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''Suur Tõll'' is an
Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
n
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 ...
preserved in the Estonian Maritime Museum in
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
. She was originally built for the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
in 1914 by AG Vulcan in
Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, as ''Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich''. In 1917, she was taken over by the
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s and renamed ''Volynets''. However, in 1918 she was captured by
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
and served as until 1922, when she was handed over to Estonia according to the Treaty of Tartu and renamed ''Suur Tõll''. When Estonia was occupied by the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1940, the icebreaker rejoined the Soviet fleet and was again named ''Volynets''. She remained in service until 1985. The Soviet Navy decided to sell the decommissioned icebreaker for scrap, and she was purchased by the Estonian Maritime Museum in 1987. The ship was given back her original Estonian name and was extensively renovated; ''Suur Tõll'', the largest preserved pre-war icebreaker in the world, is currently
moored A mooring is any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel (such as a boat, ship, or amphibious aircraft) may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to f ...
at Lennusadam, the historical seaplane harbour in Tallinn.


History


Early career (1914–1918)

In 1912, the Imperial Russian government organized a
request for tender An invitation to tender (ITT, also known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business activ ...
for the construction of a large steam-powered icebreaker designed specifically for the ice conditions of the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
. The shipbuilding contract was awarded to the German shipyard Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan and the vessel, christened ''Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich'' (''Царь Михаилъ Ѳеодоровичъ'') after
Michael of Russia Michael I (; ) was Tsar of all Russia from 1613 after being elected by the Zemsky Sobor of 1613 until his death in 1645. He was elected by the Zemsky Sobor and was the first tsar of the House of Romanov, which succeeded the House of Rur ...
, was ready for launching on 26 December 1913. In the following spring, the new icebreaker carried out sea trials off the coast of Finland. ''Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich'' was presented to the general public in
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
on 26 May and on the following day she was officially handed over to Russia.Satavuotias Suur Tõll on kokoluokassaan maailman vanhin jäänmurtaja. Laiva 3/2014. In 1915, two armed icebreakers of similar design, ''Knyaz Pojarskiy'' and ''Kozma Minin'', were constructed in
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.Laurell 1992, pp. 356–360.Steamer-icebreaker Suur Tõll
Estonian Maritime Museum.
''Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich'' arrived to her homeport, Tallinn, on 2 July 1914. When Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
began, the icebreaker was armed and 96 soldiers were stationed on her. During the war, the icebreaker operated in the Gulf of Finland, where she carried troops and material, and escorted transportation vessels between Tallinn and Helsinki. In 1916, she was drydocked in
Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...
. On 12 March 1917, the Volhynian Guard Regiment from
Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
mutinied against their Tsarist officers and joined the revolutionary Bolsheviks. Followning the
February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...
, ''Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich'' was renamed ''Volynets'' to honor the regiment on 15 May 1917. During the winter of 1918, ''Volynets'' assisted the retreating
Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...
— the
Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet The Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet () was an operation which transferred the ships of the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy from their bases at Tallinn, at the time known as Reval (), and Helsinki to Kronstadt in 1918. Operation On 1 ...
— together with another large Russian icebreaker, ''Yermak''.


''Wäinämöinen'' (1918–1922)

