SVYATONOSSKY LIGHTHOUSE

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

Cape Svyatoy Nos, on which one of the oldest lighthouses on the shores of our northern seas is installed, protrudes far into the sea in the NNW direction from the Murmansk coast at the entrance to the White Sea. The tip of the cape looks like a sharp toe, protruding almost a kilometer from the last hill of the cape. Its banks are high and steep, rocky and bare in places, the top of the cape is covered with moss.

One of the travelers of the last century described the cape as follows: "This is the northern end of Russia at the turn from the White Sea to the ocean. He met those going to sea and saw off those departing... These shores are literally the far north. The sun in winter does not illuminate them at all (does not rise) for 27 days, and instead in summer it does not set for 69 days. Granite blocks are exposed to the surface in few places, but are more covered with clayey soil, where grass appears and birch trees a quarter of an arshin high, and wild onions and the color of cloudberries, which, of course, rarely ripen. The very tip of the cape is spiky granite stones; the ocean crashes against them with huge splashes and only seagulls fly around with a wild screech...”

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It is believed [19] that the name of the cape was given by Pomor industrialists, for whom the word “nose” means “cape”. As for the word “saint,” it is apparently connected with the crosses that the Pomors put up on the shore (see the essay “Abramovsky”).

In handwritten directions, the presence of crosses is noted as the main distinctive feature of the cape: “The Holy Nose, on which there are many crosses, is deep.”

Soviet scientist and Arctic researcher V. Yu. Wiese believes [18] that the first information about this part of the Murmansk coast was brought to geographers and navigators by the Norwegian traveler Otar, who in the 870-890s walked from Norway to the White Sea and entered the mouth of the “big river” (either the Vorzuga or the Northern Dvina).

For the first time, this part of the Murmansk coast was surveyed with relative precision and

mapped in 1741 by Lieutenant Vinkov. Subsequently, F.P. Litke and M.F. Reinecke continued research of these places.

In January 1828, Lieutenant Commander M. F. Reineke presented a report to the Hydrograph General, Vice Admiral G. A. Sarychev, in which he proposed to erect lighthouses on the Svyatoy Nos and Gorodetsky capes (see essay “Gorodetsky”). Sarychev supported Reinecke and ordered the development of a tower project for Svyatonossky May

ka. On March 7, 1828, the issue was considered at the Admiralty Council and received a positive decision. Construction management was entrusted to engineer-captain Vlasov. The choice of location for the tower and supervision of construction was carried out by Reinecke himself.

At first, Mikhail Frantsevich chose a hill 54 m high for the lighthouse. However, the builders convinced him to change his decision, since it would be incredibly difficult to lift logs to such a height along rocky, rocky mountains at a great distance from the shore. After an additional survey of the area, we settled on a site located 500 m from the tip of the cape and at an altitude of 21 m from sea level.

The wooden tower was assembled in Arkhangelsk, and on June 17, 1828, the brig “Lapominka” delivered it to the Iokang Islands. After unloading the logs onto the water, the sailors built rafts. When they were about to tow them to the Holy Nose, a hurricane wind blew up. The bad weather continued for a whole week. Fortunately, the rafts, which had been tied tightly, survived, and in mid-July they were driven to the construction site. On July 28, construction was completed, and the tower was handed over “for supervision” to the residents of the Kola district.

It was a tetrahedral wooden structure painted in white, black and red.

pyramid on a square foundation. Due to its insufficient height (15.3 m), the tower was poorly visible from the sea, and in 1833, Lieutenant Korsakov built another tower in the form of a quadrangular prism 15 m high on the same hill, 350 m to the southeast. It was called South.

By the middle of the 19th century, the intensity of shipping along the Murmansk coast increased noticeably. Deep-draft steamships increasingly began to enter Arkhangelsk from Holland, England and other countries, which required improving the navigation fence.

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Lighthouse Svyatonossky

In 1857, B. A. Glazenap was appointed commander of the Arkhangelsk port. He had just returned from abroad, where he had been a maritime agent in Sweden, Norway and Denmark for several years. Bogdan Aleksandrovich was well acquainted with the needs of seafarers (in 1855 he headed the Hydrographic Department), and his stay abroad allowed him to become more familiar with the latest achievements of lighthouse technology. Having assumed the position of commander of the Arkhangelsk port, he turned to the Hydrographic Department and the Maritime Ministry with a proposal to take urgent measures on navigation equipment for the seas of our North in order to “promote the development of this region.” Among the places where new lighthouses should be built first, Glazenap named Cape Svyatoy Nos and Sosnowiec Island.

The Minister of Finance refused to allocate funds to Mayak Svyatonossky Niya and proposed postponing construction indefinitely. However, the Hydrographic Department supported Glazenap: “Nowadays, with the increasingly developing steam navigation, of course, the need for the mentioned lighthouses is becoming more noticeable, and especially on Svyatoy Nos and Sosnowiec... The lighthouse on Svyatoy Nos, the entrance lighthouse to the White Sea, is essential and essential

the existence of such an entrance lighthouse is the only example in the European seas; The reason for such a case can hardly be explained by the fact that our military ships mostly leave the White Sea and do not enter it and therefore do not feel the urgent need that merchant ships need. Such entrance beacons should have the brightest lighting possible”[24].

