Man learned to build type-built wooden ships in those days when a metal nail was a kind of jewel, and metal smelting took its first steps. Therefore, in the construction of ships, a technology reminiscent of sewing fabric with threads was initially used - the plating was done overlapping: a series of holes were drilled in the overlapping edges of the boards, through which the boards were sewn. A variety of materials could serve as “threads” - the long roots of some trees, viza, hemp or bast.
A similar technology for making boats was widespread throughout to the globe- from Quiet and Indian Oceans(in some areas of India it has survived to this day) to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe. The boat of Pharaoh Cheops had rope ties. Small ancient Roman boats found on Lake Nemi were sewn with hemp rope. The oldest finds in Europe - boats from Ferriby in England (about 1300 BC) and Hjortspring (Denmark, about 250 BC) are tied with string and sewn with roots.
But one should not think that sewn ships belong to such a distant past as the Bronze Age. Sewing technology in shipbuilding has coexisted for centuries and competed successfully with more expensive manufacturing methods using nails and rivets. In many regions of northern Russia (Karelia, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk region) and Finland sewn boats were found 70 years ago.
Iron fasteners were used primarily on large ships that belonged to rich and noble owners, as well as on military ships; a poor peasant or fisherman could not afford it. In the “bear corners” of northern Russia, nails remained in short supply for a long time, even in the 20th century. under Soviet rule.
Sometimes flexible fastening ties had a purely structural advantage over nails or wooden dowels. Thus, the famous Viking ships (belonging to Norwegian kings, 9th-10th centuries), found in Gokstad and Oseberg, had plating on characteristic iron rivets with washers, but the frames in the lower part were tied with spruce roots to special clamps on the plating boards. Excessive rigidity would lead to skin cracks and leaks.
During its heyday in the 16th-17th centuries. sewing technology was used on an impressive scale: the entire fleet of the Northern Pomors was built this way, sewn kochis reached 100 tons of displacement and regularly sailed from Kola (near modern Murmansk) to Spitsbergen, which then had Russian name Grumant. In the 17th century Kochas served an important trade route - the "Mangazeya passage" - from Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory to the city-colony of Mangazeya, founded by Pomeranian merchants near the mouth of the Taz River. During excavations in Spitsbergen and at the site of ancient Mangazeya, a large amount of ship's wood with holes for sewing and remains of stitches was discovered. But its secondary use made it very difficult to reconstruct the type of ships.
In addition to the Kochis, the Pomors had a variety of smaller vessels - Shitiki, Soyma, Shnyaki, Karbasa, Ranshina, etc. Maritime Museum The city of Oslo displays a perfectly preserved embroidered Kola or Murmansk shnyak, probably built in 1905.
The word "shnyaka" has a very ancient origin: the Vikings in the 9th-10th centuries. n. e. They called a certain type of their ships "shnaekkja". It is unclear whether the word Pomors was borrowed from the Old Norse language or whether it came directly from the Viking Varangians during the settlement of Pomerania by the Novgorodians.
A fairly seaworthy vessel, it has a traditional North Russian shape and design (reminiscent of a doubled Kizhanka boat). Its length is 11.8 m with a width of 2.7 m.
Similar types of sewn ships existed in the Baltic. For example, during the construction of a building in the center of Stockholm in 1896, a ship about 20 m long was discovered. The surviving part of the keel has a cross-section of 40x40 cm. The skin is made of split and roughly axed pine blocks 4-6 cm thick, sewn in the traditional Russian way using spruce roots. The find dates back to approximately 1700. It is known that Peter I, during the Baltic campaign, built a large number of auxiliary and transport ships using the local Russian population, unfamiliar with Dutch traditions.
Nevertheless, Peter I treated this “folk” technology with contempt: “The Novgorotsk courts were created only for festivities, and are incapable of military affairs because on the old bottoms, which are sewn with cowhide...”
In all likelihood, one of these ships was captured by the Swedes and ended up in Stockholm.
IN Northern Europe There were two ways to sew boats. According to the first, holes were made along the entire seam and connected in pairs by grooves into which the stitches were recessed. Suture material (root, string, rope) was threaded through the holes sequentially and fixed in each hole on both sides with wedge-shaped plugs. The chain of holes was made in a zigzag pattern across the entire width of the cover, so that it did not run along the grain of the wood and did not weaken the edge of the board. This method was used to build both Pomeranian ships and ships in the Baltic, Karelia, and Arkhangelsk region starting from the 16th-17th centuries.