After the failed attempt to capture the small Finnish icebreaker ''Avance'' from the Russian revolutionaries in March 1918, Finnish captain Theodor Segersven and his men shifted their focus to the much larger ''Volynets''. On 29 March 1918, 53 men dressed as workers boarded the icebreaker and Segersven presented a forged written order for the ship's political commissar claiming that he and his men were to be transported to Kuivasaari for construction work. When the icebreaker passed the lighthouse of
Harmaja Harmaja () is an island and a lighthouse outside Helsinki, south of the Suomenlinna sea fortress. The island has been functioning as a landmark since the 16th century. A landmark structure was built on the island in the 18th century and a light ...
, the men broke into the ship's weapons storage and shortly afterwards the Russian crew of 116, half of them armed guards, had been taken into custody. In the evening ''Volynets'', flying the Finnish flag under the command of Segersven, arrived in Tallinn, where she was welcomed by a group of high-ranking German officers, including Prince Henry of Prussia. On 28 April 1918 the captured icebreaker was renamed ''Wäinämöinen'' after the legendary Finnish hero. This caused some discontent with the crew who had held a naming contest while the icebreaker was moored in Tallinn and chosen the name ''Leijona'' after the Lion of Finland.Laurell 1992, pp. 113–118. Shortly after the capture ''Wäinämöinen'' was used to transport 3,000 German soldiers — Detachment Brandenstein — to
Loviisa Loviisa (; ; formerly Degerby) is a town in Finland, located on the southern coast of the country. Loviisa is situated in the eastern part of the Uusimaa region. The population of Loviisa is approximately , while the Loviisa sub-region, sub-regi ...
together with ''Tarmo'', another Finnish icebreaker. The Germans supplied her with coal and provisions and she spent most of the spring assisting German ships between Helsinki and Tallinn. On 3 June 1918 ''Wäinämöinen'' was officially handed over to the and became the largest and most powerful icebreaker in the Finnish state-owned fleet. Captain Segersven was replaced by Polish-Estonian Stanislaus Juhnewicz, the ship's original captain who had joined forces with the Finns during the capture after having been promised a government post by Gustaf Wrede, the director of the Board of Navigation. Although ''Wäinämöinen'' was an invaluable addition to the Finnish icebreaker fleet, she was not used as extensively as the smaller state-owned icebreakers due to her high fuel consumption and the shortage of coal shortly after the war. In addition to icebreaker duties she was used to transport volunteers across the Gulf of Finland to participate in the
Estonian War of Independence The Estonian War of Independence, also known as the War of Freedom in Estonia, was a defensive campaign of the Estonian Army and its allies, most notably the United Kingdom, against the Soviet Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 and the ...
.Laurell 1992, p. 123. In September 1919 she was drydocked in
Suomenlinna Suomenlinna (), or Sveaborg (), is a sea fortress composed of eight islands, of which six have been fortified. Located about 4 km southeast of the city center of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, Suomenlinna is a popular destination for bot ...
, but while the repair work was completed in late October, she could not leave the shipyard until 24 November due to her deep draft and the particularly low sea level.Laurell 1992, pp. 124–126. During the particularly harsh winter of 1922 she assisted 170 ships to and from the Finnish ports. Her last task under the Finnish flag was to open the South Harbour in Helsinki on 16 April 1922.Laurell 1992, pp. 130–131. During her years under the Finnish flag ''Wäinämöinen'' demonstrated the advantages of a large icebreaker and that such vessel was definitely needed in Finland. As a result, the Finnish Board of Navigation decided to order a large icebreaker based on her basic design and the experiences gained during her operation. The new icebreaker, ''Jääkarhu'', was delivered in 1926.Kaukiainen 1992, p. 108–110.


''Suur Tõll'' (1922–1940)

When Finland signed the Treaty of Tartu on 14 October 1920, it had agreed to return the Russian icebreakers seized by the Finnish White Guard during the Civil War. However, instead of the Soviet Union ''Wäinämöinen'' was handed over to Estonia on 20 November 1922 and renamed ''Suur Tõll'' after Toell the Great, a great giant from the
Estonian mythology Estonian mythology is a complex of myths belonging to the Estonian folk heritage and literary mythology. Information about the pre-Christian and medieval Estonian mythology is scattered in historical chronicles, travellers' accounts and in eccle ...
. During the era of Estonian independence in the 1920s and 1930s, she assisted ships mainly outside Tallinn in the southern Gulf of Finland, but sometimes sailed as far south as the coast of
Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
. Her last winter in 1940 was so difficult that ''Suur Tõll'' had to escort ships all the way from
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
and Danzig to Tallinn. In the 1920s, Estonia did not possess a dry dock large enough to accommodate the 3,619-ton ''Suur Tõll'' and as a result the icebreaker was drydocked in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, in 1923. As a response, the Tallinn-based Riigi Laevatehased combined their 2,000-ton and 3,000-ton floating docks with pontoons. In 1927, the shipyard replaced ''Suur Tõll''s old boilers with new ones purchased from Vulcan and heightened the bridge by one deck to improve visibility over the bow.