On this letter, the manager of the Maritime Ministry wrote a resolution: “Extremely solid considerations... Discuss together with the chief commander of the Arkhangelsk port.”

Glazenap insisted on building an iron lighthouse on the Holy Nose, since no building materials other than clay were found on the cape. In addition, a metal lighthouse, in his opinion, is more durable and requires less repair, which is very important for the North.

In 1859, Admiral General Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich himself visited the White Sea and examined the Murmansk coast. He came to the conviction that it was necessary to build not an iron, but a wooden lighthouse on the Holy Nose, since the iron parts would be very difficult to deliver to the construction site, especially since the unloading site was completely open to the ocean wind and waves,

“a wooden frame will be much easier to handle.”

The Admiral General himself reported this to the Emperor, and the latter approved the decision to erect a wooden lighthouse on the cape. The Arkhangelsk merchant Toropov contracted to build it.

In May 1861, when construction was in full swing, an order unexpectedly came from the Maritime Ministry: due to the abolition of the Arkhangelsk port, construction should be stopped. The new governor of Arkhangelsk, Vice Admiral K.I. Istomin, resolutely objected to the high authorities: “The purpose and purpose of the local lighthouses are determined by the exceptional prospects for improving local commercial and industrial shipping and, therefore, any opportunities for improvement in this case, despite the abolition of the port, must go their own way, then I would certainly consider continuing and completing the construction...”

The Admiral General was forced to agree with Istomin, especially since while the correspondence was going on, the lighthouse had already been built.

In the December issue of the Marine Collection for 1862, the Hydrographic Department published the following notice to mariners:

“In the White Sea, a lighthouse was completed at the entrance from the Northern Ocean, on the upper, or southern, hill of the northern part of the cape, called

called Holy Nose, at a distance of about 300 fathoms NW from the tower and in

2.5 versts from the tip of the cape at SO 29.5°, at latitude 68°08’51"N and longitude 39°48’54"E. The lighthouse is wooden, octagonal, covered with boards and painted with light yellow paint, and the metal roof is painted with gray paint. The lighthouse has a metal lantern equipped with a lighting apparatus of a catoptric or reflective system. The lighting apparatus consists of 18 argand lamps, with the same number of reflectors, the height from the base being 58, and above sea level 298 feet. A constant white light [shines] from SO 2° through O, N and W to SW 27° (from 207 to 178° - Author). Fire visibility range is 19.8 miles. The wooden, unlit tower that existed on the upper, or southern, hill of this cape was dismantled.

To ensure the safety of ships approaching the cape during fog, when the lighthouse is not visible on it, in the summer of 1862, an unlit wooden tower in the form of a four-sided pyramid with a quadrangular superstructure above it was built on that cape near its northern end. Each side of this pyramid is painted with vertical stripes of white, black and red. The height of the tower from the base is 51, and from sea level 113 eng. feet".

South o

t of the lighthouse, an outbuilding, sheds and a bathhouse were built for the keeper and maintenance personnel.

The lighthouse began operating on August 1, 1862. It shone from July 20 to November 1. The rest of the time he could only be seen during the day. Sometimes the lighthouse was turned on in the spring to help guide fur hunters.

The Svyatonossky lighthouse became the northernmost, most remote lighthouse in Russia, and the living conditions there were the most unfavorable. There were no land roads, ships stopped at the cape extremely rarely and only in good weather. There was practically no connection with life on the mainland, except for one or two voyages a year of a hydrographic vessel with provisions from Arkhangelsk.

At first the team was military. Poor nutrition, harsh climate and general loss of spirit led to frequent illness among the lighthouse workers. In the winter from 1863 to 1864, out of eight service personnel, only one caretaker remained alive, the rest died of scurvy. From that time on, for the winter, by order of the Maritime Ministry, the team began to be transported along the winter road on reindeer to the village of Varzukha, 300 miles from the lighthouse. The Lapp remained to look after the remaining farm, who, together with his family, agreed to spend the winter in this very place for a fee.

What a wild place then.

Since the same 1864, the lighthouses of the White and Barents Seas began to be supplied with firearms, fishing equipment and life-saving equipment. Against scurvy, it was ordered to take vodka with pepper. To boost morale, the lighthouses were periodically visited by a priest from Arkhangelsk or nearby villages. All this significantly contributed to reducing staff turnover and increasing the reliability of lighthouses.

In 1868, the military command was replaced by civilian employees. At first, only men were recruited, led by a non-commissioned officer, and after a few years families were allowed to live at the lighthouse.

In 1874, a foghorn with two pipes was installed northwest of the tower at a distance of about 100 m. One was directed to the northeast, and the other to the northwest. The bugle became operational on July 14, 1875. This was the first fog signaling device in Russia.

In 1885, a telegraph mast was erected to the south of the tower, on which, with the help of flags, cones and balls, conditional signals were raised for ships, in particular, about the condition of the ice in the vicinity of the cape.

