Sampo (1898 icebreaker)
sea trials on 23 October 1898.
| |
History | |
---|---|
Finland | |
Name | Sampo |
Namesake | Magical artifact from the Finnish mythology |
Owner | Finnish Board of Navigation[1] |
Port of registry | Helsinki[1] |
Ordered | 6 June 1897[3] |
Builder | Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom[3] |
Cost | |
Yard number | 679 |
Launched | 21 April 1898 |
Completed | 25 October 1898[2] |
Commissioned | 15 November 1898[4] |
Decommissioned | 9 May 1960[5] |
In service | 1898–1960[6] |
Fate | Broken up in 1960 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Icebreaker |
Tonnage | |
Displacement | 2,050 tons |
Length | |
Beam |
|
Draught | 5.6 m (18.4 ft) |
Boilers: | Five coal-fired boilers |
Engines: | Two triple-expansion steam engines, 1,200 ihp (890 kW) (bow) and 1,400 ihp (1,000 kW) (stern) |
Propulsion | Bow and stern propellers |
Sail plan | Equipped with sails |
Speed | 12.4 knots (23.0 km/h; 14.3 mph) in open water[2] |
Crew | Initially 36,[4] later 43 |
Armament | Armed during the Winter War with 120 mm 50 caliber Pattern 1905 guns.[7] |
Sampo was a Finnish state-owned steam-powered icebreaker. Built in 1898 by Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom and named after a magical artifact from the Finnish mythology, she was the second state-owned icebreaker of Finland and the first European icebreaker equipped with a bow propeller. When Sampo was decommissioned and broken up in 1960, she was also the second last steam-powered icebreaker in the Finnish icebreaker fleet.
Development and construction
Prior to building Sampo, Finland had only one state-owned icebreaker,
In the 1890s the Senate sent two engineers and Leonard Melán, who later became the captain of Sampo, to investigate a new icebreaker design that had been developed in the United States in the 1880s and find out its icebreaking capability. Unlike the European icebreakers, the 1888-built train ferry St Ignace had two propellers, one at both end of the ship. Convinced about the superiority of the new design, the winter navigation committee recommended that the new icebreaker should be of the so-called "American type".[10]
In February 1897 the Senate sent a
While the initial delivery date was 18 January 1898, Sampo was not delivered until October of the same year due to problems with material deliveries and strikes among the shipyard's workers. She was launched in the spring of 1898 and left for the first sea trials on 23 August. However, the bow propeller shaft seized shortly after leaving the dock and the icebreaker returned to the shipyard. The coal consumption was also 11% greater than what was specified in the contract, but instead of making changes the heating system the shipyard reduced the price by £700. The second sea trial on 21 September was successful and Sampo left for Finland on 25 October 1898 and arrived to Helsinki four days later.[2]
Career
Early career
Sampo was officially commissioned on 15 November 1898 and began assisting ships outside the port of Hanko while the smaller Murtaja was stationed closer to the harbour. From the first day on the new icebreaker, capable of breaking through ridges up to six metres thick by ramming, performed beyond expectations and was generally deemed the best icebreaker in Europe at that time. On 9 March 1899, her performance was demonstrated to the director of the Finnish Pilot and Lighthouse Authority when both state-owned icebreakers headed to the sea, Murtaja running in a previously opened channel and Sampo alongside in unbroken ice. However, on the way back to the port Sampo, followed by Murtaja, encountered a thick ice ridge and came to a halt. The smaller icebreaker could not stop in time and collided with Sampo, causing damage to her stern structures but fortunately no injuries to the passengers. Sampo ended her first winter season on 16 May 1899, during which she had assisted 128 ships.[4]
The first decade of Sampo passed without major incidents. In 1907, another icebreaker with a bow propeller, Tarmo, was ordered from the builders of Sampo.[11]
First World War
In August 1914
On 6 December 1917 the Parliament of Finland accepted the declaration of independence given by the Senate and on 29 December the icebreakers Murtaja and Sampo raised the state flag of the independent Finland for the first time.[13] However, already in early January 1918 the ship was seized by the Russian revolutionary fleet and ordered to assist the Russian troops stationed in Finland. The White Guards in Korpo and Nagu attempted to retake Sampo later in January but failed.[14]