The second method was that the boards were fastened with separate transverse ties at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other, each tying consisted of three to five turns of root (no other materials were used) threaded through a pair of holes. This method was widespread mainly in some areas of Finland and is represented by archaeological finds in Keuru dating back to the 13th century. and in Merkijärvi - XVII century.
The first centers of civilization in Rus' were Novgorod and Staraya Ladoga (Aldegyuborg) on the Volkhov River, where the most important waterway- "from the Varangians to the Greeks." No wonder that archaeological excavations They discovered there a large number of remains of a wide variety of ships - from typical Varangian ones, which had clinker lining with iron rivets, to primitive rafts. Most of the finds date back to the 11th-13th centuries.
Reconstruction of the North Russian type boat “Vodlozerki”
In many areas of Karelia and the Arkhangelsk region they still say “sew a boat” instead of “build” or “make a boat”, while only older people remember that this expression once had a direct meaning. According to them, the last sewn boats existed “before the war,” then the craftsmen switched to nails. With the change of generations, the technology of sewing a boat was lost. The design, shape and basic construction techniques remained the same. Thanks to this, only one step was required - the reverse transition from nails to root sewing. By that time, there was a thorough experience in building boats on nails, and the sewing technique was greatly helped by the discovery of fragments of boat planks with preserved holes, grooves and remnants of stitches. These boards survived because they were reused in old village houses as attic flooring.In this area (Lake Vodlozero, eastern Zaonezhye of Karelia), boats were sewn with spruce roots. This suture material was the most common because it grew directly in the upper layer of the forest floor, which in dense spruce forests is so loose that the roots can be extracted with bare hands. You only need to have a cutting knife with you; V good location It is possible to prepare a sufficient number of roots (about 100 m) to build a boat in one or two working days. The optimal root thickness should be 1/3-1/2 of the sheathing thickness. Therefore, for six-meter boats with a skin thickness of 15 mm, there are roots - without bark - with a cross-section of 4-7 mm (with bark their cross-section is 7-14 mm). The roots are excellent at splitting along the grain, so a root that is too thick can be split into two or even four parts. When dried, the roots become brittle, so after collecting they must be immediately cleared of the bark and stored until use in a bucket of resin, or at least with water. According to some accounts, dried roots or vitsa were steamed in hot water before use. According to other evidence, the roots were even boiled in resin, which made them more resistant to rotting, however, as experience has shown, with prolonged boiling in resin they become brittle. And storage in resin with short boiling turned out to be the most successful option.
After the next sheathing board (“covering”) is finally adjusted and installed in its place using clamps with wedges, a zigzag row of holes with a diameter of about 8 mm is drilled through the overlapping edges of the boards (“covering” should be about 5 cm) at a distance of 3- 5 cm apart.
When building “overlap”, or “clinker”, the hull is first made without frames (“springs”), its contours are determined by the shape and bend of the skin boards. The clamps are adjusted and inserted when the body is almost ready and has taken its final shape. Vessels up to 30 m long were built in this way,
They need to be drilled somewhat obliquely towards the surface of the board in such a way that the bends of the threaded root are as smooth as possible, without kinks. Then, with a knife, grooves are cut between pairs of holes with a depth of 1/3-1/4 of the thickness of the printed material; the stitches will be partially recessed into them.
These protruding parts of the stitches are the most vulnerable place: they are worn off on the stones when pulling the boat ashore, as well as from inside the boat by the feet of passengers. A sewn vessel therefore requires much more careful and attentive handling than one built with nails.
The root is “curled” and threaded through several holes in a row; in the first hole it is fixed by hammering a wooden wedge. These wedges simultaneously play the role of plugs that seal the seam; on Vodlozero they were made from alder. Then the root between the second and third holes is pryed with a special T-shaped tool, similar to a wooden hammer, and pulled tightly. This wooden hammer should be used as a lever, pressing it against the surface of the board, and due to low friction (the tarred root is quite slippery), the tension force of the root is multiplied on adjacent stitches and presses the beatings to each other. The groove (“line”) becomes tight. Holding the root tightly taut, it is secured in the next hole by driving in a wedge-plug. In this way they move along the entire seam. When the root ends, its end is simply fixed with a wedge, and a new root begins from the next hole. In terms of strength, such a connection is not inferior to a connection with nails, but in terms of labor intensity it is significantly higher - in an hour it is possible to stitch on average about a meter.
