Probably, even today there are people among us who have seen and remember the funny comedy "Volga-Volga", in which its heroes sail along the Volga on a steamer to Moscow and sing at the same time: “America gave Russia a steamer, it has wheels in the back and is terribly quiet move ". It was called "Sevryuga" and looked like it actually got to the Volga from the era of Mark Twain. The pipes on it were across the hull, and behind the stern was a large paddle wheel. Did the Americans really give this "miracle" of technology to us? It is known that during the war years, Stalin often watched this film and often at the same time urged the American representative of the US President Harry Hopkins, they say, here it is - your vaunted technique! It is clear that everyone was laughing, but was it “just a funny movie” or did such ships still exist on the Volga?
Steamer Zeveke "Magdalena"
The reason for everything is competition!
And the story began with American steamers in Russia along with the rapid development of market relations in our country, brought about by the abolition of serfdom. Accordingly, this became the impetus for the development of the Volga shipping, so that steamers of various designs began to appear on the Volga one after another. Several shipping companies were immediately formed, competition appeared between them, and where it is, there is always someone who is trying to bypass his “colleagues”, or, say, by reducing the cost of travel fares or offering more comfort for the same fee. The simplest and most affordable way was to start building steamers with two or three decks at once, in order to dramatically increase the passenger capacity of one steamer. But where to find a suitable sample: easy to build, and - most importantly, not very expensive ?!
Alfons Alexandrovich Zeveke is the founder of the company.
And in 1881, Alfons Aleksandrovich Zeveke, a famous Volga shipbuilder, specially sent his son to South America to look at the local rear-wheel steamers that sailed along the Amazon River, and were built on the model of steamers that sailed along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. He looked at the local steamers, and he liked them, after which Zeveke's company made a bet on them and … thus tried to overtake all its competitors here on the Volga. Already in the winter of 1881 - 1882 in Nizhny Novgorod, the construction of the first Russian steamship "Amazonka", which had a rear-wheel drive, was completed!
Steamships of the Zeveke company in the Nizhny Novgorod roads.
Lightweight, comfortable, and heavy duty!
The steamer turned out to be a success: a ship with three decks, 58 m long, 11 m wide, besides flat-bottomed and … it turned out to be record-breaking light. The empty Amazon had a draft of only 0.71 m, and having a full load on board (400 passengers and 393 tons of cargo), it sank to 1.2 m. The speed downstream was 20 km / h, and against the current, in depending on its strength, 12-15. Low weight and relative cheapness (the whole ship was entirely built of wood!) In comparison with other Volga paddle steamers of that time gave it undeniable advantages. Since the steamer was originally designed as a cargo-passenger, the hold and most of the deck were diverted under the cargo. Passenger cabins were of three classes and were located on the upper (3rd) deck, where two tall narrow pipes, installed across the hull, rose closer to the bow, which gave the Volgars a reason to call the new steamers "goats". Two boilers and a two-cylinder steam engine were also installed directly on the deck: boilers at the bow, and the machine at the stern. Thanks to this arrangement, the middle part of the vessel was freed to accommodate the cargo, and its ends were protected from unwanted sagging.
Steamer Zeveke "Pearl". Rear wheel.
The paddle wheel, located aft, was driven by two connecting rods. And here, in front of the wheel, there were four rudders at once, controlled by two tiller. Such an installation of rudders had its own meaning, since it made it possible to somewhat increase the maneuverability of the vessel when it was moving in shallow water. The new steamer showed itself very well during the low water period in 1883, when it sailed between Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov. As a result, in 1883 - 1888. According to the same project, Zeveke's company built several more of the same steamships, but already with a significantly higher carrying capacity.
Service means a lot!
In July 1887, the owner of the company, Alphonse Zeveke, died, leaving his heirs with a substantial capital of a million rubles and a whole fleet of 13 large cargo-passenger rear-wheel steamers that were employed on the routes from Rybinsk to Nizhny Novgorod and from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan. The company pursued a very competent marketing policy. For example, when buying return tickets, discounts have been introduced: in the 1st class up to 25% and in the 2nd class up to 20%. By agreement with railway companies, the sale of unified railway and water tickets was also introduced for tourists. Free delivery of the company's passengers' luggage from the railway station to the pier was carried out, in a word, everything was done so that people spoke well of Zevek's company!
