''Politkofsky'' was a small Russian-built
Imperial Russian Navy sidewheel gunboat that patrolled the
Alaskan Panhandle in the 1860s.
''Politkofsky'' was built of
yellow cedar in
Russian America at New Archangel (now
Sitka,
Alaska), in the 1850s and was in length and of 152 tons
displacement. She had early copper
boilers and a
crosshead
In mechanical engineering, a crosshead is a mechanical joint used as part of the slider-crank linkages of long reciprocating engines (either internal combustion or steam) and reciprocating compressors to eliminate sideways force on the piston. ...
steam engine
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 trans ...
taken from the Imperial Russian Navy ship ''Imperator Nikolai I''. When
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Poland and Gra ...
sold Russian Alaska to the
United States in 1867, ''Politkofsky'' was included in the deal. The gunboat was then sold into civilian service as a
tugboat.
As the tug ''Polly'', the ship worked along the northwest coast of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. During the
Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, she operated on the
Yukon River, where she sank in 1906.
Maritime incidents in 1906
Ships built in Russia
Tugboats of the United States
Victorian-era gunboats
Naval ships of Russia
1850s ships
Shipwrecks in rivers
Shipwrecks of the Alaska coast
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