Let us briefly describe other features of the building. The keel (“bottom”), hewn from a spruce log, is connected to the stems (bow and stern “cocors”, or “baskets”) with a massive wedge-shaped lock with wooden dowels, so that the entire structure, even without plating, has sufficient rigidity, it can be moved and turn from side to side.
Quite a rare case in shipbuilding. Usually the connection between the keel and the stems is weak, and during construction they must be fixedly fixed on the stocks. The strength of the connection is given by the sheathing.
Cocors are hewn out from the lower part of the spruce trunk with a large root extending at a right angle. From this root, a part of the stem is bent upward and backward - a “forging”. This is typical for North Russian shipbuilding and gives the ships a colorful “Pomeranian” or “Karelian” outline.
The hull can have three or more linings, depending on the size of the boat. Two vodlozerkas, reconstructed in 1995-1999, had four rams. The boards were hewn with an axe. For this purpose, straight-layered pines were selected and split lengthwise with wedges. You can only split a pine log in half. If the trunk is 12-15 m long, it is used “for two stands” (the length of the boat is approximately 6 m), so two good pine trees are enough for a four-stud boat.
The sealing material is white sphagnum moss. When dried, it decreases several times in volume, and in the lines it swells again. Of course, the boat must be well tarred and the moss in the lines must be impregnated with resin.
To make the girths (the reconstructed boats had eight girths), curved parts of trees are used (if a young spruce or pine was bent to the ground by snow or a fallen tree, then later, when straightened, they acquire an arched bend in the lower part).
The nose of the vodlozerka has wedge-shaped contours: the nasal supports are made from a trunk with a straight root extending out. The girths are attached to the bottom with wooden pins, and they are sewn to the hems with roots (although traditions differed in different regions; girths were often fastened with dowels and sheathing). For strength, the upper ends of the girders were pulled together into a wedge and tightly clamped between the gunwale beam ("side girder") and the last beating.
The side girth is hewn out of young flexible spruce with a diameter of 10-12 cm and sewn from the inside to the last bead. For oarlocks ("rows"), thickenings are left on it. Boats of this size usually had two pairs of rowlocks and two seats for the oarsmen ("bridges"). At the stern, as a rule, sat a helmsman with a steering oar. There was also a sail with a sprint ("slope"); The mast, together with the sail, was easy to set up and remove; it was located in the very bow - there was a durable “sail bridge” with a hole for it and a nest hollowed out in the shell - steps.
The Vodlozerka was intended primarily for fishing; it was comfortable and maneuverable on oars and when working with meshes and nets. To transport goods on Vodlozero there was another type of boat - the so-called “keel boat”, which was very close in shape to the kizhanka; Thanks to the sharp contours in the bow and stern and the deep keel, she sailed better.
In total, two Vodlozerkas were sewn: in 1995, on Vodlozero itself, as part of a cultural and historical program National Park"Vodlozersky", and in 1999 in Sweden for the Museum of Maritime Archeology in Foteviken. Both boats proved to be quite practical; they were used for several navigations and did not begin to fall apart. In general, we can say that sewn boats are almost as good as boats on nails that are familiar to modern people; unless they require more careful handling and regular maintenance.
8th century embroidered boat
In 2000, Södertörns Högskola College in Stockholm undertook the reconstruction of a boat found during the excavation of a Viking Age burial site in Central Sweden. The find dates back to the end of the 8th century. and is known as the "boat from Tuna in Badelund".“The calling of the Varangians” - Rurik, Truvor and Sineus - dates back to approximately 860. As a matter of fact, “Rus” was first called the Viking tribe led by them; the area north of Stockholm to this day is called Roslagen - something like “the patrimony of the Rosses”. Therefore, we will not be much mistaken if we consider that in Ancient Novgorod and Staraya Ladoga, where, according to legend, Rurik ruled, there were many boats of a similar design. A significant number of Arab coins were found in a burial in Thun from Badelund - along with the “route from the Varangians to the Greeks,” another important trade route connecting Scandinavia with Arabia passed through the territory of present-day Russia; he walked along the Volga to the Caspian Sea.
