''Silatch'' was a small

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

n and later

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...

. She was captured by

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in the aftermath of the

Finnish Civil War The Finnish Civil War; . Other designations: Brethren War, Citizen War, Class War, Freedom War, Red Rebellion and Revolution, . According to 1,005 interviews done by the newspaper ''Aamulehti'', the most popular names were as follows: Civil W ...

in 1918 and renamed ''Ilmarinen'' until returned to the Soviet Union in 1922. She was decommissioned in the 1950s.

History

''Silatch'' (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

for "strong man") was built in 1910 by W. Crichton shipyard in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia. She was taken over by

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

in 1917 during the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, but retained her original name. On 4 May 1918, in the aftermath of the

, ''Silatch'' arrived secretly in

Kotka Kotka (; ; la, Aquilopolis) is a city in the southern part of the Kymenlaakso province on the Gulf of Finland. Kotka is a major port and industrial city and also a diverse school and cultural city, which was formerly part of the old Kymi parish. ...

, Finland, to evacuate remaining members of the Finnish Red Guard. However, she was confiscated by the Finns and joined the Finnish icebreaker fleet as ''Ilmarinen'', after the legendary hero from

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and r ...

. In December 1919 she was sent to Koivisto to assist three Finnish torpedo boats, ''C1'', ''C2'' and ''C3'' that had been surrounded by ice some thick. The 150-ton torpedo boats had participated in the British campaign in the Baltic, and Admiral

Walter Cowan Admiral Sir Walter Henry Cowan, 1st Baronet, (11 June 1871 – 14 February 1956), known as Tich Cowan, was a Royal Navy officer who saw service in both the First and Second World Wars; in the latter he was one of the oldest British servicemen o ...

had demanded that the Finnish squadron patrolling the area had to stay until the British forces had withdrawn. Despite the efforts of ''Ilmarinen'', the weak-hulled torpedo boats were crushed by the ice, and the newly founded

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( fi, Merivoimat, sv, Marinen) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for ...

lost one fifth of its ships. After the winter of 1919 ''Ilmarinen'' was laid up until she was returned to the Soviet Union according to the Treaty of Tartu. In turn the Soviets gave back the Finnish icebreaker ''Avance''. The name ''Ilmarinen'' was later given to a Finnish coastal defence ship launched in 1931. After rejoining the Soviet Union, the ship was given back her original name, ''Silatch'', and was again stationed in her former home port, Petrograd, which was renamed Leningrad in 1924. She worked in the

Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for "crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of ...

port until 1941. At the beginning of the

Soviet-German war The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

, the ship was docked in Liepāja port under maintenance. She was exploded by her crew on 27 June 1941. The Germans had repaired and commissioned her as ''Nordlicht'' ("northern lights"), but the ship was sunken by a Soviet air strike. After the war, she was salvaged by the Soviets and repaired. The icebreaker ''Silatch'' worked for the

Baltic Sea Shipping Company The Baltic Sea Shipping Company or B.S.S.C (russian: ОАО Балтийское морское пароходство, БМП) is a Russian sea transport engaged in the business of oil products storage via rail wagons within Russian link-able term ...

and was decommissioned in the end of 1950s.Андриенко, В. Г. ''Ледокольный флот России, 1860-е — 1918 гг.'
§ 5.3. Портовые ледоколы
''(in Russian)''

Technical details

The 910-ton ''Silatch'' was long, wide and had a draft of . She was powered by a single

triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

producing and propelled by a four-bladed propeller in the stern. In Finnish service she had a crew of 32–33, of which 8 or 9 were officers. In terms of size and design she was comparable to the Finnish icebreakers ''Murtaja'' and ''Apu''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silatch 1910 ships Ships built in Saint Petersburg Icebreakers of Finland Icebreakers of Russia Icebreakers of the Soviet Union Captured ships