Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

78 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. it required manual labour, many hundreds of men had to be employed on it. THE “ BAIKAL ” AND THE “ ANGARA.” {Fig. 13.) The erection of the machinery and the general fitting-out of the vessel had now made such rapid progress that on January 16, 1900, the Baikal steamed out of Baranschick harbour through eighteen inches of ice, and moored opposite the east end of the village. From this place frequent successful trials were made through the ice, which by the middle of February had increased in thickness to four and even five feet in Trial Runs, places. Although the Baikal ice is exceptionally strong, the steamer experienced no difficulty in making her way through it and opening up a canal across the lake. The early summer of 1900 saw the train-ferry Baikal a finished ship. In the autumn of 1898 Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., Limited, re- ceived an order from the Russian Government for the building of a second steamer to assist the larger The vessel in carrying passengers “Angara.” across the lake. The Angara, as she was eventually called, is much smaller and less powerful than the Baikal. Her machinery consists of one set of engines aft, with sufficient power to drive her through two and a half feet of ice, the form and design of the vessel being that of an ice-breaker. In the middle of winter, when the ice has attained its greatest thickness, the Angara follows in the wake of the larger vessel on her journeys across the lake. The transport of her parts from St. Peters- burg to the lake was a matter of small diffi- culty as compared to that of handling tho Baikal components, because the railway had reached the lake in the autumn of the previous year. The reassembling of the Angara, two months after the dispatch of the material from Newcastle, proved a much easier task than the building of the Baikal, thanks to the launching berth and workshops all being in readiness.