First and second class passengers on his steamers had luxuriously decorated and furnished cabins at their service. They were equipped with excellent buffets, libraries were set up on board the ships, where there were not only books, but also the latest newspapers and magazines, and even … salons with pianos! In addition, passengers of these two classes could turn to the captain with a request (if they wanted to) to moor at any pier of their choice out of schedule. Well, if there was no berth on the shore, then the boat had to be lowered from the steamer (and lowered!) In order to deliver the passenger to the shore. That is, it was possible to disembark from the Zevekev steamers even "in the bushes", which was often used by the then revolutionaries, who thus escaped from the police. All this helped to overcome the public's prejudice against the new unusual-looking steamers, about which many then said that they were too high, and the strong wind would certainly overturn them! Because of these rumors, new steamers at first often set sail half-empty, but … then the admiring stories of all those who were not afraid to take risks, and, of course, skillful advertising in print, did their job, and the public on these steamers of the Zeveke company is what is called “gone."
True, during operation it turned out that the shape of the stern of such "rear wheel steamers" leads to the formation of a whirlpool behind them. This worsened the ship's controllability, especially on a quiet run, but it was already impossible to change something.
New problems and new solutions
Naturally, Zeveke's example turned out to be very attractive, and soon the rear-wheel steamers of other shipping companies appeared on the Volga: Russia (merchant Petelin), Brilliant, Yakhont, Turquoise, Izumrud, Rubin, Pearl "(company" Druzhina "). To avoid limb sagging caused by the location of the boilers at the bow of the vessel, and the machines at the stern, the ends of the steamers were pulled together with a metal cable, as was done on American steamers. At the same time, the cable itself was laid on racks fixed in the center plane of the vessel, and pulled with the help of lanyards.
One of Zeveke's steamers on the Volga.
In 1886, the Novinka steamer with a carrying capacity of 740 tons was launched. It, as well as other steamers of its type, also received the fourth class for passengers, and were packed with cargo and people literally to the eyeballs. True, their speed dropped to 13 km / h, but the payment for them was also almost two times lower than on other types of cargo-passenger steamers. Due to their lightness and low cost, they had a number of economic advantages, however, design flaws, low speed, not too good controllability and very primitively equipped rooms for passengers on these ships no longer met the increased requirements. Therefore, in the future, the construction of rear-wheel steamers on the Volga was discontinued.
On some of these steamers, very original, if not funny, technical solutions were used. So on "Yakhont" the steam engine was half protruded from the hold, while the boilers were on the main deck! Moreover, the transfer from it to the paddle wheel was carried out using a wooden connecting rod … several meters long! In this case, the crank, when rotating at its lowest point, touched the water, especially when the steamer was completely draft. The bearing was entirely in the water, and the connecting rod spanked loudly in the water. But the oilers responsible for lubricating the bearing were happy: they did not have to check its temperature every now and then, which they usually did by touch, because now it was continuously cooled by water. In addition, they had three very large rudders at once, although they were not very deep in the water, but they were as long as they were then installed on barges, so they were controlled relatively well. It's funny that they worked best and were controlled when they went in reverse, because this is how the paddle wheel drove the water "under itself".
River battleship of the northerners "St. Louis".
"Volga brown water armadillos"
By the beginning of the civil war on the Volga, "American type" steamers were still sailing, and there were quite a few of them. But - and this is very strange, none of the naval officers who fought under the banners of the KOMUCH (Committee of the Constituent Assembly members) did not even think about turning them into warships like the American "brown water battleships"! And this is the most amazing thing! They could not help but read (and simply had to study this being in the midshipmen) about what the first battleships were like, how they were created, armed and used. After all, the events of 1861 - 1865. were very close to them in time and there was enough information on this topic.
Typical river battleship 1861 - 1865
Rail armor. The sample was raised from the bottom of the Mississippi. The gray mass between the rails is the sludge that has accumulated there.
In the same magazine "Niva", "Around the World" there were drawings and articles, and in the "Sea Collection" there were also enough of them. However, the memoirs of the “river officers” of KOMUCH are full of messages that “no one knew what to do,” “had no idea,” and so on. When it was decided to arm the Volga steamers, 76, 2-mm guns were first placed openly on the deck at first: one in front, the other in the back, and two machine guns on the sides. Then they figured out that it was necessary to make the turning circles and … they did it, and the wheels of the guns were attached to them with clamps. They turned this "installation" with the help of the "rule", but she had no armor. True, the machine guns over the casings of the side wheels after some time were placed in towers of large-diameter iron pipes inserted into one another. The space between them was filled with tar and the bullets did not penetrate this "armor", they were stuck in the melt! The tower turned on a pivot, with the feet of the machine gunner sitting in it. We found bales of Iranian cotton in the warehouses and made "armor" out of them - they surrounded the sides, the wheelhouse, and the extremities.
Steamer "Methodius", which was used by the Czechoslovak Legion during the march to Kazan
Meanwhile, it was from the rear-wheel and paddle steamers that both the northerners and the southerners built their first battleships! The armor in the form of a rectangular casemate with inclined walls was made of rolled rails and sleepers. The decks were removed from the hull, the pipes were cut off, guns were placed in the embrasures of the casemate: usually 2-3 forward, 4-5 along the sides and 2 back. The shells of the rowing boats were also armored, or one wheel was closed on all sides by a casemate. Moreover, the guns were solid: 6, 8 and even 10 inches. And the rifled guns of Parrot and Dahlgren, and smooth-bore - what was, then they put it. But now imagine exactly the same hypothetical "Volga battleship", armed with rapid-fire "three-inches" with the same arrangement, and it will be clear that an ordinary Volga armed steamer based on a tugboat would be several times superior. Even shrapnel, put on strike, could do little with it, and then there were few high-explosive shells, and where would they be to shoot at? It turns out that what was good on the Mississippi, at a new turn in history, could work even better on the Volga, but … it did not work! Barges (non-self-propelled) were armed with 102-mm guns and even 152-mm howitzers. Their tanks (oil-loading barges were used) were filled with concrete, which turned them into exceptionally heavily armored and armed vessels … devoid of both progress and maneuverability, but that's all.
Typical "cotton battleship" of the southerners, armored with bales of cotton.
The authors of the memoirs note that there was not enough armor, guns, shells, but there were rails! The sleepers were there, which means there was practically finished armor. That is, having such "battleships" KOMUCH could not only capture Kazan, Samara and Tsaritsyn, and keep the entire Volga in his hands, but also successfully fight even the Baltic destroyers transferred through the Mariinsky system on the orders of Lenin to the Volga. And there, you see, Kolchak's armies would have approached its shores, and … the whole history of Russia would have changed in the most incredible way. That is, the "hint" to the officers of Komumchev in the form of the steamers to Zeveke was, one might say, right before their eyes, the history of the "battleships of brown water" they, as educated people, should have known. There were also enough engineers on the Volga. But none of this was done! Well, in the end, those who fought under the red banner - yes, you shouldn't be surprised at that (and the Kappelevites fought under the black-orange St. the form in which it is.
Battle of river battleships on the Mississippi.
Well, individual steamers of the Druzhina campaign sailed along the Volga even in the pre-war years, and the Yakhont remained until 1956, when it was scrapped. In the comedy film "Volga-Volga", such a steamer that survived until that time, called for some reason "Sevryuga", was filmed. So no Americans gave it to us!
Northerners battleship "Essex"
People of a happy destiny
Usually, the fate of Russian merchants of the late 19th - early 20th centuries did not indulge: he went bankrupt and shot himself, he drank himself, the other died in the revolution, but the sons of A. A. Zevek was lucky. The steamship society was inherited by his eldest son (from his first marriage) - Alexander Alfonsovich (1864 - 1917), who managed to die before the Bolshevik coup.
Legendary "Sevryuga" from the comedy "Volga-Volga".
His youngest son (from his second marriage), Vasily Alfonsovich Zeveke (1878-1941), also became a river operator: in 1914 he went to Germany to buy ships, and in 1917 he was in the United States for almost a year on the instructions of the Russian Ministry of Waterways. Having left the Russian Empire abroad, he returned to Soviet Russia, and spent all his life in Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky), where he worked as a shipbuilder at the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard. At one time, he became interested in photography and saved not only his photos, but also old family negatives made on glass plates (they used to be called so - photographic plates). His son, the grandson of his famous grandfather, Alexander, also became an amateur photographer, and all this unique family heritage passed to him. In 2007, he handed it over to the archive of audiovisual documentation of the Nizhny Novgorod region, for which he was awarded a diploma of the regional governor. So all the descendants of the shipowner Zeveke lived the time prescribed by God, were not repressed, lived in their homeland, and one of their family steamers even got into a popular motion picture, but they did not influence the course of history!