''Volynets'' (1940–1987)

When the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in June 1940, ''Suur Tõll'' was transferred to the Soviet fleet. On 27–29 August 1941, she participated in the evacuation of Tallinn, joining the convoy led by Soviet cruiser ''Kirov'' while carrying 980 passengers and hundreds of tons of military supplies. Although the convoy suffered heavy losses — over half of the 67 civilian ships were destroyed and around 6,000 people died — ''Volynets'', steaming in front of ''Kirov'', managed to evade the bombs dropped at it and arrived in Kronstadt unharmed. However, on 11 September the icebreaker was hit by three
incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weaponry. Incendiarie ...
s which caused minor damage to the vessel. Following a secret decision to scuttle all vessels in the port of Leningrad to prevent capture, depth charges and other explosives were placed in the engine rooms and boiler rooms. However, these were later removed when the icebreaker was pressed into naval service. On 4 October 1941, ''Suur Tõll'' was transferred to the
Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...
and armed with four 45mm anti-aircraft guns. Two weeks later, her Estonian crew was replaced by Soviet Navy sailors and on 11 November she was given back her old name, ''Volynets''. However, it was not until 25 January 1942 that she raised the naval ensign. At the same time, her armament was increased with two 76mm anti-aircraft guns and later she received two more guns of the same type. During the
Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...
and the resulting shortage of coal, ''Volynets'' mostly remained in the port as a stationary anti-aircraft battery. She had also struck naval mines twice, first on 24 November 1942 when three small mines caused minor damage to her bow and then again in January 1945. After the war, ''Volynets'' was used for towing captured vessels from Germany and Poland to shipyards in Leningrad. Still flying the naval ensign, she was transferred to the auxiliary fleet on 29 April 1948 and stationed in the Western Gulf of Finland. In 1951–1952, ''Volynets'' was extensively refitted at
Rauma-Repola Metso Corporation (natively ) was a Finnish industrial machinery company focusing on providing technology and services for mining, and aggregates industries. On 30 June 2020, Metso's partial demerger and combination of Metso Minerals business ...
shipyard in Rauma as part of the Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union. The refit included replacing her old coal-fired boilers with new Swedish-built oil-fired boilers and almost complete rebuilding of her superstructure. In 1957, ''Volynets'' was transferred to Kronstadt where she remained for the remainder of her active career. Equipped with large pumps and extensive fire-fighting outfit, the old icebreaker was stationed at the shipyard where the Red Fleet demolished its old warships. In 1966, two ships once named after the hero of the Finnish national epic
Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...
met for the last time when ''Vyborg'', the former Finnish coastal defence ship ''Väinämöinen'' that had been handed over to the Soviet Union as part of the war reparations, was broken up at the naval scrapyard. While the scrapping of the obsolete steam-powered icebreaker was planned already in 1967, ''Volynets'' remained in service until 1985. In the following year, she was used to supply steam during the construction of the naval port in Primorsk, but was afterwards returned to Lomonosov. She was finally slated for demolition in late 1987.


Return to Estonia (1987–)