With a length of more than 6 m and a width of more than 1.25 m, the boat had only three large parts. It was a dugout steamed and expanded over the fire, the sides of which were extended on each side in one heap. This design was very common at all times. In the north of Russia, such boats were called “osinovka”, since the dugout bottom was made of well-steamed and easily expanding aspen. However, the boat from Tuna had a bottom made of pine, a harder and more fragile species. The technology for its expansion over fire has long been lost, and therefore a large number of experiments were required before the desired result was achieved.
The bottom was made of pine with a diameter of approximately 60 cm in the butt, but in the middle of the future boat the trunk had a diameter of only 45 cm. The trunk was hollowed out like a round pipe using an adze to a wall thickness of 13-15 mm. The hole at the top, through which the hollowing was carried out, was 20 cm wide in the middle, its shape in plan resembled the number “8” - it expanded towards the ends of the future boat.
Two methods are known from the literature to control wall thickness: first, small holes are drilled in a checkerboard pattern along the entire outer surface, and wooden plugs are driven into them, the length of which corresponds to the desired wall thickness. The plugs must be blackened with resin or charcoal so that when hollowed out they become visible. The hammering stops when the surface is compared with the ends of the plugs. The second option is simpler - a thin awl, the length of which is equal to the desired wall thickness, is pierced to check the hole. Both methods were tried, and the second was found to be more practical for fresh soft pine up to 15 mm thick. But it is impossible to pierce a dry, hard or thicker wall with a thin awl.
The most crucial and difficult moment in building such a boat is the expansion of the bottom above the fire. As it turned out, simply softening the wood under the influence of hot water and steam is not enough. It is necessary to keep the outer surface over the fire until it dries and begins to char. At the same time, it “shrinks” greatly and decreases in volume. At the same time, the inner surface must be constantly moistened with hot water: it swells and softens. These two effects - “shrinking” of the outer layers and swelling of the inner ones - lead to the fact that the bottom tends to literally “turn inside out” without any application external force(a similar phenomenon can be observed when some kind of chip or board in a fire, when charred, suddenly begins to bend strongly and twist into a spiral). For the sake of the experiment, even beating boards were made in this way - split halves of pine logs (with a diameter of 40 to 26 cm) were hollowed out with a “gutter” and unfolded over the fire into flat boards, the width of which was almost one and a half times the thickness of the original log.
The width of the finished bottom in the middle was 1 m, the depth was 20 cm (with a diameter of the original log of 45 cm). The main danger lies in wait just after successful expansion - when drying, the tree tends to take its previous shape, warps and cracks. The expanded parts should be immediately tarred, secured securely with spacers and left to dry slowly in a shaded and not too dry place.
The sewing method used in the reconstruction of this boat was the same as in the construction of the vodlozerkas, since the stitches on the original “boat from Tuna” were poorly preserved and did not allow any differences to be seen. The cross-section of the suture holes and roots was smaller (about 6 mm), in accordance with the smaller thickness of the embankments.
Five frames were made of juniper - parts of trees with a suitable curvature were adjusted so that they fit tightly, with a bend, and somewhat spread out the sides of the boat. They were attached only in the lower part with through wooden dowels to a small overhead false pin that passed under the bottom.
The upper part of the sides and stems of the “boat from Tuna” have not been preserved; when reconstructing them, it was necessary to be guided by information about other archaeological finds of that period.
Two pairs of oarlocks were made, according to the number of seats found during excavations; each oarlock was hewn from a part of the trunk with an oblique branch and sewn from the inside to the last beating. It is thus at the same time part of the gunwale beam. The ends of the boat were made in the form of hollowed out stem blocks.
The finished boat turned out to be incredibly thin (10-14 mm) and light: with a length of 6.5 m, two people could lift and carry it. On the other hand, its strength did not inspire confidence. It seemed as if the bottom was about to break under my foot. Due to its small width (1.35 m), the boat was quite unstable, like a roll.
However, after just a few minutes of operation, its important advantages were revealed - first of all, high speed at the oars, about 6 km/h. Thanks to the high side, the boat's seaworthiness is sufficient for large lakes.
