Books about lighthouses. Works of researchers dedicated to the lighthouses of the Pacific Ocean

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

I. Yugay. Prometheans of the sea

Irina YUGAI,

chief bibliographer of the local history bibliography department

PGPB named after. A.M. Gorky (Vladivostok).

Knowledgeable people say: the higher you climb the stairs to the “heart of the lighthouse,” the cleaner and brighter a person’s soul becomes. Lighthouse! This short and sonorous word represents not only a ray of light that helps sailors choose the right course. A lighthouse is a farewell to home before a long journey and the beginning of a difficult journey, it is the expectation of meetings and the end of separation, it is a faithful and reliable assistant in navigation and a friendly hand in trouble. It is the last thing a sailor sees when leaving the port, and the first when returning from a long voyage.

How many ships and human lives were saved by lighthouse signals on stormy, dark nights and foggy, hazy days, how many were helped to return home safely in an almost hopeless situation in an ever-dangerous sea!..

In the past, lighthouses were called shrines of the seas. They were worshiped, ritual ceremonies were performed in front of them, they were saluted from cannons. It was believed that the appearance of lighthouse lights in a stormy night before the eyes of a crew in trouble was a happy providence, a gift from above. Travelers, writers, journalists, and local historians have always addressed the topic of lighthouses. And these days, the lighthouse service and everything related to it is of interest to many. This topic is broad, but in my review I will only touch on the most significant works of researchers on the lighthouses of the Pacific Ocean.

I’ll start with the book “Lighthouses of Russia” (St. Petersburg, GUNiO, 2001), which, in my opinion, opens the list of main books on this topic. “Lighthouses are the twinkling stars of the Earth, sentinels protecting the well-being of their sons - seafarers” - such a poetic epigraph was introduced by a team of authors (A.A. Komaritsyn, V.V. Koryakin, V.G. Romanov) to this interesting publication, the material for which was numerous archival documents.

The book contains historical essays that tell about the construction and operation of lighthouses. Of interest is the section “Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast of Russia”, which contains comprehensive information about lighthouse business in the Far East of Russia, including in the Primorsky Territory.

In the book by P.F. Brovko “Gulf of Peter the Great” (Vladivostok, Far Eastern State University Publishing House, 2003), there is the following information: “In 1857, by order of May 18, Rear Admiral P.V. Kazakevich recommends to the navigator, Lieutenant Colonel V.M. Babkin “to go on the steamship “America” to inspect the shores, the Estuary, the Bay of De-Kastri and in general all the places where the ship will have to go for its intended purpose, inspecting the shores, making comments on which places it is more convenient to place targets or signs, and also where it is more necessary to place lighthouses.”

Later, the Main Hydrographic Directorate of the Russian Maritime Ministry approved a plan for “... the gradual construction of lighthouses in all our seas... in places that most require lighthouse lighting.”

As a consequence of the implementation of this program, intensive construction of lighthouses began in Primorye. This is a whole constellation of lighthouses with a century-old history - Povorotny, Nizhny, Belkin, Skrypleva, Askold and others. Today, these unique structures are of historical and architectural value and should become the object of detailed local history research. Moreover, we have a fairly extensive source base for these studies.

Valuable information about the lighthouses of Primorye, for example, was reflected in various pre-revolutionary printed publications.

Full member of OIAC I.N. Egorchev made separate extracts from the newspapers: “Vladivostok”, “Far East” for the years 1899-1909. This is interesting information: notices, announcements, current reporters.

Here, for example, is what the Far East newspaper wrote on May 20, 1906:

“On May 18, at 11 o’clock in the morning, a telegram was received from the Askold lighthouse with the news that the steamer sailing near Cape Gamow exploded on mines at SW 85 degrees from Askold. Two destroyers and the Provorny boat were immediately sent to the crash site. At 7 o'clock In the evening, one of the destroyers who went in search returned and reported that he had found no traces of the wreck. At about 8 pm, the captain of the lost ship arrived at the port on Mr. Yankovsky’s sailing yacht. It turned out that the ship that flew into the mines was called “Prince Gorchakov” and belonged to the Northern Society. The entire crew, numbering 38 people, was rescued and landed on Popov Island, and a destroyer was immediately sent for it.”

An interesting letter was published in the newspaper “Far East” dated April 8, 1909:

“Do not refuse to place on the pages of your respected newspaper a real expression of gratitude to the commander of the military port and his junior assistant Mr. Feklin for their assistance in saving the schooner “Dolphin”, as well as to the keeper of the lighthouse of Askold Island for the assistance provided to the ship that suffered an accident and care for the crew and passengers of the schooner during their stay on the island. Please accept the assurance of complete respect for the Vladivostok schooner “Dolphin” V. Ryabokon.”

The collected information was supposed to be used in one joint project of OIAC and the Lighthouse Service Department of the Pacific Fleet (chief lighthouse officer of the Pacific Fleet, captain 2nd rank Pavlyukovsky). We are talking about the preparation of a publication about the lighthouses of Primorye, which never saw the light of day, since it was preceded by the book “Lighthouses of Russia” already mentioned in our review, collected and published with greater efficiency.

