In the northern part of Winnipeg on the Red River is an antiquated railroad swing bridge. Out of service for decades, the bridge is still an amazing piece of history and engineering. When the boats were coming, someone would have to scurry to the middle of the bridge and hit the swing switch. Some type of motor would start the machinery causing the middle section to swivel. Hopefully no trains coming.
The NS Yamal is a Russian Arktika class nuclear-powered icebreaker operated by Atomflot (formerly by the Murmansk Shipping Company). It is named after the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Siberia; the name means End of the Land in Nenets.
Laid down in Leningrad in 1986, and launched in October 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, it never filled its designed role of keeping shipping lanes open. It has always carried passengers on arctic excursions. In July of 1994 Yamal took an excursion to the North Pole, with the NSF (National Science Foundation), to celebrate the Official Maiden Voyage. While at the exact north pole (verified by GPS & Inmarsat satellite coordinates) the crew and passengers celebrated with a barbeque – the ambient temperature was -10 degrees F (wind gusts were measured at -40 degrees F). Because of the ship 90/90 coordinates the ship captain (Smirnov) organized a swimming party with Mr. Will Rountree (USA) being recorded as the 1st person to ever swim there (21 Jul 94) – water temperature was below freezing, ranging from 28 degrees to 31 degrees F. The Yamal is the 12th surface ship ever to reach the north pole.
The Yamal is equipped with a double hull. The outer hull is 48 mm thick where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere and has a polymer coating to reduce friction. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted in order to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. The Yamal can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards.
Yamal is one of the Russian “Arktika” family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise in cold water to cool their reactors, so they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.
Yamal docked in Murmansk
Yamal carries one helicopter and several Zodiac boats. Radio and satellite communications systems are installed which can provide navigation, telephone, fax, and email services. Amenities include a large dining room (capable of holding all 100 passengers in one sitting), a library, passenger lounge, auditorium, volleyball court, gymnasium, heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and an infirmary. She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.
Yamal also played a significant role in creation of annual travel expeditions to the North Pole, being one of the few vessels capable of getting there and bringing tourists with it in safety. Since 1993 the icebreaker was operated by Murmansk Shipping Company and in 2001-2008 the operation was made by Murmansk Shipping Company and Poseidon Expeditions. Yamal has made a total of 47 voyages to the North Pole.
Sister ship 50 Let Pobedy, biggest icebreaker in the world
| General characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | Arktika-class icebreaker |
| Displacement: | 23,455 tons |
| Length: | 150 m (490 ft); 136 m (446 ft) at waterline |
| Beam: | 30 m (98 ft); 28 m (92 ft) at waterline |
| Height: | 55 m (180 ft) keel to mast head |
| Draft: | 11.08 m (36.4 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 x OK-900 171 MW nuclear reactors; 2 x steam turbines driving 6 generators, total 75,000 hp (55.3 MW) |
| Speed: | 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) (max) 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) (cruising) |
| Boats and landing craft carried: | Zodiac boats |
| Capacity: | Passengers: 100, in 50 cabins and mini-suites |
| Complement: | 150 |
| Aircraft carried: | 1 x Mil Mi-2 or Mil Mi-8 helicopter |
An orc in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls “goblin”.
Especially in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. They are a corrupted race of elves, either bred that way by the Dark Lord Morgoth, or turned savage in that manner, according to the Silmarillion.
Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size. They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed. Most are small and avoid daylight.
By the Third Age, a new breed of orc had emerged, the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful, and no longer afraid of daylight. Orcs eat meat, including the flesh of Men, and may indulge in cannibalism: in The Two Towers, Grishnákh, an orc from Mordor, claims that the Isengard orcs eat orc-flesh. Whether that is true or spoken in malice is uncertain: an orc flings Peregrin Took stale bread and a “strip of raw dried flesh… the flesh of he dared not guess what creature”.
This blog will be coming to an end soon. I have a new blog: markosolaris.blogspot.com. Thanks to everyone for checking in.
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