Ussuri (river boat)

It was built in Hamburg by Beit & Co., along with the Sungacha ship of the same type. Delivered by sea to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur in a disassembled condition, assembled at the Nikolaev Admiralty. It was launched on May 15 (28), 1863 (“Sungacha” - four days earlier). The steamships were intended for sailing along the rapids of the Ussuri and Sungach rivers , as well as along the shallow lake Khanka . They were based in the lower reaches of Ussuri, in the villages of Nevelskaya and Kazakevich ^[1] . Regular flights “Sungachi” and “Ussuri” began in 1865 ^[2] .

1864 Expedition

Desiring to organize the supply of Amur Region and Primorye with agricultural products of Manchuria , as well as to find the possibility of more convenient travel for Russian diplomats from Irkutsk to Beijing , the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia M.S. Korsakov in the summer of 1864 ordered to send a steamboat with a barge to Girin . The expedition led by the commander of the Amur Equestrian Cossack Brigade, Colonel G. F. Chernyaev , was assigned the following tasks:

• Colonel G.F. Chernyaev was to transmit to Jiangjin (military governor) Girin a friendly message from M.S. Korsakov and "agree ... on the actions of Chinese officials between the natives on the Amur and Ussuri, who accepted our citizenship and did not accept it, but living on ours side. "
• The Consul of Russia in Urga, Y. P. Shishmarev , was to obtain permission from the Girin authorities to travel Russian diplomats through Manchuria to Beijing. According to Article 2 of the Tianjin Treaty of 1858, passage was permitted either from Kyakhta via Urga, or by sea through the port of Dagu . The path through Mongolia passed through hard-to-reach uninhabited places, which made the trips of diplomats long and uncomfortable.
• The crew of the vessel, together with the specialists attached, was to “familiarize themselves with the properties of the river, draw up an eye chart of it and, if possible, determine the population size and its main industry” ^[3] .

The expedition included the topographer A. N. Konradi, astronomer A. F. Usoltsev , adjutant M. S. Korsakova, Prince P. A. Kropotkin , commander of the vessel, lieutenant A. Lyubitsky, mechanical engineer, second lieutenant V. Shchetinin, as well as 20 lower officials Most of the sailors had experience in reconnaissance and communication with the Chinese. So, Y. P. Shishmarev and A. F. Usoltsev participated in the delimitation of Russia and China in the South Ussuri Territory in 1860, and P. A. Kropotkin earlier, in the same 1864, crossed Manchuria from west to east, following from Starotsuruhaitui to Blagoveshchensk ^{[4] [5]} .

Swimming took place in the autumn months, when the water level in the rivers of Manchuria drops. For this reason, and also due to the fact that the vessel received a large number of passengers and had increased draft, navigation to Jirin was slow. On the way, the expedition visited Sanxing while Bodune , lying near the confluence of the Nonni River in the Sungari, could not be visited due to the hostility of the local authorities. In Jilin, authorities refused to negotiate, after which the continued decline in water forced the ship to return to Amur . As a result, of the three tasks, the expedition completed only the last ^[6] .

Subsequently, P. A. Kropotkin for political reasons accused the Russian government of forgetting the results of the voyage ^[7] :

Then they forgot about this expedition. Astronomer Usoltsev and I, we printed trip reports in the Notes of the East Siberian Division of the Geographical Society; but a few years later, during a terrible fire in Irkutsk, all the remaining copies of the Notes, as well as the map of Sungari, were lost. And only recently, when work began on the Manchurian Railway, Russian geographers dug up our reports and found that Sungari was explored thirty years ago.

In fact, a brief report on the Ussuri voyage was published in the journal Marine Collection in May 1866 under the heading “Sungari River Manchuria Navigation to the City of Jilin. Removing from the diaries of Prince Kropotov and staff captain Usoltsev conducted on board the ship July 24 - August 21, 1864 ” ^[8] .