The lighthouse theme makes us remember another name - A.I. Gruzdev, hydrographer, toponymist and local historian. He has written hundreds of publications on the toponymy of the Pacific coast and, of course, about the lighthouses of Primorye. A lot of interesting information about lighthouses can be gleaned from the collection “Alexander Gruzdev”, published in the series “Local History of Primorye” (Vladivostok, Rubezh, 2006).

In the funds of the State Public Library named after. A.M. Gorky, we continually find materials that are also related to the stated topic. For example, an interesting mention of the Skryplev lighthouse was reflected in the book by A. Khisamutdinov “Vladivostok. Sketches for the history of the old city" (Vladivostok, Far Eastern University Publishing House, 1992, pp. 97-100).

Masters of fine art also turn their attention to the light of the lighthouse lights. The famous seaside artist S. Cherkasov masterfully approached this topic. His wall calendar “Lighthouses of the Amur Bay” (Vladivostok, Krasnoe Znamya Publishing House, 1991) became an event in the cultural life of our region. The artistic basis of the calendar is watercolor drawings, in the atmosphere of which art critics and journalists noted the presence of “Green’s motifs and moods.” Primorsky graphics lovers showed the most lively interest in this artist’s work, and the calendar immediately became a bibliographic rarity.

The artist’s passion for the lighthouse theme, his constant, years later, returns to it, is also demonstrated by his personal album “Sergey Cherkasov” (Vladivostok, “Dalpress”, 2004), where the Tokarevsky lighthouse represents the entire lighthouse industry of Primorye. This is what the author selects for his album. Perhaps the author has some kind of personal life story connected with this lighthouse, because in order to understand “lighthouse life,” take a closer look at it, explain and express its poetry, S. Cherkasov lived for a long time at lighthouses and even served as a caretaker. “I was always amazed at the quality of the construction of lighthouses,” says the artist, “and at the fact how wonderfully the architects were able to convey in architecture the special rhythm and spirit of their life.”

One can agree with the author of the book “Gulf of Peter the Great” P.F. Brovko, that lighthouses as engineering structures and architectural monuments located in places of amazing seascapes are of undoubted interest for tourists of all ages and categories. It makes sense to make them objects of excursion displays and develop routes. To attract everyone who cares to these amazing buildings: travelers, local historians, artists, poets.

Photo artist Alexander Popov also devoted most of his work to the theme of lighthouses. His author’s album “Vladivostok” (Vladivostok, Russian Island Publishing House, 1999), dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the city of Vladivostok, is illustrated with photographs of these “sea workers”, taken with great love.

Lighthouses are one of the favorite themes of the famous seaside photographer Yu.K. Lugansky.

In his author’s book “Vladimir Klavdievich Arsenyev. Biography in photographs, in the memories of friends, evidence of the era" (Vladivostok, "Ussuri", 1997), different types of lighthouses are shown.

Photographs of lighthouses are reflected in many other photo albums about Primorye. The photo album “Primorye in Photographs of Masters and Debutants” opens with a colorful, impressive spread of the lighthouse of Cape Basargin. (Vladivostok, “Ocean News”, 2004).

In addition to the above-mentioned sources, the theme of lighthouses is reflected in booklets, calendars, in the screensaver for the Primorsky Television program, in the emblem of the Pacific Meridian film festival (artist-designer from Riga Ilona Gonsovskaya).

We find a special, romantic development of this theme in fiction. Let's start with A.P. Chekhov, who during his trip to Sakhalin visited the Zhonkier lighthouse. Here are the lines about this visit:

“During the day, the lighthouse, if you look at it from below, is a modest white house with a mast and a lantern, but at night it shines brightly in the darkness, and then it seems that the penal servitor is looking at the world with his beautiful eye...”

V.K. visited the Nikolaevsky lighthouse, serving in the Imperial Harbor (now Sovgavan), on one of his last trips (1908-1910). Arsenyev.

This is your visit to V.K. Arsenyev describes in the book “In the Mountains of Sikhote-Alin”, in the chapter “Lighthouse Keeper”, where he describes in detail the way of life at the lighthouse and compares it with surprise with the way of life on a military ship.

“Lighthouse keeper,” we read from V.K. Arsenyev, was an old boatswain of the Maidanov sailing fleet. Like a real sailor, he had a special gait; when he walked, he swayed his body and held his hands in a strange way, as if he wanted to grab onto something. He was a good-natured man and a good servant. He slept without undressing, because... he thought: “If you undress, then what kind of service will it be…”. He made meteorological observations minute by minute. At night he went to the lantern several times, went to the siren, looked at the sea for a long time..."

The Primorye poet Yuri Rudoy in his collection of poems “Mayak” (Vladivostok, Primorsky book publishing house, 1961) has the following lines:

The night is dark on the sea,

Like someone

Painted everything around

black paint.

Only in the distance for steamships

The lighthouse light is quiet and gentle.

A bright flickering dot

Storms cannot be extinguished...

I'd like to

In poetic lines

Light the same flame.

Lighthouses light up at night and go out at dawn. Night workers, guardians of the ocean spaces. It would be more correct to say - guards. Their light reaches us through the centuries, their service is as old as the world and as beautiful as this world, because in some ways it is similar to the service of the sun. And the phrase absolutely correctly expresses the essence of this service: “Always shine. Shine everywhere. Until the last days of the Don..."

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*Printed in an abbreviated version.

Source: "Literary Meridian" No. 7, 2008