When Ants Pärna, the director of the Estonian Maritime Museum, found out that ''Volynets'' was going to be scrapped, he decided to purchase the icebreaker for the museum in order to preserve it. After a long negotiation, the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy agreed to trade the ship for 300 tons of scrap iron.Laurell 1992, p. 360. On 10 October 1988, a delegation from the Estonian Maritime Museum arrived at Lomonosov to inspect the old icebreaker. When the seagoing tugboat ''Tjulen'' began towing her towards Tallinn in the following evening, the other ships in the port saluted the old icebreaker with their horns. 31 hours later, on 13 October 1988, ''Volynets'' dropped her anchor outside the port of Tallinn. On 21 November 1988, the icebreaker was given back her old name, ''Suur Tõll''. On 24 August 1991, four days after Estonia regained full independence, she raised the blue-black-white flag of Estonia for the first time and on 23 December she became the first ship to be added to the newly founded Estonian Ship Register with register number 001. She was opened to the general public on 2 December 1994. The restoration of ''Suur Tõll'' has been an enormous task which has included cleaning garbage accumulated in the ship over the years and finding the missing fittings, including the helm that had been swapped to a steering wheel of a truck during the night before the departure and the large bronze bell of the icebreaker which was found in a military museum in Leningrad. However, not everything had been stolen — for example, the old German piano was still in the saloon because it was too big to be transported away. While the original piano was destroyed in the First World War, the current musical instrument is from the same manufacturer and dates back to the early 20th century. Despite the limited funding and materials, ''Suur Tõll'' was largely restored during the 1990s. In 1997, it was found out that the
rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...
s under the waterline were leaking water and the icebreaker was drydocked at Balti Laevaremonditehas for the first time since 1986. However, over the years the hull of the old icebreaker had deteriorated even further, flooding the tanks with a mixture of water and black oil. In 2011, the Estonian Maritime Administration requested the Estonian Maritime Museum to draw up a restoration plan to save the vessel. In September 2013, ''Suur Tõll'' was closed for renovations which included extensive repairs to the hull in a dry dock. While the icebreaker retained her 1950s post-refit outfit, the saloon was restored to its original 1910s
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
style. She was re-opened to visitors in 2014.Aurik-jäämurdja Suur Tõll on viimast kuud külastajatele avatud
eestielu.ee, 8 August 2013.
In the 1990s, ''Suur Tõll'' visited Finland twice. In 1993, she was towed to
Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...
to participate the annual maritime festival (Kotkan Meripäivät). During the spring of 1998, the Estonian diesel-electric icebreaker ''Tarmo'' towed her to Helsinki for a couple of days to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the independent Estonia as well as capturing of the two steam-powered icebreakers, the other being the 1907-built ''Tarmo'' which has been preserved as a museum ship in Finland. While ''Suur Tõll'' has not moved under her own power since 1994, the Estonian Maritime Museum intends to return her boilers and steam engines to operational status. ''Suur Tõll'' is the largest preserved pre-war steam-powered icebreaker in the world, bigger than both the Finnish ''Tarmo'' and the Swedish ''Sankt Erik''. Although the Russian icebreaker ''Krasin'', built in 1917, is considerably larger than ''Suur Tõll'', she was extensively modernized in the 1950s and retains hardly any resemblance to the other icebreakers of the time.


Technical details

''Suur Tõll'' is long and has a beam of , and at a draft of her displacement is 3,619 tons. Her hull, strengthened by a cast iron stem and a large number of longitudinal and transverse bulkheads, is surrounded by an ice belt with a width of and thickness of one inch (). To assist icebreaking in difficult conditions she is also equipped with heeling tanks and pumps capable of transferring 570 tons of water from one side to another in ten minutes, listing the ship by 10 degrees. Furthermore, her trim could be adjusted by a forepeak tank with a capacity of 600 tons of water. All tanks were connected to an electrical control and indication system. Powered by three 2,300 ihp triple-expansion steam engines, two driving four-bladed propellers in the stern and one powering a third propeller in the bow, ''Suur Tõll'' was one of the most powerful icebreakers in the Gulf of Finland. All moving parts had been dimensioned 35% stronger than in other ships of similar power. She had six coal-fired boilers equipped with mechanical ventilation, burning 3.5 tons of coal per hour in normal operation and four tons during ramming. Her fuel stores could hold 700 tons of coal, almost as much as the cargo capacity of a small cargo ship of the time. When ''Suur Tõll'' was delivered in 1914, she was one of the most modern icebreakers in the world. Extensively electrified, she had electrical lighting and her
anchor windlass A windlass is a machine used on ships that is used to let-out and heave-up equipment such as a ship's anchor or a fishing trawl. On some ships, it may be located in a specific room called the windlass room. An anchor windlass is a machine tha ...
, winches and two coal cranes were all powered by electricity to avoid having easily freezing steam pipes on the deck. Furthermore, she had an electrical salvage pump that could be transported to a grounded ship in a boat or on a sledge over ice without bringing the icebreaker too close to the shallow waters. When delivered, her radio station had a range of , but it was later increased to .


See also

*
Barcelona Charter The Barcelona Charter, in full the European Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Traditional Ships in Operation is an informal but widely accepted standard for maintenance and restoration projects on historic watercraft that are still ...


References


Bibliography

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suur Toll (1914) 1914 ships Captured ships Icebreakers of Estonia Icebreakers of Finland Icebreakers of Russia Icebreakers of the Soviet Union Museum ships in Estonia Ships built in Stettin