Novgorod Soyma. Chapter IV
Almanac "Solovki Sea". No. 7. 2008
Andrey Yepatko
Construction of the Ladoga Soyma "Saint Arseniy"It is difficult to find a ship in the North-West of Russia that would be as closely connected with the White Sea as the Ladoga Soyma. This strange snub-nosed boat, proudly carrying two masts, owes its birth to Ladoga and its indigenous inhabitants - the Finns. However, thanks to the glory of the Solovetsky Wonderworkers, she saw the soyma and lead waters Lake Onega, and the salty wave of the White Sea. Her faded sails loomed near the Klimenets monastery and Kizhi Pogost, in view of the noisy Povenets and schismatic Vyg. But the soyma found rest only under the walls of the legendary White Sea monastery, founded by the Monk Zosima and Savvaty. Pilgrims from Olonets, St. Petersburg, Pskov and Tikhvin, who arrived on the Soyma, crossed themselves on the high domes and, with an unsteady gait after the rolling of the sea, set foot on the holy Solovetsky land ...
About this amazing boat, which has always been a worthy "guest" on the White Sea, and our story will go.
The origin of the name "soima" is very interesting. Most likely, this is a derivative of the Finnish spovo "suomi" (literally: the land of Sum). This was the name of the tribe that lived on the territory of modern Finland, and subsequently this word gave the name to the whole country. It is likely that the Ladoga Soyma is a type of ancient Finnish vessel, mastered over the years by the Karelians and later by the Novgorodians. I wonder what maritime historians from Finland could add about this?
Until the middle of the 19th century, Lake Ladoga, located right next to the capital, remained, however, little known. The absence of his maps and descriptions did not affect shipping in the best way; even in a small wave, the captains preferred to go by bypass channels, which significantly lengthened the path. Not a single insurance company in Russia undertook to insure ships sailing with cargo on the open Ladoga.
Only in 1858 did the government send an expedition led by Colonel Andreev to explore the lake. The task of the researcher also included a detailed inspection of boats of local types. Describing them, Andreev noted the outstanding seaworthiness of a two-masted boat - the Ladoga Soyma. At the same time, he came to the conclusion that now nothing is known about the design of the ships that sailed along Ladoga during the time of Veliky Novgorod ... But the matter took an unexpected turn.
While visiting the Ladoga monasteries on duty, the colonel noticed that the icons of the local associates depict ships that are quite similar to the Ladoga soyms of the present time. "Based on this similarity," Andreev wrote, "and taking into account that the Ladoga Soyms have retained some primitive character to this day, we can conclude that the vessels of the Novgorodians were almost the same as the present Soyms."
Andreev compiled their description; the soims were made in typesetting, had curved frames, outwardly inclined stems and a small keel. The frames were attached both to the keel and to the skin with wooden dowels; sheathing boards were laid edge to edge and sewn together with juniper roots. To tack and reduce drift, a false keel was added to the keel. The spars of the soim consisted of two masts. The foremast was placed at the very stem, and the mainmast was placed in the middle. Both masts were low and had one wide sprit sail each. The mast, since it is low, was securely held without shrouds. All these ships did not have constant dimensions and were built in such a size that was convenient for the owner.
The purpose of the councils was different. They caught fish, transported large luggage, delivered pilgrims to Valaam (and even to Solovki). According to Russian sources, large soims traveled long distances and sailed to Aborforst and Stockholm for trading purposes. Judging by the descriptions of eyewitnesses, the Ladoga soims had a reliable, strong structure, were light on oars and were not afraid of headwinds.
After reviewing these materials, my friend Andrey Boev and I set about building such a boat and going around Ladoga on it. But we did not have the main thing - drawings and a master who would undertake to recreate the ancient soima. Then we went to the most remote corners of Ladoga, where we hoped to find people familiar with similar boats. Konevei Island, Zalaam, Sortavala ... Here we met mainly boats and home-made yachts. Sometimes there were ordinary wooden boats that did not resemble the description of the soyma. The Ladoga fishermen, learning what we were looking for, were surprised: "A two-masted boat? Forget it. No one has sailed here for a long time."
At the end of the summer, Andrei and I reached the remote village of Storozhno, located on the southeast coast of Ladoga. A real fishing village. There are nets all around. Instead of windows in some houses there are portholes...
Interested in boats? - one of the inhabitants asked us, seeing that we were looking at an inverted canoe.
Soimami, - answered.
Five minutes later we were sitting with our new friend, and he drew us exactly what we had been looking for for so long. Graceful lines of the body came out from under his hardened hand. His drawing of the sailing armament of a two-masted boat exactly coincided with what Andreev wrote about: the same arrangement of masts, the same sprint armament ...
I used to ride soims as a boy,” the old man said. - These were the most reliable ships on the whole lake. Be sure! Which boat will withstand a seven-point storm on Ladoga? Soyma only! It used to happen that bad weather would find you in the lake, the waves were raging all around, and not a drop fell into the soyma ... Such were the boats ... Only here you will not find the soym, and, probably, they are nowhere to be found.
In October 1994, when I was already thinking of postponing our search until next summer, I was informed that boat master Alexander Kalyagin lived in the southern Ladoga region on the Syas River. We immediately went to him, but did not find him - the owner was on the hunt. To pass the time, we walked along the coast and stumbled upon a wooden one. And the boat, made, like the soyma, "overlapped" and with very good contours. The design of this boat, adapted for a motor, was clearly an echo of that distant era when, waiting for a fair wind, people sat on the shore for weeks.
Alexander Stepanovich, returning, announced to us. ready to take on any ship. but he needs a blueprint. "And don't forget - two thousand copper nails," he added.
One way or another, but the idea of sewing a boat in the traditional way - with juniper roots - had to be abandoned. This is too labor-intensive, and our craftsman never sewed boats in this way... Judging by the excavation materials, four-sided iron nails were made in Novgorod in the 10th-11th centuries, but they were rarely used in shipbuilding: this was due to the fact. that in salt water the nails quickly rusted and destroyed the cladding. The roots, on the contrary, swelling, made the case waterproof. Our copper nails were a good substitute for juniper roots, and at the same time, we did not stray too far from history: the technique of using copper rivets was widely developed in medieval Ireland, while the Vikings fastened their ships with steel rivets.