In 1890, under the leadership of Arkhangelsk engineer Savitsky, the lighthouse was partially rebuilt

• a new metal lantern with a 2nd class diopter light-optical apparatus was installed on the tower, shining a constant white light for 15 miles. The light source was a kerosene burner. For the first time in the North, the apparatus was set up not by a representative of the manufacturer (the lighting apparatus was purchased in Paris), but by a specialist from the lighthouse workshop of the Baltic Sea Lighthouse Directorate, Lieutenant Kalinin.

The lighthouse with a new lighting apparatus was opened on August 14, 1890.

In 1912, the fog horn, which had become unusable due to long-term use, was replaced with a pneumatic siren with a kerosene engine. In 1915, in addition to the siren, a cannon was installed on the cape.

In October 1912, during a severe storm near the lighthouse, the large English cargo steamer Ormezby ran aground on underwater rocks and was wrecked. The lighthouse workers managed to save seven people, and 17 died. After this incident, buoys with a bell began to be installed on the most dangerous shallows of the North. Swinging, they warned sailors of danger with alarm bells.

During the First World War, the lighthouse worked periodically - only on the instructions of the military command, when it was necessary to ensure

passage of our ships and transports. This mode of operation was not easy for the lighthouses. During the 1914 campaign alone, 533 thousand tons of various cargo were delivered from Western countries to Arkhangelsk, and from there over a million tons, mainly bread and other agricultural products, were exported abroad. Transports followed past the lighthouse one after another, and the lighthouse workers had to be in constant tension.

In 1916, German submarines first appeared in the Northern Theater of War. On August 4, they laid a minefield at the Svyatonossky lighthouse, where ships were gathered in groups for convoy passage to the Throat of the White Sea. An observation and communications post was set up at the lighthouse, which monitored the situation in the area and reported the appearance of enemy ships to the command.

In 1917, due to the lack of spare kerosene heating grids for the burners, the lighthouse was switched to acetylene lighting. Acetylene lamps were manufactured by the Revel lighthouse workshop.

During the Civil War and military intervention, due to poor supplies, including acetylene, the lighthouse operated irregularly. Personnel discipline fell sharply; some employees deserted, moving to nearby villages. Possibly

Things began to improve only with the formation of Ubekosever in 1920.

On February 26, 1920, the chief of Ubeko, V.N. Chichagov, who acted as commander of all naval forces and the port of Arkhangelsk, issued an order: “For any sabotage, evasion of service and unwillingness to work and obey the superiors established by the Soviet government, the perpetrators will be subject to severe punishment according to military-revolutionary laws.”

The order took effect. The lighthouses returned to their duties, and navigational safety in the area of ​​the cape was restored.

During the Great Patriotic War, the sea route past the lighthouse from Arkhangelsk to the Kola Bay was very important and busy. It supplied supplies to the Northern Fleet and the troops of the Karelian Front in the Arctic. In the summer of 1942, the movement of allied convoys began along this communication. The movement of ships and transports had to be ensured secretly, so the lighthouse operated in manipulator mode.

In the post-war years, the lighthouse was overhauled several times, and its navigation equipment was improved. Currently, it shines with a white flashing light in the sector from 178 to 207 °, illuminating an area of ​​22 miles

. The lighthouse is equipped with a radio beacon.

Of the lighthouse workers, we should first of all mention the Bagretsov family, who served at the lighthouse during the difficult years of the First World War and military intervention.

Evlampy Bagretsov began serving on the lighthouses of the North back in the last century. From 1896 to 1917 he was the keeper of the Svyatonossky lighthouse. In 1905 he began to lose his sight. The manager of the White Sea lighthouses, Colonel Vasiliev, found it possible to keep him in service on the condition that he was helped by his wife, who had been performing the duties of a servant for many years, and that he hired himself a competent assistant.

All subsequent years, the service at the lighthouse with a half-blind keeper was performed flawlessly. However, there were ill-wishers, apparently from among those who wanted to take the post of caretaker, who periodically sent letters to the Main Hydrographic Directorate with messages that the lighthouse could not be relied on for normal operation, since it was led by a blind person.

In 1913, the deputy head of the Main Hydrographic Directorate, Rear Admiral Bukhteev, arrived at the lighthouse with an inspection. He was surprised by the excellent organization of service at the lighthouse and reported to the head of the department that “Bagretsov, being blind, has become so accustomed to the lighthouse that he feels its power.”

work like your body. He notices any failures in lighting, any disorder on watch, he is involved in all lighthouse affairs, he is well helped by his wife and an assistant who makes meteorological observations... I would consider it fair that he should be nominated for another award for many years of good service” [25].

After that, E. Bagretsov worked as a caretaker for another four years and in 1917 handed over the business to his son.

Over the many years of the lighthouse’s existence, many wonderful people have worked on it, and now they ensure its reliable and uninterrupted operation. From 1968 to the present, the lighthouse team has been headed by Mikhail Ivanovich Gorbunov. A highly qualified and responsible specialist, he was rewarded many times by the command for his services in ensuring the safety of navigation and was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.