Icebreaker (Pilot)
Rompehielos (Pilot)
- Date
- 1864 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kronstadt, Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Credited to
- Mikhail Britnev
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A steamer with a sloping bow that rides up onto ice and breaks it by weight, devised by the Russian shipowner Mikhail Britnev to keep the port of Kronstadt open. It led to ocean icebreakers like the Yermak.
In North America reinforced tugs were already used to break ice; Pilot is usually seen as the first purpose-built icebreaker, and Yermak (1898) the first ocean-going one.
What it led to
- ocean icebreakers (Yermak, 1898)
- ice-free winter ports in the Baltic
- the Northern Sea Route and Russian presence in the Arctic