1866 Expedition

Conceived by the military governor of the Amur Region, Major General N. V. Busse with the following objectives:

1. To purchase a batch of Manchu bread for the troops of the Amur region. In principle, the Russian right to this was granted to Article 2 of the Aigun Treaty of 1858 , however, the relevant regulations were not spelled out in the Rules for Land Trade between Russia and China of 1862. In case of obstacles from the Chinese authorities, the expedition was ordered to resort to secret trading.
2. Arrange the population of the inner regions of Manchuria to Russia.
3. To claim the right of Russian vessels to free navigation throughout the entire river. Sungari ^[9] . Such a right was declared by Article 1 of the Aigun Treaty.

The head of the expedition was appointed retired Colonel Khilkovsky, who had 14,500 silver rubles for the purchase of goods and 600 rubles for “gifts” to Chinese officials. At his disposal was a translator of the Manchu language Gomboev. On the steamer were a representative of the Shchegorins trading house with goods worth 4 thousand rubles and a representative of the merchant Plyusnin with a capital of 500 rubles. The expedition also included ship commander A. Lyubitsky, mechanical engineer V. Shchetinin, 17 lower ranks of the Amur Navy crew, 3 lower ranks of the Nikolaev port crew, 10 privates of the 2nd East Siberian battalion with 1 non-commissioned officer and 1 paramedic ^[10] .

The ship entered the Sungari River on July 10 (23), 1866, having a barge in tow. The water in Sungari stood 0.6 m above the mark of the fall of 1864, however, swimming was complicated by the search for the fairway , winds and cloudy weather. The ship often ran aground and received several damage to the hull, corrected by the team. July 16-18, the ship was in Sansin, where Khilkovsky met with the local amban (ruler). Having received a ban on the purchase of grain, the expedition went up the Sungari, but was faced with a strong decline in water, which stopped a day later. During this time, "Ussuri" managed to get a hole in the roll and returned to Sanxing for repair. We managed to continue the voyage on July 23 - having twice got aground, the ship was able to go into deep water. On July 27-31, the ship was in the Hulanhe River and stood 6 km from the city of Hulan , where the expedition members traveled in hired crews. Local officials also banned Khilkovsky from buying bread. On July 31, the Umburi of the city ​​of Ashihe came to Ussuri , expressly prohibiting expeditions from visiting his possessions.

On August 7 (20), the ship arrived in Bodune, having only 20 cubic meters. fathoms of firewood. Local authorities again banned the expedition members from appearing in the city and trading. The ship was forced to turn back, and on August 19 (September 1), 1866, he arrived in Khabarovka . Through direct contact with the local Manchu population, it was possible to acquire a total of 500 pounds (8 tons) of grain ^[11] .

In a note addressed to the commander of the Siberian Flotilla, A. Lyubitsky explained the failure with the mistakes of the head of the expedition: Khilkovsky in vain insisted on the purchase of bread by Chinese officials. According to Lyubitsky, who knew the Far Eastern conditions well, permission should be obtained for any trade (or simply “familiarization with the market”), and then calmly execute the order. In this case, local authorities would probably prefer to turn a blind eye to the actions of foreigners without losing their own prestige. Although a similar course of action was recommended by Khilkovsky and the captain and merchant clerks, the chief arrogantly rejected the advice ^[12] .

It is reliably known that the next sailing of a steam vessel along the Sungari took place in June-July 1869: it was a trading expedition of the commandant of the East Siberian District Rzhevin and the merchant I. N. Orechin from Blagoveshchensk on the steamer of the Telegraph Amur Telegraph Office. The expedition had at its disposal 10 thousand rubles, reached Bodune, but also did not achieve success ^[13] .

Further Service

In the navigation of 1867, the ship resumed sailing along the rivers Ussuri and Sungach. In May 1868, among 6 official river steamships, it was placed at the disposal of the commander of the troops of the South Ussuri Territory, Colonel M.P. Tikhmenev . He took part in the transport of troops involved in the suppression of the anti-Russian manifestation of the Manz (" Manzovskaya War ") ^[14] .

In 1871, Ussuri, among 10 river ships of the Maritime Department , was acquired by the Amur Shipping Company Partnership. On this service of the ship as part of the Siberian Flotilla ended ^[15] .