Finnish Civil War
On 27 January 1918 the
Sampo had a significant impact on the outcome of the Civil War when it assisted three convoys to the White-controlled ports in northern Finland. The ships brought more than a thousand
On 4 April, while heading out from the port of Hanko with German warships, the convoy led by Sampo encountered another Finnish icebreaker, Murtaja, coming from
Sampo arrived to Helsinki for the summer on 12 May 1918, three days before the Civil War ended to decisive White victory.[15]
Interwar period
While Sampo had not been damaged in the war, she was docked at the Hietalahti shipyard for extensive maintenance and repairs — when she left to the port of Hanko in mid-February 1919, 69 bottom plates had been replaced.[16] In December 1922 Sampo struck a rock in the port of Loviisa and her bow propeller shaft was damaged, but there was no time for repairs and for the rest of the season she had to assist ships to the port of Helsinki without her bow propeller.[17] Another incident occurred on 24 March 1926 when the bow propeller of Sampo hit a stone bank in the port of Helsinki, came loose and dropped to the bottom. It was found after searching for a couple of days and winched on board. On 30 March, while Sampo was assisting a Finnish steamship Albert Kasimir, the stern propeller shaft snapped when the engine was reversed and the propeller dropped to the bottom. While the icebreaker still had its bow propeller, it was of no use as it was waiting for installation on the foredeck. Murtaja towed the immobilized icebreaker to Hanko on the following day and to Helsinki for repairs on 20 April.[18]
Between 1919 and 1922 Sampo assisted 636 ships, more than any other Finnish icebreaker during that time.
Winter War
Due to the worsening relations with the Soviet Union, Sampo and other state-owned icebreakers were armed and assigned to a wartime icebreaker fleet shortly before the Winter War began on 30 November 1939. The Finnish icebreakers had been equipped with gun mounts already in the 1920s and were armed with light artillery. However, a bit over month into the war Sampo ran hard aground and was out of service for more than a year.[21]
On 6 January 1940 Sampo was assisting a convoy of three merchant ships towards Pori in difficult conditions — the temperature was nearly −30 °C (−22 °F) and fog reduced the visibility to zero. The icebreaker was proceeding in light ice conditions at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) when she collided with an underwater obstacle and suddenly stopped, throwing the helmsman through the wheelhouse windows and damaging the ship's radio antennas. The collision had damaged the forward steam engine and propeller shaft, and Sampo was resting high on the rocks with the bow propeller above the water.[22]
The first rescue attempts were made on the following day when two tugboats tried to turn the stern of Sampo towards open water together with the icebreaker's own engine and rudder. However, the task was deemed impossible and the tugboats evacuated the pilot and the women working in the icebreaker's kitchen to Mäntyluoto. On 8 January Sampo was further damaged when the wind pushed a large ice floe against the side of the icebreaker and the waves began pounding her hull against the rocks. Both engine rooms flooded and the pumps stopped. In the following night Sampo slowly settled in the bottom, listing the partially submerged icebreaker approximately 20 degrees starboard. The remaining crew members were evacuated in heavy weather and freezing temperatures on the following day. The salvaging Sampo was awarded to the Finnish salvage company Neptun Oy, but the task was deemed impossible in the presence of ice.[22]
While waiting for the spring thaw, Sampo was camouflaged with tree branches to resemble a small island. This was not very successful, because during the last weeks of the Winter War the Soviet bombers made several attempts to destroy the ship. However, despite dropping at least 250 bombs on the grounded icebreaker the enemy pilots never scored a hit.[22]
The Winter War ended on 13 March 1940 with Sampo still grounded outside Pori.[23]
Interim peace
Neptun began salvaging the grounded Sampo in May 1940 by emptying the coal storages and melting the ice masses inside the vessel with steam. The icebreaker was towed to
The Second World War
Continuation War