In the 8th century communication was mainly by water and often had to overcome long portages between different river systems, as well as when carrying rapids. From this point of view, the minimum weight requirements for the vessel could be decisive. At that time, apparently, cracks and damage to the thin body were treated calmly, as an ordinary everyday problem. The boat from the burial had at least four large cracks on the bottom, the largest of which was about 4 m long. They were patched with thin wooden plates sewn from the inside of the hull. Everything necessary for such repairs - roots and moss - could be found in the immediate vicinity of the "accident" site.
ALEUTIAN-KAMCHADALSKAYA KAYAK
Since ancient times, Alaska Natives have used one-, two-, and three-person kayaks as hunting boats. These very reliable, practically unsinkable boats did not require special materials in their manufacture.
The frame of the kayak was assembled from spruce beams, fastened together with seal sinews. Sealskins were used for lining. Oval holes were left in the upper (deck) part of the plating - hatches for oarsmen-hunters. A hunter dressed in a waterproof jacket, sitting in such a hatch, tightly pulled the edges of the hole around his belt and seemed to merge into a single whole with his kayak.
Thus the boat became waterproof. If the kayak capsized, one blow of the oar was enough to put it “on an even keel.” On such kayaks, Aleutian hunters hunted sea otters, sea otters and seals.
Usually, up to one and a half dozen double-hatch kayaks went to sea to hunt sea otters. The crew of the boat consisted of a hunter armed with shooters (a throwing weapon like a harpoon) and a rower. The one who first noticed the swimming animal gave a sign by raising an oar. At this signal, all the kayaks surrounded the sea otter in a tight ring, and the hunters began to throw arrows. According to the existing custom, the hunted animal went to the hunter who wounded it first.
The Aleuts caught seals using a net woven from vein threads and equipped with wooden floats on top and sinker pebbles on the bottom. Having discovered sleeping seals on the shore of a bay or bay, the catcher crossed the mouth of the bay in a kayak, spreading the net behind him. Having installed the tackle in this way, he began to scream loudly. The frightened animal rushed into the water and became entangled in the net.
POLYNESIAN PIE The boat used by the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere, the prototype of the modern catamaran vessel - the Polynesian canoe - consisted of two pirogues connected by a common plank platform.
The pirogue bodies were made from teak wood. Ribs (frames) were attached to the massive beam (keel). The frame was covered with boards fitted to each other, sewn together with twine made from plant fiber, and the cracks were sealed with resin extracted from breadfruit tree trunks. The platform connecting the hulls of the boats protruded over the sides by about one meter. In the middle of the platform-deck, a wheelhouse was often installed, by climbing onto which one could observe the progress of the pirogue, and while hunting turtles, one could monitor where they were moving.
The pirogue was equipped with an oblique sail and controlled by a heavy seven-meter stern oar. This type of vessel was used by the islanders as vehicle and for shark hunting.
Shark meat was considered a delicious dish among the Polynesians, without which not a single holiday could be completed. Three or four hunters usually went after sharks on a pirogue, taking with them meat for bait and a long, strong rope. Having noticed a voracious predator among the coral reefs, the hunters threw several pieces of meat to it. As soon as the shark, having satisfied its hunger, settled down to rest on the sandy bottom, one of the hunters, sliding loop, dived silently. Approaching the predator, he threw a loop around her tail and quickly surfaced. When the hunter was in the pirogue, all three of them pulled the rope at once and lifted the shark onto the deck.
It happened that a shark would lie under a rock in some depression, so much so that only one toothy head was visible. But this did not frighten the brave hunter. He dived and began to lightly tap the shark on the head with a wooden mallet. The well-fed shark wanted to lie down, but was disturbed. Then she turned around, hid her head and stuck out her tail. And that’s all the hunter needed. He drew a loop, hastily surfaced, and after a few minutes the prey was already at the top.
The Polynesian pirogue was different from other boats that plied southern seas, high seaworthiness. With a tailwind, she got a speed that was not inferior in speed to modern motor boats.
Walruses and seals stretched on a frame made of wood (fin) and bone, and in treeless areas - from whalebone (Eastern Eskimos). The frame was fastened and stitched with a waterproof seam using sinews and whalebone. Used in inland waters and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic, Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean.
Modern kayak models are usually manufactured industrially using modern materials and technologies.
- a kayak is rowed using a two-bladed oar;
- in a kayak the rower sits only on his buttocks, while in a canoe he can sit in any way, including on a special seat (in a sports canoe one rows while standing on one knee).
