg, Belyana on Volga, by Y. Weber (1929) File:Д.И.Архангельский. Вид на Симбирск с беляны. 1920ые-1930ые гг.jpg, View over

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), w ...

from Belyana, by D. I. Archangelsky (1920s–1930s)

Footnotes

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

{{World's largest wooden ships Merchant sailing ship types Naval ships of Russia Lumber ships Ship types Disposable products