Ancient legends and chronicles told people that the path to the Far North was paved by sailors for hundreds of years. Probably, light ships of the Normans were in the waters of the "Cold Sea" about 1000 years ago. But reliable information about this has not been preserved. Russian chronicles say that hundreds of years ago the Pomors walked along the harsh waters of this sea - settlers on the shores of the White Sea and the Kola Peninsula from Novgorodians. Courageous, free from the serf yoke, Novgorod peasants united in squads and went to unknown lands for precious furs, to fish and sea animals.
The tenacious hands of boyars and sovereign servants did not reach the distant shores of the White Sea. The common people left for the North not only from the lands of Veliky Novgorod. Peasants from the central and north-western regions of the country fled here in order to get rid of mastery, unbearable extortion and debt bondage.
In the XII-XV centuries. Novgorodians explored and mastered the coast of the Kola Peninsula, the coast of the White Sea. They built strong ships and sailed far from their villages on the seas of the Arctic.
The Pomors discovered the islands Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, Bear, Spitsbergen (then this archipelago was called Grumant's Land).
Quite often brave Pomors had to stand up to protect the lands they had developed, which foreigners began to covet.
The Russian North has long been a bustling trading place where foreign merchants from Western Europe flocked. They bought here precious furs, fat and skins of sea animals, walrus tusks and other goods that were delivered from Western Siberia by land, through the polar Urals, and by sea.
In their voyages to the east along the "Arctic Sea", Western European travelers, as a rule, used the help of Russian sailors. The first Russian pilots appeared on the Neva and Volkhov during the time of Veliky Novgorod.
They were then called ship leaders ("leaders"). In the North, in Pomorie, there was even a special fishing industry and artels of ship leaders.
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Russian sailors went deep into the seas. On the islands of the Arctic, researchers many times found the remains of Russian Pomor wintering grounds and their fishing equipment. Pomor Ivan Starostin is known to researchers of the Russian North, for many years he settled on Grumant (Spitsbergen). The Russians mastered the Bear Island. Foreigners even called its northern coast "the Russian coast".
Russian Pomors laid the foundation for a new type of navigation - ice navigation. They managed to explore not only the European North, but also a significant part of the Asian coast.
The study of the ships of the ancient Novgorodians and Pomors who settled in the North showed what abilities and ingenuity the first Russian Arctic seafarers possessed.
Russian sea boat of the 16th century could take on board 200 tons of cargo. It was a three-masted deck vessel with straight sails. For sailing on the White Sea, boats of smaller sizes were usually intended, with a deck and two masts. Pomors sailed on ships of other types. The most ancient ship is the kochmara, or koch, a three-masted deck ship. The koch is very similar in design to a lodya, only it is smaller in size. Pomors also built simpler types of ships: ranchins, augers and karbas.
On some types of ships, the Pomors attached the skin to the hull of the ship with the help of juniper roots. In some cases, northern shipbuilders preferred wire to iron nails, since they were convinced by experience that it was more reliable than iron. The sheathing, sewn on with a vest, was more watertight than those fastened with iron nails. When sailing in ice, the hull of the ship loosened and leaked in places where there were nails. In addition, the nails quickly corroded and destroyed the sheathing. With a wooden fastening, the vitsa, swelling, almost did not let water through at all. The planks, sewn in a special way to the frame of the ship, held tight.
In addition to juniper, a young thin spruce up to one and a half meters high served as a material for wooden "threads". The trunks of such trees were cleared of branches, twisted and dried. They were steamed before use. These "threads" were used to sew boats. The master's set of tools usually consisted of an ax, a saw, a drill, a level and a fathom, divided into arshins and vershoks. The ships were built on the river bank, near the customer's house. Immediately on the sixth in the sand or in the hut with chalk on the floor, the master made a drawing and made the necessary calculations. First, they built the frame of the ship, which was then sheathed with boards outside and inside. Then they put and fastened high straight masts and laid the deck.
A large ship, a lodya, was built by an artel of carpenters in one winter.
By order of Ivan the Terrible, the first large shipyards and even a dry dock were built for the construction of ships on the White Sea at the Solovetsky Monastery.
In ancient times, sails on Pomor ships were sometimes made of suede - deerskin, processed with the fat of a sea animal. On the belt tackle was the skin of a bearded seal.
The boats had a flat wide bottom and a shallow draft, so when sailing in ice to "unseen land" they did not need special harbors in order to hide from a storm or winter. Sometimes the Pomors had to pull their boats onto the ice or ashore. With all these advantages, the Pomor ships also had their drawbacks: they were worse than keel ships, obeying the helm, especially during rough seas.
Sailing in the Arctic Ocean with its harsh climate, heaps of ice and unknown currents was a good school for sailors. Hardy and courageous, not afraid of strong frosts and strong winds, the Pomors boldly set out on distant voyages along the stormy ocean waves on their small wooden ships.
In their daily struggle with the elements, the Pomors have studied the "Cold Sea" well. They knew that the magnitude of the ebb and flow is associated with the position of the moon in the sky, and figuratively called tidal phenomena "sighs of the sea-ocean."
“His chest is wide, powerful,” they said, “as he sighs, he lifts his chest, then water has arrived: the tide means. Exhale - water leaves: ebb comes. The ocean-father does not breathe often: he inhales twice, exhales twice - the day will pass."
The Pomors knew the compass, which they called the queen. They have long recognized time by the sun and stars.
Winds, depending on the direction, they also called in their own way. "Midnighter", for example, was the name of the northeast wind; "Sholonnik" - the wind blowing from the south-west; "Coastal" - northwest wind; The "lunchroom" - southeast. Russian sailors studied not only winds, but also currents, ebbs and flows, the state of ice.
They knew well and used local remedies against scurvy: cloudberries, spoon grass, raw meat and warm animal blood. For a long time, northern seafarers had handwritten maps, drawings and handwritten sailing directions, which briefly described the seashore, indicated profitable and safe routes and the best time for ships to sail.
The oldest handwritten sailing directions had the following titles: "Charter as Driving Vessels", "Ship Navigation of the Russian Ocean-Sea", "Grumanlandskaya Course".
Sailing in the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean developed dexterity, peculiar methods of controlling the ship. The Pomors improved their experience and passed it on from generation to generation. If, for example, the wind heavily heeled the boat, threatening to overturn it instantly, the Pomor threw a sharp ax or knife into the sail, and then the wind tore the sail to shreds, and the boat would level out.
Northern sailors have long used blubber as a means of calming anxiety. On the ships of the Pomors, there were always several barrels with seal or seal fat in stock.
In 1771, the famous Russian academician I. I. Lepekhin wrote about this: “This remedy consists in breaking in lard, which is poured into the sea during the splashing of the ship, or sacks filled with it are allowed near the ship. Since ancient times, our Pomorians have known this remedy, and for many years before it was in use by them, rather than the European departments about this remedy as some important discovery were published. Northern seafarers-pomors were explorers of the Arctic Ocean. Fearlessly sailing the unknown rough seas, they made valuable geographical discoveries.