SS Indigirka

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

History
Name
  • 1919 SS Lake Galva
  • 1920: SS Ripon
  • 1926: SS Malsah
  • 1928: SS Commercial Quaker
  • 1938: SS Indigirka
Owner
Operator1938:
Dalstroi[3]
Port of registry
BuilderManitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Wisconsin[3]
Launched20 December 1919[3]
CompletedMay 1920[3]
Identification
  • Official Number 219702[1]
  • Code Letters LVTM (1928–33)[1]
  • Code Letters KUGM (1934–38)[2]
FateSunk 1939[4]
General characteristics
TypeCargo ship
Tonnage2,689 GRT[3]
Length77.3 m (253 ft 7 in) (pp)[3]
Beam13.3 m (43 ft 8 in)[3]
Propulsion1 x
triple-expansion steam engine[3]
Speed10 knots (19 km/h)[3]
Capacityabout 1,500 prisoners[6]
Crewabout 40[5]

The SS Indigirka (Russian: «Индиги́рка», IPA: [ɪnʲdʲɪˈɡʲirkə]) was an American built steamship that served in the Soviet Gulag system and transported prisoners. Launched in 1919 as SS Lake Galva, it served under the names Ripon, Malsah and Commercial Quaker between 1920 and 1938, when it was renamed Indigirka.[7] On its final voyage in 1939 over 700 prisoners perished.

Pre-Soviet career

The ship was built at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin as one of the Lake series cargo ships. It was launched on 29 December 1919 as Lake Galva and completed in May 1920 as Ripon. It served as an American merchant ship under various owners as SS Ripon (1920–26), SS Malsah (1926–28), and SS Commercial Quaker (1928–38).[7] In 1938 it was sold to the government of the Soviet Union.[3][4]

Prison ship of the Dalstroi

With some modifications the ship was placed in service by the

Dalstroi as the Indigirka (Индиги́рка) – named after the river in Siberia – for the transport of prisoners. With a tonnage of 2,689 and a length 77.3 m it was the smallest ship of the Dalstroi fleet and had a cargo hold of 4,700 m³; Bollinger estimated that it could hold 1,500 captives,[6] while Tzouliades indicates that up to 5,000 prisoners might have been transported.[4] That seems to conflict with evidence that the ship was fully loaded when it departed on its final journey with less than 1,500 crew, passengers and prisoners, forcing Soviet authorities to leave behind many others who were supposed to have made the trip.[citation needed
]

The Indigirka belonged to a fleet of steamships operated by Dalstroi to transport prisoners from

cargo holds where criminals ruled; the guards stayed outside and above and would spray the holds with ice-cold ocean water if things became too unruly. Female prisoners were abused.[4]

Final voyage

On 8 December 1939 the Indigirka left Magadan to return to Vladivostok under Captain Nikolai Lavrentevich Lapshin. It contained 39 crew, 249 fishermen and their families, 50 prisoners under guard, and 835 prisoners with technical skills who had been released to work for the war effort.

Sergey Korolyov's oral statements, he missed the Indigirka convoy and was sent from Kolyma to Vladivostok on the next ship on 23 December.[11]

Captain Lapshin was tried and executed for abandoning the ship; chief of NKVD convoy who locked the prisoners in a sinking ship was sentenced to eight years.[11][10] A cenotaph at Sarufutsu commemorates the tragic end of the Indigirka.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "LLOYD'S REGISTER, STEAMERS & MOTORSHIPS" (PDF). Plimsoll Ship Data. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
  2. ^ "LLOYD'S REGISTER, NAVIRES A VAPEUR ET A MOTEURS" (PDF). Plimsoll Ship Data. Retrieved 1 February 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Ripon/Indigarka (2219702)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59420-168-4
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Rolf Skiold. "Maritime Research of Uddevalla. Timelines 1939–1945". Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2009.
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-275-98100-2
    .
  7. ^ a b Entry in Plimsoll Ship Data
  8. ^ Maritimequest
  9. ^ anonymous (14 December 1939). "700 Believed Dead on Russian Vessel". The New York Times.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0275981002
    .
  11. ^ a b Yaroslav Golovanov (1994). Korolyov (in Russian)., chapter 32
  12. ^ Monument to the victims of the Indigirka at Sarufutsu

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