Modern kayaks are used in water tourism and are intended, depending on the design, for swimming on stormy rivers, lakes or seas. There are kayaks for rowing slalom, for water rodeo (freestyle), kayaks for water tourism, for expeditions, as well as for sailing across vast bodies of water (sea kayaks).
Usually, seat The rower is covered with a special apron (“skirt”), which prevents water from entering the boat even during a capsize. This gives the rower the opportunity to perform an Eskimo roll (putting the boat on an even keel from an inverted state).
Some kayaks (the so-called sit-on-top kayak, which are not widespread in Russia) have neither a deck nor a skirt. Their unsinkability is ensured by the sealed hull on which the rower sits.
Sea kayak
Sea kayaking is not much inferior to kayaking on rough water in terms of extreme level. True, completely different goals are set here and other requirements are placed on kayaks. The first thing that distinguishes a sea kayak from a cohort of others is its large size, as well as its pointed and raised bow and stern. 
This kayak structure is specially adapted to cut high sea waves and so that water does not flood the kayak cockpit every time. The main requirements for sea kayaks are the ability to fight waves, controllability and unsinkability.
A type of sea kayak can be called expedition kayaks, which are also called ocean kayaks. They are distinguished by large, spacious compartments that are hermetically sealed; the number of compartments can be up to four. Such kayaks are equipped with a steering oar, elastic nets to hold objects, a rope around the perimeter of the side, and there may also be a special place for installing a GPS receiver.
For travel in cold waters, kayaks are made of special heat-insulating materials to protect against hypothermia. All modern expedition kayaks have sealed chambers that are separate and completely insulated. This allows you to increase the buoyancy of the kayak and make it unsinkable in almost any conditions.
Use of the term
There are some peculiarities in the use of the rather late borrowed term “kayak” in Russian. The term "kayak" is traditionally used mainly for single-person boats, although there are also two-person kayaks. Sports and tourist boats for rowing on smooth water (which are not designed to perform Eskimo coups) in Russian are called the word “kayak”, which previously came into Russian. In English, they are all denoted by one word. kayak. In Kyrgyz and Kazakh languages in a word kayik call any boat. In the Khanty language "kayek" means a big boat.
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Excerpt characterizing Kayak
The adjutants galloped ahead of him into the courtyard. Kutuzov, impatiently pushing his horse, which was ambling under his weight, and constantly nodding his head, put his hand to the cavalry guard’s bad-looking cap (with a red band and without a visor) that he was wearing. Having approached the honor guard of fine grenadiers, mostly cavaliers, who saluted him, he silently looked at them for a minute with a commanding stubborn gaze and turned to the crowd of generals and officers standing around him. His face suddenly took on a subtle expression; he raised his shoulders with a gesture of bewilderment.- And with such fellows, keep retreating and retreating! - he said. “Well, goodbye, general,” he added and started his horse through the gate past Prince Andrei and Denisov.
- Hooray! hooray! hooray! - they shouted from behind him.
Since Prince Andrei had not seen him, Kutuzov had grown even fatter, flabby, and swollen with fat. But the familiar white eye, and the wound, and the expression of fatigue in his face and figure were the same. He was dressed in a uniform frock coat (a whip hung on a thin belt over his shoulder) and a white cavalry guard cap. He, heavily blurring and swaying, sat on his cheerful horse.
“Whew... whew... whew...” he whistled barely audibly as he drove into the yard. His face expressed the joy of calming a man intending to rest after the mission. He took his left leg out of the stirrup, falling with his whole body and wincing from the effort, he lifted it with difficulty onto the saddle, leaned his elbow on his knee, grunted and went down into the arms of the Cossacks and adjutants who were supporting him.
He recovered, looked around with his narrowed eyes and, glancing at Prince Andrei, apparently not recognizing him, walked with his diving gait towards the porch.
“Whew... whew... whew,” he whistled and again looked back at Prince Andrei. The impression of Prince Andrei's face only after a few seconds (as often happens with old people) became associated with the memory of his personality.
“Ah, hello, prince, hello, darling, let’s go...” he said tiredly, looking around, and heavily entered the porch, creaking under his weight. He unbuttoned and sat down on a bench on the porch.
- Well, what about father?
“Yesterday I received news of his death,” Prince Andrei said briefly.
Kutuzov looked at Prince Andrei with frightened open eyes, then took off his cap and crossed himself: “The kingdom of heaven to him! May God's will be over us all! He sighed heavily, with all his chest, and was silent. “I loved and respected him and I sympathize with you with all my heart.” He hugged Prince Andrei, pressed him to his fat chest and did not let him go for a long time. When he released him, Prince Andrei saw that Kutuzov’s swollen lips were trembling and there were tears in his eyes. He sighed and grabbed the bench with both hands to stand up.
“Come on, let’s come to me and talk,” he said; but at this time Denisov, just as little timid in front of his superiors as he was in front of the enemy, despite the fact that the adjutants at the porch stopped him in angry whispers, boldly, knocking his spurs on the steps, entered the porch. Kutuzov, leaving his hands resting on the bench, looked displeased at Denisov. Denisov, having identified himself, announced that he had to inform his lordship of a matter of great importance for the good of the fatherland. Kutuzov began to look at Denisov with a tired look and with an annoyed gesture, taking his hands and folding them on his stomach, he repeated: “For the good of the fatherland? Well, what is it? Speak." Denisov blushed like a girl (it was so strange to see the color on that mustachioed, old and drunken face), and boldly began to outline his plan for cutting the enemy’s operational line between Smolensk and Vyazma. Denisov lived in these parts and knew the area well. His plan seemed undoubtedly good, especially from the power of conviction that was in his words. Kutuzov looked at his feet and occasionally glanced at the courtyard of the neighboring hut, as if he was expecting something unpleasant from there. A general with a briefcase under his arm actually appeared from the hut he was looking at during Denisov’s speech.
- What? – Kutuzov said in the middle of Denisov’s presentation. - Ready?
“Ready, your lordship,” said the general. Kutuzov shook his head, as if saying: “How can one person manage all this,” and continued to listen to Denisov.
“I give my honest, noble word to the Hussian officer,” Denisov said, “that I have confirmed Napoleon’s message.
- How are you doing, Kirill Andreevich Denisov, chief quartermaster? - Kutuzov interrupted him.
- Uncle of one, your lordship.
- ABOUT! “We were friends,” Kutuzov said cheerfully. “Okay, okay, darling, stay here at headquarters, we’ll talk tomorrow.” - Nodding his head to Denisov, he turned away and extended his hand to the papers that Konovnitsyn brought him.
Kayaking is very popular in Greenland. There are even especially gifted fans who swim for days along the coast of the island in icy water. Although the kayak does not look (and sound in Russian pronunciation) very impressive and reliable, it is almost impossible to drown on it. Moreover, the pros perform feints on it that would make aquatic gymnasts jealous...
Before we left Sisimiut, a kayaker came up to our ship and began to entertain passengers with his paddle skills:
3. 
Brief information: a kayak is a traditional type of rowing boat of the Arctic peoples. From time immemorial, it was made from the skins of walruses and seals, stretched over a frame made of wood (fin) and bone (in treeless areas, from whalebone). Modern kayak models are manufactured using modern materials and technologies that maximize the strength and reliability of the structure:
4. 
A kayak swimmer spun for about 10 minutes in the icy water. Some felt cold just by the sight of him. The inside of the kayak is hermetically sealed, so that despite the waves, the swimmer's butt remains dry:
5. 
The main movement in a kayak is called the “Eskimo roll”. The method was borrowed from the Inuit: for them it was the main technique for surviving when a kayak capsizes while hunting seals or whales. This was the first thing the son learned from his father at sea:
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Sometimes the rowers were forced to deliberately capsize their tiny boats so that high, heavy waves would not break their necks:
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Despite the wetsuit, the rower periodically rubbed his icy hands. This is understandable: the month of May in Greenland and May in Russia are two big differences:
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The rower has a very funny face:
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Having had his fill of drugs, the proud descendant of the Inuits went home:
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And we were offered to try our hand at kayaking, although without extreme sports. I'll tell you about this soon in future posts.
Kayak
Eskimo (Inuit) fur seal hunter armed with a harpoon in a kayak
Eskimo kayak
Kayak or kayak- a type of rowing boat, single, double and even triple traditional boats of the Arctic peoples. Kayak - among the Eskimos, kayak - among the Aleuts. Traditionally it consisted of hides stretched over a frame of wood or bone. Modern kayak models are usually manufactured industrially, with the exception of prototypes and a small number of boats assembled by artisans.
A modern rafting kayak made of durable plastic can easily withstand impacts on rocks. The skirt is visible, covering the seat from water getting into the kayak.
- a kayak is rowed using a two-bladed oar;
- in a kayak the rower sits only on his buttocks, while in a canoe he can sit in any way, including on a special seat (in a sports canoe one rows while standing on one knee).
Modern kayaks are used in water tourism and, depending on the design, are intended for sailing on stormy rivers, lakes or seas. There are kayaks for rowing slalom, for water rodeo (freestyle), kayaks for water tourism, for expeditions, as well as for sailing across vast bodies of water (sea kayaks).
As a rule, the rower's seat is covered with a special apron (“skirt”), which prevents water from penetrating into the boat even during a capsize. This gives the rower the opportunity to perform an Eskimo roll (putting the boat on an even keel from an inverted state).
Some kayaks (the so-called sit-on-top kayak, which are not widespread in Russia) have neither a deck nor a skirt. Their unsinkability is ensured by the sealed hull on which the rower sits.
Sea kayak
Sea kayaking is not much inferior to whitewater kayaking (white water kayaking) in terms of extreme level. True, completely different goals are set here and other requirements are placed on kayaks. The first thing that sets a sea kayak apart from a cohort of others is its large size, as well as its pointed and raised bow and stern.
Sea kayaks are more elongated, making it easier to move in a straight line. They also have more space for transporting things.
This kayak structure is specially adapted to cut high sea waves and so that water does not flood the kayak cockpit every time. The main requirements for sea kayaks are the ability to fight waves, controllability and unsinkability.
A type of sea kayak can be called expedition kayaks, which are also called ocean kayaks. They are distinguished by large, spacious compartments that are hermetically sealed; the number of compartments can be up to four. Such kayaks are equipped with a steering oar, elastic nets to hold objects, a rope around the perimeter of the side, and there may also be a special place for installing a GPS receiver.
For travel in cold waters, kayaks are made of special heat-insulating materials to protect against hypothermia. All modern expedition kayaks have sealed chambers that are separate and completely insulated. This allows you to increase the buoyancy of the kayak and make it unsinkable in almost any conditions.
Use of the term
There are some peculiarities in the use of the borrowed term “kayak” in Russian. Sports and tourist boats for rowing on smooth water (which are not designed to perform Eskimo coups) are called “kayak” in Russian, while in English everything is designated by the word kayak. In addition, in Russian, the term “kayak” is traditionally used mainly for single-seater boats, although there are also double-seater kayaks.
Links
- Difference between kayak, kayak and canoe (Russian)
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.:- Synonyms
- History of Poland
Rubakin, Nikolai Alexandrovich
See what “Kayak” is in other dictionaries: Kayak - a type of rowing boat, a closed version of a canoe. Widely distributed among the peoples of the Arctic (Eskimos, Aleuts, etc.). Traditionally it consisted of hides stretched over a frame of wood or bone. There are two main differences between a kayak and a canoe: a kayak is rowed using... ...
Encyclopedia of tourists KAYAK - fishing single-seater boat among the peoples of the north east coast Siberia: lattice frame made of wood and bone, covered with the skin of sea animals; the hole for the rower is tightened with a belt around his waist. Operated by two small oars... ...
Ethnographic Dictionary- kayak, a single-seater fishing boat among the peoples of the north-eastern coast of Siberia: a lattice frame made of wood and bone, covered with the skin of sea animals; the hole for the rower is tightened with a belt around his waist. Operated by two small... ... Encyclopedia "Peoples and Religions of the World"
See what “Kayak” is in other dictionaries:- a small fishing boat, in the past widespread among many peoples of the Arctic (preserved by some Canadian and Greenlandic Eskimos). The lattice frame of the car is made of wood or bone and covered with sea skin on top... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Ethnographic Dictionary- 1) a racing kayak used for water slalom and mountain river rafting competitions. 2) A single-seat fishing boat, common among the peoples of the North. The body set is made of wood or bone, the lining is made of seal, walrus,... ... Encyclopedia of technology
Ethnographic Dictionary- A; m. 1. A small single-seat fishing boat (in the past, widespread among many peoples of the Arctic). Karyakskiy k. 2. Light sports single-seater boat. * * * kayak 1) the same as a sports kayak. 2) Fully decked fishing area... encyclopedic Dictionary
