For any Soviet boy, Captain Vrungel has always been one of the most beloved literary heroes. The book about his adventures is a bestseller, and the cartoon has collected millions of viewers from the screens. Moreover, the most amazing thing is that all the characters in the book had their real prototypes. Even the yacht "Trouble" actually existed.
From sailors to writers
At the age of 19, Alexander Nekrasov, the literary father of Captain Vrungel, left dusty Moscow, along with the disgusting job of an installer in a tram depot, and went to Murmansk to become a sailor. The action turned out to be correct. During his career as a sailor, the writer had a chance to catch cod in the Barents Sea, drill oil on Sakhalin, and catch whales in the Pacific Ocean. During all his sea voyages, Nekrasov neatly entered into a thick notebook the maritime stories, which he had to witness. When the writer decided to write a novel about Captain Vrungel, without hesitation, he chose the captain-dreamer, his boss, Andrei Vronsky, who led the whaling industry in the Far East, into his prototypes. The fact is that Vronsky passionately dreamed of going on a trip around the world, but his dream was not given to come true. Most of the storiesthat formed the basis of the plot of the book, were invented and told to Nekrasov by Vronsky himself, which in fact was reflected in the “speaking” name of the literary captain.
Scrap or Mann?
It should be noted that Nekrasov generally liked to “play” with pseudonyms. So, in the role of the prototype of the senior mate of Captain Vrungel - Lom - Vronsky's friend, a tall sailor named Ivan Mann, acted as a prototype. From German, Mann is translated as a person. And the word "man" in French, in turn, sounds like a "scrap". In turn, the book card sharper Fuchs, who inevitably became a sailor, performed under his real name and had that extraordinary appearance that is described in the book. In real life, Fuchs was the name of a friend of the writer.
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Who built the yacht "Trouble"
Nevertheless, if the character and adventures of captain Vrungel Nekrasov wrote from Vronsky, then the creator of the yacht - the prototype of the "Trouble" - was Dmitry Lukhmanov, a famous navigator and artist. He, as described in the book, taught in a sailor, the cadets of which were Andrei Vronsky, the prototype of Vrungel, and Ivan Mann, the prototype of Loma. As described at the beginning of the novel, one day the cadets approached Lukhmanov with a request to help them build a yacht for a round-the-world trip. The teacher agreed. Thus, the 10.8-meter sailing yacht Krasnaya Zvezda, built in just one year, became the prototype of "Trouble"! Andrei Vronsky was already trying on the captain's tunic when the unpleasant news came: the small yacht was not allowed to participate in international races. But the failed captain had a reason to compose a lot of fables immortalized in the book.
Magazine: History Russian Seven # 1, Dmitry Sokolov