Already closely engaged in the search for materials, I realized that the construction of a large sailing boat requires a lot of money, and the two of us are unlikely to master this project. I think that the idea with the soyma would have remained on paper, if at this difficult time we had not been supported by the surgeon of one of the St. Petersburg hospitals, Viktor Donskoy.
Six months later, I returned to Kalyazin with 40 kilograms of copper nails and a drawing. It was made by the leading specialists of the Naval Museum L. Larionov and G. Atavin and was a reconstruction of an 11-meter six-oar soyma.
Our cut, Ladoga, - Alexander Stepanovich said businesslike, looking at the drawing.
Now it remains to order 13-meter spruce boards to build a boat from solid material. The Ladoga masters tried not to make joints on the belts: such cases are weaker in design and can leak faster. In search of suitable boards, we traveled to several forestries and only in one found a sawmill that could let through 11-meter trunks. This determined the length of our future soyma - 9.45 m (with a width of 3.15 m).
Finally, in June 1996, the long-awaited moment of laying the soyma came. Her designer, the famous ship modeler Gennady Atavin, opened the champagne and "consecrated" the keel hewn with an axe.
The master built the boat almost alone, combining this work with haymaking and caring for horses. Sometimes his son Vanya helped, and we tried to come here every weekend.
When the keel was already ready, we harnessed the horses and went into the forest to get the stem. What was needed was a root with a sharp bend, and, moreover, of a certain thickness, without cracks. For two days I had to revise a lot of trees before I found a suitable option. As soon as both stems took their places, Kalyazin put two powerful patterns in the bow and stern and began to attract planks to them, fastening them together with rivets. This was the most important stage: "as you lay the first boards, the rest will go," the master often said.
When Andrey and I undertook to rivet the skin, it turned out that it was not so easy. Soft annealed nails bent under the blows of the hammer, stubbornly refusing to enter the tree. Skill came gradually, along with the confidence that we can do it.
By September, half of the hull was already ready. The graceful contours of a copy of an ancient ship caught the eye of everyone who came to our small shipyard. In autumn, the pace of work increased. We have prepared masts, sprints and oars. Alexander Stepanovich finished the skin, and began to cut out the frames. I rarely looked at blueprints. If he noticed that I was "testing" any part of the crew, he would say: "Do not doubt, the boat will be glorious, the first storm is mine!"
Meanwhile, 1997 arrived. And we decided that. if the soyma survives the test of Ladoga, we will set off along the path of the Great Embassy of Peter I - to Holland and England. After all, Western Europe has not yet seen boats of this type. To prepare the boat for such a long voyage, it was necessary to revise some of the features of its design. This work was undertaken by yacht captain Vladimir Miloslavsky. On his advice, we increased the height of the side - added one plank at a time, and determined the place for the cabin. For safety, it was decided to limit the sail area. In the end, we settled on a grotto with an area of about 14 m 2 and a foreground - 8 m 2. In stormy weather, the open part of the soyma is closed with an awning. The boat is equipped with a ten-seat life raft, flares and a ship's VHF radio.
The soyma was launched and tested in June, then the first trip to the holy places of Lake Ladoga took place with a visit to the Valaam and Konevets monasteries.
Soyma got its name in honor of the founder of the Konevets Monastery - St. Arseny, and was consecrated there at the monastery pier.
In the summer of 1998, the team of "Saint Arseny" plans to make the transition to English city Portsmouth, where we were invited by representatives of the National Royal Museum.
For a successful forty-day voyage, 2,500 US dollars are needed.
We look forward to helping those. who are interested in what we do. We will raise our flag at the very edge of Europe!
Notes
1. The first to believe in us was the Planeta company, which provided life-saving equipment free of charge.It is difficult to find another such ship, which would be so closely connected with the Ladoga area, as the soyma. This strange snub-nosed boat, proudly carrying two masts, owes its birth to Ladoga and its indigenous people - the Karelian-Finns. However, thanks to the glory of the Solovetsky Wonderworkers, she has seen the soyma and the lead waters of Lake Onega and the salty tidal wave of the White Sea. Her faded sails loomed near the Klimenets Monastery and the Kizhi churchyard, in view of the noisy Povenets and on the schismatic Vyg ... But the soyma found rest only under the walls of the legendary Valaam Monastery, founded by St. Sergius and Herman - her homeland was here. Pilgrims from Olonets, St. Petersburg, Pskov and Tikhvin, who arrived on the soyma, were baptized on high domes and stepped unsteadily on the holy Valaam rocks ...
Our story will go about this amazing snub-nosed boat, overshadowed by two wing-sails ...
Until the middle of the 19th century, Lake Ladoga, located right next to St. Petersburg, remained, however, little known. The absence of his descriptions did not have the best effect on navigation: even in a small wave, the captains preferred to go by bypass channels, which significantly lengthened the route. Not a single insurance company in Russia undertook to insure ships sailing with cargo on the open Ladoga.
Only in 1858, the Admiralty sent an entire expedition to Ladoga under the guidance of an experienced hydrographer, Colonel A.P. Andreeva. He was instructed to make a survey of the entire Lake Ladoga, map its coasts, lighthouses, describe the most dangerous capes, shoals, reefs and determine the direction of the winds. The task of the researcher also included a detailed inspection of boats of local types. Describing them, Andreev noted the outstanding seaworthiness of a two-masted fishing boat - soyma. At the same time, he came to the conclusion that now nothing is known about the design of the ships that sailed along Ladoga during the time of Veliky Novgorod. But things took an unexpected turn.
While visiting the neighboring monasteries on duty, the colonel noticed that the icons of the local ascetics depict ships that are quite similar to the Ladoga Soyms of the present time. “Based on this similarity,” the colonel wrote, “and, taking into account that the Ladoga soims have retained some primitive character to this day, we can conclude that the vessels of the Novgorodians were almost the same as the current soims.”
Andreev left a description of the Ladoga Soyma. The researcher noted that this is a small sailing and rowing vessel, fishing or cargo, which has its own distinctive features - stems piled back. The soima is type-setting, has curved frames and a small sharp keel. To tack and reduce drift, a false keel was stuffed on the keel. The frames were fastened both to the keel and to the sheathing with wooden dowels, the sheathing boards were laid “overlap” and sewn together with juniper roots. Moreover, recesses were provided both outside and inside under the stitching roots in the boards to protect the roots from damage. “It has been proven by experience,” Andreev admired. “It’s more likely that the sheathing and frames on the soyma will rot than the tree root will be destroyed ... But how firmly and reliably this seam holds the boards, one should be surprised!” .
From myself I will add that, flexible connections had one clear advantage over any other fastening: swelling, the roots made the case waterproof.
The spars of the soim consisted of two masts. The foremast was placed on the stem, and the mainmast was placed in the middle. The mast was inserted through the opening of the can into the steps, strings were applied to the legs of the sprints, then the sail was stretched diagonally by the sprint. When it was filled with wind, the mast was securely held without shrouds. The sail was controlled by a sheet; when harvesting the sail, the sprint was pulled to the mast by hand, wrapped around both with a sail and tied with a sheet. At the same time, two people were enough to manage such a boat.
All soims were built without preliminary drawings and of such length as was convenient for the owner. The lightest boat of this type, up to 6 m long, was called a soiminka. The length of the hook soyma ranged from 7-8 m, and the length of the tethered soyma - 9-10 m. Boats, the length of which reached 12 m, had a deck and a fish tank for live fish. They were called live fish or pre-solid soims. However, if necessary, the cages were built into any boat, for which they put two waterproof wooden bulkheads, and holes were drilled in the sides between them for water circulation. On large soyms intended for the transport of passengers, there were rooms in the stern.
According to Andreev, the Ladoga Soims possessed outstanding seaworthiness: they were light on oars and were not afraid of oncoming winds - they “tacked very decently”. The Soims traveled long distances for trading purposes. They continuously, throughout the entire navigation, made voyages to Vyborg, Aborforst, Stockholm and transported pilgrims from St. Petersburg via Ladoga and Onega, heading to the Solovetsky Monastery.
“So the soima is our own ship! - Andreev enthusiastically summed up his research. - Soima probably saw those ancient times that are dark in history. The Soima has also seen enough of Hanseatic goods! And even now the soima is the only vessel used in fresh waters northeastern Russia.
It is not surprising that, after reading these reports, my comrade Andrei Boev and I set about building such a boat and going around Ladoga on it. But we did not have the main thing - the drawings and the master who would undertake to recreate the medieval sojma. Then we went to the most remote corners of Ladoga, where we hoped to meet people familiar with such boats. Konevets Island, Priozersk, Sortavala ... Here we met mainly boats and home-made yachts. On Valaam, we looked especially closely at the local fishing boats, however, they were not even remotely similar to the Soyma described by Andreev. The last old Finn who lived on Valaam, having learned what we were looking for, asked in surprise: “A two-masted boat? .. Forget it. No one has been sailing here for a long time.”
At the end of the summer of 2004, Andrei and I reached the remote village of Storozhno, picturesquely spread out on the southeastern coast of Ladoga. A real fishing village: nets are hung around, portholes are inserted instead of windows in sheds ...
Interested in boats? - one of the local old men asked us, seeing that we were looking at an inverted canoe.
Soimami.
Five minutes later we were sitting with our new friend, and he drew us exactly what we had been looking for for so long. Graceful lines of the body came out from under his hardened hand. The pattern of the sailing armament of a two-masted boat exactly coincided with what Andreev wrote about: the same arrangement of masts, the same sprit armament.
I used to ride soimahs as a boy, - said hereditary fisherman Ivan Andrianov. “They were the most reliable boats on the whole lake. Be sure! Which boat will withstand a seven-point storm on Ladoga? Soyma only! It used to happen that bad weather would find you in the lake, the waves were raging around, and not a drop would fall into the soyma ... Such were the boats ... Only here you will not find the soyms, and, probably, they are nowhere to be found.
Much later, I was surprised to learn that the search had to be carried out much further south - on the banks of the Ilmen. It was there, near Veliky Novgorod, the very city to which Andreev attributed the birth of the soyma, in the coastal villages of Ustreka and Vzvad, such boats are still “sewn”. True, these are typical Ilmen soims - without a stem piled back, like in the Ladoga version. By the way, no one knows what caused such a bend in the bow. The authoritative ship modeler A. Zaitsev expressed the opinion that “fishing soyms had to be in close proximity to each other during the seine plant, and the stem littered back excluded such a possibility.” It is difficult to agree with this opinion: after all, fish were also caught on Ilmen, and the stem of the Ilmen soym is almost straight. Obviously, the secret lies in the peculiarities of the Ladoga excitement. It is quite probable that the stem, which was sharp and extended forward, climbed the high wave more easily, making its way in the raging lake.
...But let me return to the Ilmensky Soyms. I remember how amazed I was when, getting off the tour bus at the St. George's Monastery, I easily saw two soimas on the shore, pulled up to the shore with their noses. Burnt-out sails wrapped around low masts crowned pot-bellied hulls. Forgetting that my group was moving away in the direction of the next church, I went, squelching through the silt, towards this mirage - two fishermen's comands that floated out of the Ilmen haze, like an echo from the distant past ...
But this meeting will take place later, - but for now, Andrei and I continued to look for a master who was ready to take on such a boat and, to be honest, we soon fell into some despondency.
However, in the fall of 1994, when I was already thinking of postponing our search until next summer, I was informed that boat master Alexander Kalyazin lives in the southern Ladoga region on the Syas River. We immediately went to him, but did not find him - the owner was on the hunt. In order to somehow pass the time, we walked along the coast and stumbled upon a wooden boat, made, like the soyma, “overlapping” and with very good contours. The design of this boat, adapted for a motor, was clearly an echo of that distant era when, waiting for a fair wind, people sat on the shore for weeks.
Alexander Stepanovich, returning, announced to us that he was ready to take on any ship, but he needed a drawing. “And don't forget the two thousand copper nails! Especially if you go to salty waters,” the master added.
One way or another, but the idea of sewing a boat in the traditional way - with juniper roots - had to be abandoned. This is too laborious an occupation, and our master never sewed boats in this way. But let's turn to the ancient Karelian-Finnish epic Kalevala: it mentions two ways of fastening ship parts: using flexible ties and wooden fasteners:
Often good housewives
juniper break
Well-known folklorist V.Ya. Evseev, commenting on this passage, believed that the skeleton of a boat was made of juniper, on which animal skins were stretched. This is hardly true. Most likely, we are talking about flexible connections designed to fasten the boat.
By the way, Peter I was distrustful of ships sewn with vices. “Novgorod ships were made only for festivities,” the tsar writes in 1702, “and they are incapable of military affairs for what is on old bottoms that are sewn with witches ...”
True, later Peter changed his mind about the soima - perhaps after these nimble Finnish boats took an active part in some episodes of the Northern War. In 1702, 400 Peter's foot soldiers, planted on the soyms, took a successful battle with the squadron of Admiral Nummers. Undoubtedly, the participation of the soims in the capture of the Noteburg fortress. It is not surprising that after a decade and a half, Peter remembered the soims, but over the years, along with a decrease in the Finno-Ugric population in the St. Petersburg region, the craftsmen who knew how to “sew” these boats also disappeared.
Admiral Count Apraksin in 1716 anxiously wrote to Menshikov: "... it was ordered to make thousands for ten people, so that more is better, soims that go to Murmansk." Further, Apraksin complains in the same letter that “we don’t know the sample of those communities and there are no craftsmen and supplies.” A month later, Menshikov informs the tsar: “I went to the senate and advised in whatever way to make soims known to you, to which the merchant people of Ladoga are called, who do not deny it, they only ask for a model vessel, which one I found here.”
A curious fact follows from this sovereign's correspondence: in the first quarter of the 18th century, Ladoga residents did not even know what a soyma looked like!
But let's return to the times of Kalevala, in one of the runes of which curious information is reported that the Karelian-Finns sometimes did without a wick, preferring a tree to it:
Väinimeien Tesal,
made a boat
stone axe,
Wooden nails.
These lines of an unknown rune-singer greatly encouraged Andrei and me: now we could, without deviating far from tradition, replace the roots with copper nails.
Already closely engaged in the search for materials, I realized that the construction of a large sailing boat would require considerable funds, and the two of us were unlikely to master this project. I think this idea with the soyma would have remained on paper, if at this difficult time we had not been supported by the surgeon of one of the St. Petersburg hospitals, Viktor Donskov. Victor had a rare quality - he was a purposeful romantic, turning any dream into reality. We joked about our company for a long time: “A chemist, a historian and a doctor got together and decided to build a boat…”
Having found the master, I rushed about in search of drawings. But where can you get blueprints for an old fishing boat, which, judging by some reports, was built "without any preliminary measurements"? Something told me that I should contact the Naval Museum. The calculation turned out to be correct. Museum staff, having learned what we were looking for, took out from a dusty cabinet a model of the Ladoga Soyma, made by the Moscow ship modeler A. Zaitsev. We photographed it and, looking ahead, I will say that this picture replaced the drawings for our master. The latter, too, were soon found: they were made by two well-known St. Petersburg ship modellers - Andrei Larionov and Gennady Atavin. A drawing from a pre-war Finnish magazine was taken as a basis; I haven't been able to find out which one.
It was really bad with copper nails. “All copper has been in the Baltics for a long time,” friends joked. But the miracle nevertheless happened: we came across some factory that was being sold, the director of which, looking around, laid out 40 kilograms of excellent copper nails on the scales.
In the spring we came to Kalyazin in his Podriabinye.
Our cut, Ladoga, - Stepanych said businesslike, looking at the drawing. - Well, decide what size we will sew ...
We settled on a 9-meter tethered team, counting on six rowers and a helmsman.
At this stage, we needed solid spruce boards with a length of at least 11 meters. In St. Petersburg, such long boards were not sawn. As always, Stepanych came to the rescue.
Business, he chuckled. - Podryabine stands in the forests; I will cut down the masts myself, and there is any kind of wood in the local offices.
... Shaking on a motorcycle along the broken Ladoga roads, we drove around about five forestries, and only in the sixth was a sawmill ready to cut 13-meter trunks. We were promised to deliver such trunks to the sawmill by the New Year. However, an unusually snowy winter, which has not been the last half century, suddenly intervened: cars could not enter the forest to pick up the cut trees.
Every weekend I went to the quiet Podriabinye, whitened with snow, but to no avail: the snow fell incessantly, so much so that even experienced hunters preferred to sit at home. It is not surprising that such a winter shocked even the surrounding wolves: due to the deep cover, the gray ones could not catch up with the hares and therefore reached for easier prey. One night, wolves raided Podryabinye and dragged away thirteen village dogs, including Stepanych's guard dog.
Look, snakes - they walked around the stables, - said Kalyazin, pointing out to me numerous footprints in the snow. This news especially excited me, because under a canopy next to the stables we were just about to build a community ...
These wolves are for war, - the local old women shook their heads.
Listen to them more! - Stepanych smiled slyly, lighting a "Belomorina", but then, throwing a hard look out of the window, he said thoughtfully. - But the grandmothers are right: the last time the wolves visited us was in the winter of the 41st ... Eh, all this is not good! - and shook off the ashes on the floor ...
While waiting for the boards, I got acquainted with the life of this Ladoga village. Everything was here again for me, a city dweller: the fact that almost every inhabitant is armed, and the fact that a conversation without a glass does not begin - “otherwise there will be no conversation”, and the fact that horses’ tails are cut with an ax, and that when a pike breaks off the lure, no one is worried: “It was not our pike,” the Ladoga resident will meekly say. And it is not necessary to remember more about lost prey. Podryabinsky hunting ends only when the stocks of alcohol or “wine”, as vodka is more often called here, end. And even then - all the hunters will gather, sit down, spread a shabby map in the clearing and calculate - how close is the nearest village where there is a shop ...
Desperate people these Ladojans! Stepanych told how two of his fingers were shot off on a hunt by mistake: they took him for a bear ... Fingers hang on the skin, his hand bleeds. And there was still vodka; not to return home ... So the operation was done right in the forest: they gave the hunter a sip from the bottle, put the brush on the stump, doused it with vodka - and shuffled with a knife ... Purely, as if a piece of butter had been cut off. And for the hunt!
Stepanych's son Vanya also did not lag behind the elders. He came, I remember, he somehow in the morning to the hut. Sleepy, he came, put the gun in a corner, takes off his boots.
What, I say, were you hunting?
No, - Vanya shakes his head, - he sat on the river all night: someone got into the habit of stealing our shuttles ...
Yes, cool people live in Podriabinye. God forbid, getting to them is not with good intentions, and even under a hot hand! God forbid!
Twenty years ago, as Kalyazin told us, a fish inspector lived in their village, and at the other end of the village - an ordinary bulldozer man and, of course, an avid fisherman. And for the fish inspector, he is not a fisherman, but a real poacher. Once our fisherman threw his nets, and in the morning they were taken off. Who filmed? We know who ... There is no one else to shoot them. Then the peasant started his bulldozer and, crossing himself - whoever wants to take a sin on the soul - led his tractor to the fish inspector's bathhouse. I picked it up a little with a ladle, and dumped it into the river ... Now it steers straight to the house of its enemy - and immediately drove into the house ... So much so that the windows fell down ... It slips with caterpillars, shakes the house ... “Vanya! shouts the fisherman from his cabin. Where are the nets? - "Nets in the bath!" A muffled voice comes from inside the house. - “There is no bath! - the tractor driver roars. - Where are the networks? .. "
Kalyazin himself told this story without chuckles: he felt sorry for both fellow villagers and dead networks, and a bath that floated away into the river distance ... Probably, that is why - in the sensitivity of his soul - Stepanych was the unofficial headman of the village. His house was never empty; As soon as we sit quietly at the table to discuss the soyma work plan, someone is already knocking on the window. Everyone needs Stepanych. Plow the garden - to Stepanych; what motor to attach - to Stepanych; put together a coffin, if someone died - to Stepanych. We needed him as much as anyone else. And therefore, so that the master would not be especially distracted when leaving for the city, we left him a written plan of work on the soyma. Just like in school...
Finally, in June 1996, the long-awaited moment of laying the soyma came. One of her designers, Gennady Atavin, opened the champagne and “consecrated” the keel hewn with an axe.
Kalyazin built the boat almost on his own, combining this work with haymaking and caring for horses. Sometimes his son Vanya helped him, and we tried to come here every weekend. The master rarely looked into the drawings. If he noticed that I was “trying out” some part of the crew, he would say: “Do not doubt, the boat will be glorious, the first storm is mine!”
When the keel was already completed, we harnessed the horses and set off into the forest for the stem. What was needed was a keel with a sharp bend, and at the same time of a certain thickness, without cracks. For two days I had to revise a lot of trees before I found a suitable option. As soon as the stems took their place, Kalyazin placed two powerful patterns in the bow and stern and began to draw cladding boards to them, fastening them together with rivets. This was the most important stage of construction: “As the first boards are laid, the rest will follow,” the master often said. - Rot board board, do not be afraid! - she herself must lie down in her place, ”Kalyazin encouraged us.
Andrey and I also undertook to rivet the skin, but it turned out that it was not so easy. Soft annealed nails bent under the blows of the hammer, stubbornly refusing to enter the tree. Skill came gradually along with the confidence that we can do it. True, it was not without risk: for tools often had to go through the corral, where Stepanych's horses were grazing - the red-haired Krokha and the handsome black stallion Malysh. The baby was an unusually calm horse, but the Kid, at the sight of people, stood up and neighed wildly, thereby expressing all sorts of displeasure. Therefore, passing through its territory for some kind of roulette, I felt nothing but a bullfighter and preferred to arm myself with a heavy stick ...
By the way, Kalyazin's roulettes, if they were found, were quickly lost. And in the end, our soyma turned out to be built really “without any dimensions”. When a ruler was needed, Stepanych usually found some kind of tree, cut it off with one stroke and proudly showed us: “Well, why not a ruler?” Our master generally worked with what he had at hand. To draw a straight line on a board or kilson, he sometimes used his favorite "grandfather" method: he smeared the thread with charcoal, pulled it on the nails like a string, and "beat off" with a slight movement of his fingers. Surprisingly, a perfectly straight black line turned out.
Stepanych built soundly, but slowly and with long breaks. May - he had a holy month: hunting, and in the last days - plowing and potatoes. July - you won’t sleep either: haymaking. And September is the holy of holies: the opening of the hunting season and the same potatoes. But we put up with this - he “sewed” the boat firmly and conscientiously. And we made the right decision: later, in England, where we arrived on the soyma, one of the specialists in copies of wooden ships admitted to us that the Ladoga soyma was the best boat he had ever seen ... If in the homeland of Captain Cook they admired Stepanych's work - what else can be added to this?
While Kalyazin leisurely “sewed the boards”, I continued to sit in the libraries, looking for any information related to the soyms. Some experts rightly believed that the soima is a type of ancient Finnish vessel, mastered over the years by the Karelians and later by the Novgorodians. The latter, according to the outstanding researcher of the Russian North I.P. Shaskolsky, “transferred this type of ship to the White Sea, where it is mentioned in documents of the 17th century.” If these sources are correct, then perhaps the soima was at one time a fairly common vessel on the White Sea. Zaitsev even puts forward the version that since the end of the 18th century, the soims began to be forced out of this region by more navigable shnyaks and yols.
However, the fact that the soima is a typical Finnish (and not even Karelian) ship, I was convinced when I was in the Maritime Museum in Stockholm. Two soimas are exhibited there (although without the snub-nosed stem characteristic of the Ladoga variant); and next to it - an explanatory sign in Swedish and English: « Fishing boat Åland Islands ". As you know, Aland is an island part of southwestern Finland. It remains to be added that the name "Soima" speaks for itself: most likely, it is a derivative of the Finnish tribe "Sum", who lived in southern Finland and later gave the name to the whole country - "Suomi".
However, not everyone agreed with this argument. For example, G. Ash in his authoritative work "Guide for sailing enthusiasts" wrote about the soima as a vessel of purely Russian origin, "which was not influenced by any foreign elements in its construction." At the same time, the researcher paid tribute to the excellent seaworthiness of this fishing vessel and noted its original design features: “The excellent qualities of the Ladoga Soyma have been developed over the centuries,” the researcher writes. - We see that the middle of the ship is placed in the middle of the ship; however, the soima, as a cargo ship, does not have permanent waterlines, and hence the midship, and even with a slight trim, the midship moves to the stern. This is an extremely remarkable feature. Without exception, all previous ships had a midship ahead of the middle; only relatively recently yacht architecture, and with it other branches of shipbuilding, realized how important it is to change the midships closer to the stern than to the bow; the builders of the soymas, who lived several centuries ago, assimilated and put into practice the principle, which we have reached only now. Thus, the Russians can rightly be proud of their Ladoga soims, which are purely Russian in origin, especially since the lines themselves leave nothing to be desired. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect line. And indeed, soims on the move are very light and fast; their maritime qualities are excellent; soims maneuver perfectly, they are quite prone to oars ... Fishing boats, - the researcher sums up, - often have such excellent sea qualities that can not even always be found on yachts.
We were able to verify the validity of the last conclusion a year later, when a Dori-type yacht under a powerful engine could not catch up with our sailing crew.
In the course of my research on the soima, I sometimes came across contented and controversial information, which, I think, will be interesting to readers. For example, that the soyma has been known in Pomorye since the 11th century (?), and that one of the soymas went all the way to America in 1834! The latest version was written by the famous folklorist and local historian V. Pulkin. The researcher took this information from the Olonets collection of the late 19th century. “Not very long ago, one could still meet old people around the basin of Lake Onega, sailing the seas as sailors on Russian and foreign ships,” this collection reported, “and around 1834, one of the Onega peasants on his own ship sailed to America and back » . As you can see, the original source does not name the type of vessel, so we will have to part with the version that the soyma saw the American coast for now ...
However, there were also more reliable sources. For example, in 1804, the English traveler Atkinson (J.A. Atkinson) sketched the soims he saw. But where the traveler met them, and where these drawings are now stored, was not reported.
Later reports about soims are also very interesting, especially when the author observed these marvelous boats "live". Such information about soims - only in this case, Ilmen - was left by local historian M. Barinov, who in the late 1960s observed soims and even went to them in Lake Ilmen. “The Soima is unlike any of the ships known to me,” he writes. - At first glance, it refutes all the elementary laws of shipbuilding. Let's start with the fact that it has a trim on the nose. She has two short masts and the front one is fixed right next to the stem, exactly in the place where on big ships there is a bow flagpole for a bow flag. The two masts, at any rate, are more than oddly placed. And besides, both masts are tilted forward! I'm not talking about such details, understandable only to specialists, as about the absurdly forwarded centerboard well, etc. In a word, not a ship, but a caricature, not to swim, but to tumble.
However, then, having independently sailed on these "cartoon" ships, Barinov admired their navigable qualities and optimal design. Here is a description of his first meeting with deck fishing teams on the stormy Ilmen: “Gloomy purple clouds rolled in from the north-west, and the horizon swirled with white foam for all three hundred and sixty degrees. Ilmen presented a formidable sight with him that night ... And suddenly, not far from us, I saw the black silhouettes of two ships going to cut. In less than three minutes, in the ghostly whitish haze of the northern night, I already distinguished two sailboats, easily and freely making their way among the raging waves. Wide black sails, like wings, swept over black hulls, complete desertion on the decks and on the stern, where the helmsman is supposed to be, created a fantastic impression. They walked in parallel courses and quickly approached us. No matter how much I peered, I did not see a single person from the teams of these mysterious wanderers, they were going with full wind, jibing and white foam whiskers boiled under their sharp stems. We missed each other no more than fifteen meters, and then I noticed that a cable was fixed at the stern of the nearest sailboat, going into the water in the direction of the second. And still, not a single soul. As it turned out later, the author observed soims while fishing: “Having stretched a long net, they keep their course parallel in a stormy lake all night,” Barinov is amazed. - And, as a rule, there is no one on the rudders of ships! I can’t imagine how the amazing Ilmen navigators manage to do this!”
Of course, such flattering reports about the soyms only gave us enthusiasm, and by September half the corps was ready. The graceful contours of a copy of a medieval ship caught the eye of everyone who came to our small shipyard. In autumn, the pace of work increased. We felled several fir trees and prepared sprits and oars. Stepanych, meanwhile, finished the skin and began to cut out the frames. We couldn't wait to put the soyma on the water before winter. But Kalyazin quickly cooled our fighting ardor: “What are you doing? The boat needs to be impregnated, painted, caulked ... Where are you driving? By May, everything will be ready - and we will throw it on the water: in six seconds!
Closer to the New Year, I began to notice that the soyma was getting kind of sprawling. I measured it - the width is 3 m instead of 2 m 60 cm, as it was according to the project. It turned out that our master was too overzealous, chipping the edge of each board. Here the soyma "fell apart". With a boat length of 9.5 m, the width went to the 3rd. But Stepanych did not lose heart. “On the contrary, this is a plus for the ship,” he said, “there will be less pumping. Don't be shy guys!"
“It’s easy to say ‘don’t be shy’,” I thought, “I suppose he himself won’t go on such a boat to Ladoga without an engine, and even to Valaam himself ...” And, without further ado, I suggested Kalyazin go with us on the first voyage. But Stepanych did not even think of resisting: “On the Soyme? I'll go! And why not drink wine at sea? .. "
In the spring of 1997, having previously soaked the boat with drying oil and caulked the grooves, we set about painting. As a sample, we took the Zaitsev model from the Naval Museum: the body of the soim became black (as if tarred), and the last top board retained its natural wood color. It is worth noting that on the advice of the yacht captain Vladimir Miloslavsky, we increased the height of the board - we added one board each: after all, we dreamed of going to Europe ... Vladimir Gavrilovich generally provided us with invaluable help: he planed the boards, riveted the sheathing, painted, caulked, and in the spring performed the most important and delicate work - he made special drawings of the soyma for strict inspection of small vessels. Gavrilych helped us with equipment. He found that the windage in the drawing of Larionov and Atavin is 28 square meters. m - too large and suggested, for security reasons, to be limited to 21.5 square meters. m. As a result, the forefoot began to carry 8 square meters. m. of sails, and the mainsail - 13.5 sq. They did not forget to put the shrouds, however, as we later found out, they were not useful: low masts hold securely even without shrouds. To better go to the tack, we added a false keel.
In June 1997, the Shtandart Naval Historical Club, which was working on the reconstruction of a copy of the Petrovsky frigate of the same name, helped us transport the crew to St. Petersburg. An open fishing boat, the design of which Peter the Great was interested in, stood next to the first ship of the Baltic Fleet - the favorite brainchild of the tsar. It was symbolic. Here, on the banks of the Neva, near the Shtandart frigate under construction, we were completing work on the soyma. Additional frames were cut in, the stem was upholstered with copper, and the oars were planed. After the first tests that took place in the Gulf of Finland, some shortcomings were found out, which we immediately eliminated: we shortened the mainmast, increased the area of the rudder pen and significantly lightened the spprints and oars.
During the descent, the soyma received the name “St. Arseny" - in honor of the founder of the Konevsky monastery. The first hike on the soima took place along the route of this legendary ascetic of the 14th century - around Lake Ladoga with a visit to the Valaam and Konevsky monasteries. For three weeks, the soyma sailed and rowed about 400 kilometers, actually rounding the largest lake in Europe. "St. Arseniy" showed excellent seaworthiness. The maximum speed with which we went to Valaam under a strong side wind was 7 knots. Moreover, the boat went with a minimum roll, which was undoubtedly facilitated by low masts and a small sail area. We appreciated the spars of the boat even more when we were exhausted by sudden squalls, so characteristic of Ladoga: two people from the crew were enough to remove the mainsail, and the foresail was removed by one person! Whoever has ever removed the masts in heavy seas will share our admiration...
Upon arrival on the island of Konevets, a prayer service was served in honor of St. Arseny, and in the same place, at the monastery pier, the soyma was consecrated.
In 1998 "St. Arseniy" at the invitation of the Royal Maritime Museum in Portsmouth (England) participated in the "Great Embassy" project. This project was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Peter I's stay in Western Europe, and our soyma was in the center of attention of the festival of traditional wooden ships. During the 40 days of travel to the shores of Great Britain, a fishing boat from the Ladoga region managed to charm many - from English yachtsmen to Swedish housewives. "St. Arseny”, “soyma”, “Stepanych” - now these words are known on the banks of the English Channel! At present, England is the westernmost point where this strange snub-nosed boat, worked with an ax on the banks of the Xiasi, reached. In the homeland of Captain Cook, a special interest was shown in the soima. This is not surprising: maritime traditions are especially strong in England. And as the best compliment, the words of one experienced British shipbuilder sounded to us: “Your crew is the best boat I have ever seen in my life” ...
Characteristics:
| Housing length overall | 7.8 m |
| Hull width overall | 2.1 m |
| Draft at full load | 0.5 m |
| Case weight | 1100 kg. |
| Sail area | 18.3 m2 |
| Number of oars | 6 pcs. |
| Passenger capacity | 12 people |
| Price: | RUB 1,210,000 |
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Description:
The drawings of the traditional folk boat "Soima" were developed on the basis of a sketch published in the book by G.V. Ash "Guide for sailing enthusiasts", published in St. Petersburg in 1895.
The design of the boat hull is similar to the design of boats and is designed for harsh conditions operation, so it is perfect not only for recreation on the water, but also for fishing and fishing.
The hull of the soyma has whaleboat contours, i.e. sharp bow and stern. The main material for the manufacture of the wooden hull of the boat is selected shipbuilding pine. The longitudinal body set is laminated. Sheathing - cut on copper rivet nails, bent frames. Metal parts are made of structural steel. Galvanized bolts and screws are used to connect the body parts.
The body of the soyma is primed on the outside with red lead and painted with oil paints, and on the inside it is impregnated with natural linseed oil and covered with drying oil. Alternative option is the traditional impregnation of the boat inside and out with a mixture of linseed oil, tree resin and turpentine. The steel parts are epoxy coated.
The soima is equipped with six roller oars, a rudder with a wooden tiller, and a two-masted sprit sailing rig.
On the boat it is possible to install a stationary engine complete with shafting, systems and remote control. The engine is installed in the aft part under the casing.
We bring this material to your attention.
The spacious meadow is littered with large shavings, on the crushed grass, freshly sawn digging trees turn yellow - the transverse ribs of the boat. Or frames, if someone is more familiar with the Dutch version of the word. Swipe - more than three meters. Keel - "womb" in the local language - is also impressive. 12 meters of powerful, solid spruce timber.
Now, 15 days after the start of construction, the bony body of the soyma looks as alive as Ilmen, which has merged with the gray sky, to which there is no more than 300 meters.
"Our business is over..."
The idea of building the Ilmensky Soyma belongs to Vladimir Shchetanov, teacher of the capital's "Navigation School", researcher of folk navigation.
“Today, many are convinced that navigation in Russia originated in the time of Peter the Great thanks to the borrowing of European experience,” says Shchetanov. “But it isn't. Nautical culture was developed in our country even before the appearance of the Peter's fleet, both in the north - among the Pomors, and in the south - among the Cossacks.
One day, Shchetanov came across an article by Valery Orlov, staff correspondent of the Vokrug Sveta magazine, about the disappearing folk sailboats - wooden Novgorod soims. The material, released in 1987, was called "Leaving the horizon." Gennady Rukomoynikov, one of the well-known shipbuilders and the hero of the article, then bitterly told the journalist: "Our business is ending ...". Even then, only four pairs of soims remained on Ilmen. These boats always went fishing in pairs - they threw nets and pulled them along. Hence their other name - "two".
Reproduction of Pyotr Konchalovsky's painting "On Ilmen-Lake" (1928).
After reading Orlov's article, Vladimir studied the information on the Internet and decided to go in search of wooden soims. In general, fishing boats with this name were once used both on the White Sea and on Lake Ladoga, but they are not preserved there today. Unlike Ilmen, where Vladimir arrived in 2012. By that time, the fishermen walked along the lake on iron welded catfish. True, also under sail.
In the southern Priilmenye, Vladimir met Alexander Myakoshin, last student Gennady Rumoynikov, And Sergei Demeshev, a fisherman in the fifth generation, and now - a feeder and a big fishing artel. We talked, complained that there were no sensible drawings of the soyma - the available documents do not give a complete picture of the ship. At first, they did not even think about taking on construction, but fate decreed otherwise.
- I tried to find interested parties - both legal and natural, but no one showed interest in the Ilmensky Soyma, - Vladimir admitted. — And we decided to build a boat on our own. We work on a voluntary basis, investing personal funds.
Place for a monument
By the way, in 2007, two soyms from Sergov and Kuritsk were delivered to the Vitoslavlitsy Museum of Wooden Architecture in Novgorod. Its specialists monitor the condition of the twos, save them from moisture, but a tree is a tree. Soyma do not become stronger here.
In general, the deuce - the last surviving folk sailing ship of Russia - can be said to be ranked among the monuments. With which Valery Orlov, who saw the soymy in the field, at work, would definitely not agree. And not only him. The ending of the Oryol essay became the meaning of the cause for which Shchetanov, Myakoshin and Demeshev united in 2016. “...Now, when I saw the soyma rushing under sail on the water surface, I realized that only Lake Ilmen should become a true pedestal for it. But to do this, you need to keep it here ... ".
Soyma builders had to look for huge clamp-vices, forged nails and several thousand metal staples.
What would Novgorod be without Volkhov and Ilmen, where both "Varangians" and "Greeks" used to trade? And would there be at all? And what is Ilmen without fishing, which once gave birth to its own unique vessel, capable of withstanding the many-pound impacts of heavy waves carrying sand and silt raised from the bottom?
The Ilmensky Soyma has its own characteristics that allow it to successfully trade in harsh lake conditions. The main one among them is a retractable centerboard (from German Schwert - “sword”). It rises between the two masts of the soyma and outwardly resembles a door or window raised above the deck for some unknown reason. In fact, this is a retractable keel - an additional means of maneuvering and a great advantage of the soyma. It is necessary to approach the shore - the centerboard is raised, and the ship turns into a punt. It is necessary to go out into the open lake, the centerboard is lowered, and it works like a fin.
How long ago did soims appear on Ilmen? Sergei Demeshev hopes to find the answer to this question in the archives. Today's project to restore the construction technology of the Novgorod Soyma is on a par with other initiatives to revive and preserve almost forgotten traditions, without which Russia will be just a big uninteresting spot on the map.
Mathematics of shipbuilding
However, the participants in the Ilmen project prefer not to breed philosophy, but to do business. Like, when we build, then we'll talk. And shipbuilders have enough cases. But why did the plans for 2016 become a reality only two years later? Here's why.
The ship timber as a concept went down in history even earlier than the soyms. Finding and ordering pines and spruces of the right size - 14 meters long - was not easy. For current logging companies, the maximum is six meters. It just doesn't need to be longer. Meanwhile, the length of the uterus, the base of the body of the soyma, made from a single bar without a single joint, is 12 meters and no less. A margin of a couple of meters is necessary for the convenience of work. In its original form, many parts of the boat have completely different shapes and sizes when they are assembled together. Then they are cut and trimmed.
The wooden instruments that fix parts of the body of the soyma are entangled with tightly stretched twists of ropes.
“Last year, we still managed to find the right forest in the Borovichi district,” says Demeshev. - But just in case, they made sure and brought more from Pinaev Gorki.
For the construction of one soyma, 4000 metal staples and at least 500 forged nails are required. But it turned out to be the easiest way to get them - in Ustreka, many people still had old stocks of boat components. Good people found and shared. It was more difficult to find huge clamps-vice, but they coped with this.
And then the turn of the next problem came - the forest had to be cut. Where? Previously, a sawmill worked on the shore in Ustrek. As in many fishing villages and villages on Ilmen, there was an almost complete cycle of soym construction: from sawing wood to launching ships.
“But they sawed it in half, and in June of this year they finally started construction,” continues Sergey Demeshev.
The Disappeared Collection
Alexander Myakoshin can no longer remember when he built his last soyma. It seems to be after the collapse of the collective farm, but it was in the late 90s. He only knows that the new soyma will be the 21st in his vanished collection. And he remembers his mentor Gennady Rumoynikov well.
- He told me: “Sashka, take notes - they don’t carry a craft on their shoulders,” he recalls. - I wrote something down. Now this is useful.
Still, Myakoshin feels as if he is learning to walk again. In the case of Alexander, these words have a second meaning. Many years ago, he had an accident, and the doctors could not save his leg. But that didn't stop him from staying in his craft.
Sergey Demeshev is a fifth generation fisherman and Alexander Myakoshin is the last shipbuilder on Ilmen
What Myakoshin did not have time to write down, his hands remember along the way. And the assistants were sensible - fishermen Alexei Kuzmin and Vladimir Klevtsov. Listen, act, remember. Unhurried, outwardly calm work is full of tension. The wooden instruments that fix parts of the body of the soyma are entangled with tightly stretched twists of ropes. You gape a little - they will burst, and not only chips, but also teeth will fly to the sides.
Vladimir Shchetanov is not only an inspirer and organizer. He carefully captures the process on a video camera and camera. This is the whole essence of the project - to document the process of building the Soyma in its entire sequence, every hammered nail, every staple, and post drawings, engineering drawings, photos and videos on the Internet, so that anyone who is interested in the history of the country, the traditions of Russian shipbuilding, can get understanding of ship building technology. For these purposes, the project participants created a special group in social network VKontakte "Ilmenskaya Soyma".
Last Sunday, shipbuilders completed the most difficult stage - they mounted the bottom of the boat, where the boards are bent with a screw.
- We used to have it like this: we made the bottom - consider that half of the boat is ready. You can breathe easy, says the master.
But there is still a lot of work to be done: it is necessary to complete the installation of the hull, install the masts, sew two sails - the bow and stern, equip the boat ... Much will depend on the weather. If the heat returns, Myakoshin and his assistants will have to suspend work - the tree loves moist air. Then there are tests on the Ilmen wave. So...
Vladimir Shchetanov captures every moment of the construction of the soyma on film and video camera
— Another of our tasks is to assess the potential of the soyma as a vessel for maritime practice, expeditions, family vacation or sailing,” Shchetanov says. — On these boats it is possible to arrange beautiful races, walks for vacationers, it would be possible to organize practice for those wishing to learn navigation. Maybe there will be those who want to order new soyma. However, let's not guess.
Photo by Vladimir Malygin
At least once the Ilmen soyma has already died and revived. In the 70s, when boats with large nets replaced wooden deuces, boats with smooth nets became less popular. Sergei Demeshev spoke about this. Soima requires constant care, and serves only 7-8 years. Yes, and with a sail you need to be able to manage, and on Ilmen, where the weather changes in a matter of hours, a pilot's mistake can have the most fatal consequences. But in the 1990s, when Russia faced its first economic crisis, the Soym fishing came back. For a deuce, a large crew was never required - only four people, four like-minded people. It is always easier to gather four of us than to organize a large artel. Especially in difficult times.
From the essay by Valery Orlov “Going Beyond the Horizon” (“Around the World”, July 1987): “...Long-bodied, with convex sails on masts carried far forward, with a low cockpit roof, wide sides in the middle - the soyma seemed to me and indeed sailed from the distance of centuries. From the time when crowds of merchant guests were noisy in the squares of the city of Novgorod, bells rang merrily, and the walls of the Kremlin did not even suspect that they would be protected by people as expensive monuments.
Before Peter I, it was not customary in Russia to give names to ships. And the Ilmen soyms were also nameless. But despite this, it was customary for fishermen to treat the deuce as a member of the family. She is the main helper in the house. And feed the fish, and help bring hay, and prepare firewood.
Forged nails were collected from old stocks by the whole village
