A huge Titanic, giant nuclear-powered icebreakers or oil tankers … Ships were built big to amaze the public, or to save on transportation. Today it is difficult to surprise a person by citing large figures for the length of ships … however, the Russian "belyans" can still amaze. So much so that the Americans published an article in it, calling these river vessels the aircraft carriers of the early twentieth century.
Of course, the Belyans were not any aircraft carriers. But what else to call a ship with a length of under a hundred meters, a width of twenty, a side height of about six meters, and a carrying capacity of up to ten thousand tons. I must say that these characteristics are more suitable for ocean-going ships, and the "Belyany" sailed only along the Volga and its large tributaries - Kama, Vetluga.
During the construction of these huge flat-bottomed ships, about two hundred and fifty pine and two hundred spruce trunks were used. The strength of the hull was achieved by the fact that the distance between the frames was usually about half a meter. The bow and stern were equally pointed, and the huge rudder in the form of a collar was turned with the help of a log.
"Belyany", like many wooden things in Russia, knew how to build "without a single nail", but nails were still used for large ships. The rigging was also present, although in fact the "Belyana" simply floated with the flow - from the upper reaches to Astrakhan. Unless anchors (weighing one hundred pounds) sometimes came in handy.
The cargo of the "Belyan" was "white forest" (logs without bark), stored in huge piles (maybe the name of the ships comes from this "white forest"?). It was also interesting in them that when the pile began to rise above the sides, the logs were laid in loosening, that is, so that they protruded beyond the sides, increasing the width of the vessel to more than thirty meters. Here it was necessary to show skill, so as not to upset the balance.
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The top "layer" of the cargo was the deck. There they installed a couple of huts for the crew, a pilot's booth at the transitions from roof to roof, several gates for anchors. The team of "Belians" usually consisted of two or three dozen people (on large ones - up to eighty). Which worked mainly on pumps that pump out water from the body.
And the most amazing thing about these huge ships was that they were essentially disposable. The "little ones" were still climbing back to the upper reaches by barge haulers, while the big ones immediately sorted out. And these ships were sold as a whole - both cargo, and hull, and buildings. By the way, according to one of the versions, that is why the "belyans" were called "belyans" - the hull (and even more so the load) simply did not have time to darken in one navigation.
