ROMBACKSKY (RYMBAH, ROMBAK) LIGHTHOUSE

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

It is installed on the southern elevated part of the South (Bolshoy) Rombak island, lying on the northern side of the fairway leading to the port of Kem, located on the shore of the bay of the same name in Onega Bay. The island, about 500 m long and about 250 m wide, is rocky and covered with a layer of peat and tundra vegetation. Its banks are steep and bordered by dry land.

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The port of Kem, the approaches to which are protected by a lighthouse, is one of the oldest on the White Sea. Even before the Novgorodians arrived in these lands, there was a Finnish village at the mouth of the Kem, whose inhabitants lived mainly in fishing. In the 15th century, the Solovetsky chronicler calls Kem a volost belonging to the mayor Marfa Boretskaya. In 1579 and 1590, the Kem volost was plundered and burned by the Swedes, who were raiding our Pomerania at that time. In 1593, to protect against raids, a fortress with towers in the corners and loopholes in two rows was built on JIen Island. The Solovetsky Monastery supplied her with twelve cannons and many arquebuses.

In 1715, Kem was transformed into a district town. It was opened by G.R. Derzhavin, who was then the Olonets governor. In 1825 the city was badly damaged by fires, but was rebuilt.

Sailing for the purpose of fishing and animal fishing and trade were the main occupations of the Kem residents. In 1830, according to the explorer of the North M.F. Reinecke, Kem had 60 boats and up to 50 shnyaks and schooners. Navigation in the Kemi area was not easy: this area of ​​the Onega Bay is distinguished by an abundance of skerries, shoals and islands. While the ships were small and shallow-drafted, they made do with handwritten directions and exc.

personal knowledge of local conditions. When large ships, including foreign ones, began to arrive in Kem in the second half of the 19th century, the need arose for navigational fencing of dangers not only with daylight signs, but also with lights.

In 1891, the Main Hydrographic Directorate, drawing up a 6-year (1892-1897) plan for the construction and re-equipment of coastal and floating lighthouses on the seas of Russia, included in it the construction of a small lighthouse light on the island of Bolshoi Rombak.

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Lighthouse Rombaksky

It was built in 1903. It was a small one-story wooden residential building with a red roof. At the northern end of the house there was a wooden turret with a lantern structure, in which a light-optical apparatus of the 5th category was installed. The lighthouse shone with white and red lights. The red light was shining in the sector from

31.5 to 51.5°, illuminating the underwater rocky shoal, a white light illuminated the sector from 315.5 to 31.5° from 51.5 to 177°, indicating the position of the island. The center of the lighting apparatus was at a height of 6.6 m from the base and 33.3 m from sea level. The visibility range of the white light reached 11 miles, and the red one 7.5 miles. A bell was used to give fog signals.

Simultaneously with the construction of the lighthouse on the island, a private pilotage team was established to guide ships to the Kem sawmill and a rescue station, the ataman of which was appointed as a keeper, and the lighthouse employees as rowers.

The lighthouse on a bare stone island, where there was not even fresh water, was maintained by a keeper and three employees with their families. In 1920, on a cold February evening, a fire broke out in the house where the lighthouse staff lived. Everything burned down; we barely had time to jump out into the street and take the children out. Fortunately, the tower was not damaged, and people in trouble were able to take refuge in it from the cold.

Fires in wooden houses of lighthouses were quite common in the past. They usually occurred due to malfunctions of stove heating systems and careless handling of fire. After all, the main source of light in lighthouses until the first quarter of the 20th century was oil and then kerosene lamps. Caring for them required the greatest care. The slightest mistake led to big troubles.

The fire at the Rombak lighthouse happened in the difficult 1920s, when devastation reigned in the country, and in Arkhangelsk the government often changed. No one rushed to help the lighthouses. Even two years after the fire

The caretaker complained that it was completely impossible to live in the lighthouse in winter, "since the temperature in the room drops below zero degrees, eight people live on an area of ​​only 7 square fathoms (32 m2). In addition, passengers en route to forced labor on Solovki live in the lighthouse for weeks." The caretaker asked, at least in winter, “to spare him from living on the island.”

A solution was found: in 1923, the lighthouse was switched to acetylene lighting, which greatly facilitated its maintenance, and prisoners from the Solovetsky special-purpose camps began to be recruited to perform heavy work.

In 1922, Ubekosever turned to the Main Hydrographic Directorate with a proposal to make the lighthouse unattended, since it was completely impossible to live on such an island. However, there were no funds, and the lighthouse was transferred to fully automatic operation only in 1994. Currently, it is powered by an isotope power plant and does not require constant maintenance. The lighthouse still shines with white and red flashing lights, illuminating the same sectors as during construction. To supply fog signals, a dynamic sound installation UZD-50 is used. The appearance of the lighthouse remained the same as in

beginning of the century.