When the Continuation War began on 25 June 1941, the Finnish icebreakers were re-armed and their anti-aircraft armament was improved. The winter of 1942 was the worst since the 1740s and Sampo was sent to assist ships stuck in ice all the way to the Gulf of Riga. The following winters were much milder and Sampo survived the war without major incidents.[24]
In 1946, after the war had ended to the
Post-war years
After the newest and most powerful state-owned icebreakers,
Once the war reparations to the Soviet Union had been paid in 1952, Finland started renewing its icebreaker fleet. The first state-owned icebreaker built after the Second World War, diesel-electric Voima, was delivered in 1954 as a replacement for Jääkarhu.[29] During the winter of 1956, the coldest of the decade, the new icebreaker assisted, among other ships, the old steam-powered icebreakers — Sampo had even ran out of coal while attempting to free herself after having been immobilized by the severe ice conditions.[30]
Decommissioning
When the harsh winters of the 1950s showed that more modern icebreakers were needed, a series of slightly smaller diesel-electric icebreakers were built for operations within the archipelago. Karhu replaced Murtaja in 1958, the new Murtaja replaced Apu in 1959 and the new diesel-electric Sampo replaced the old steam-powered one in 1960.[31]
One of the last tasks of the old icebreaker was to tow the recently decommissioned
While initially there were talks about saving Sampo and turning her into a
Technical details
Sampo was 61.40 metres (201.44 ft)
The hull of Sampo was built of Siemens-Martin steel and divided into watertight compartments by eight transverse bulkheads. The bow was reinforced with a wide ice belt up to one inch (2.5 cm) thick and all steel structures were dimensioned beyond Lloyd's Register requirements.[3] The angle of the stem, the first part of the icebreaker to encounter ice and bend it under the weight of the ship, was 24 degrees.[6] Other innovative features included propeller blades that could be replaced underwater by the icebreaker's divers.
Sampo was powered by two
Sampo was equipped for escort icebreaker duties with a towing winch, a cable and a stern notch. In difficult ice conditions the ship being assisted was taken into tow, and in extremely difficult compressive ice it was pulled to the icebreaker's stern notch.[35] For salvage operations Sampo had a powerful centrifugal pump capable of pumping 700 tons of water per hour.[3]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Lloyd's Register of Ships, 1930-1931.
- ^ a b c d e Laurell 1992, p. 60-61.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Laurell 1992, p. 58-59.
- ^ a b c Laurell 1992, p. 64-65.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 334.
- ^ a b c d e f Laurell 1992, p. 344.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 259.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 30.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 44.
- ^ a b c Laurell 1992, p. 52-56.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 72-73.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 91-93.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 99.
- ^ a b Laurell 1991, p. 100-101.
- ^ a b c d Laurell 1992, p. 103-107.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 121-122.
- ^ a b Laurell 1992, p. 131-132.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 156-157.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 158-159.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 176.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 259-260.
- ^ a b c Laurell 1992, p. 263-265
- ^ a b Laurell 1992, p. 277.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 282-291.
- ^ Kaukiainen 1992, p. 226.
- ^ Kaukiainen 1992, p. 165.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 304.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 315.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 318.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 320, 330
- ^ a b c Laurell 1992, p. 330-335.
- ^ Sipilä, P. Romutuksia ja uudisrakenteita Teijon telakalla. Laiva 1/2001.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 291.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 77.
- ^ Laurell 1992, p. 198-200.
References
Kaukiainen, Yrjö (1992). Navigare Necesse - Merenkulkulaitos 1917–1992. Jyväskylä: Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy.
Laurell, Seppo (1992). Höyrymurtajien aika. Jyväskylä: Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy.