XV 



THE LESSER STEAMERS 



THE icebreaker is a vessel with a very 

 strongly built hull, and is used in the 

 Baltic and Arctic ports of Russia. Usually 

 they are built in Britain, many of them 

 coming from the Tyne. 



This class of ship is not intended to 

 break the ice, which makes the port use- 

 less during the winter months the task 

 would be too great for it. But at the begin- 

 ning of the winter a passage may be kept 

 clear for a week or two after the frost has 

 set in, and in the spring this powerful ship 

 will smash its way through the ice directly 

 there are signs of it giving; thus a port 

 may be used about a month longer 

 each year than would otherwise be the 



case. 



184 



