News
General director of the Federal State Unitary Hydrographic Department (FSUHD) of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation Victor Medvedev informed the HSR Council in September that, after a pause caused by ‘perestroyka’ in the country, Arctic hydrographers have at last received a new hydrographic vessel, the Anatoly Zhilinsky. A solemn ceremony of transfer to the FSUHD took place on 10th September 2004 at the Arkhang-elsk shipyard ‘Krasnaya Kuznitsa’.
The vessel is intended for hydrographic surveys and service to work in aids to navigation in the Arctic seas, along the Northern Sea Route. The basic characteristics of the vessel are length 46,5 metres, width 8,8 metres, displacement 743 tons, and accommodation for nine crew and five hydrographers (aids to navigation specialists). It has a speed of 9.5 knots, sea endurance of ten days, depending on fuel, and a cruising range of 350 miles. Cargo gear includes a crane capacity of 3.2 tons with reach (min/max) - 4/12m. The vessel is equipped with radar with colour display, a gyrocompass and a magnetic compass, a doppler log, an automatic identification system, a GPS receiver with differential mode and a GLONASS/ GPS receiver with differential mode. It has a complex of hydrographic equipment based on multi-beam and two-frequency echo sounders, an electronic cartographical system, and radio communication equipment that meets GMDSS requirements.
Mr Victor Medvedev emphasised the care with which the new vessel had been named. Anatoly Kazimirovich Zhilinsky (1912-1993) was a distinguished Soviet hydrographer. After graduation from the High Naval School in 1933 he was appointed at his own request to serve in the Soviet Navy’s Northern Fleet, serving as an officer for more than twenty years in the Hydrographic Service. The years of his command of the Northern Hydrographic Expedition based at Arkhangelsk were especially remarkable. The Expedition carried out a wide range of hydrographic surveys and geodetic works in the White and Barents Seas, revealing in full Captain of the 1st rank Anatoly Zhilinsky’s gifts as organiser, skilled hydrographer and experienced and resolute seaman.
After transfer from military service to the reserve in 1961, Anatoly Zhilinsky was appointed chief of the Hydrographic Department of the Ministry of Transport of the USSR (now FSHUD) in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 22 years he was at the head of this well-known Russian establishment, engaged in ensuring navigation along the Northern Sea Route. During these years a large volume of hydrographic surveys and aids to navigation works were executed in the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea, the East-Siberian Sea, the Chuckchee and the Bering Seas. This led to the creation of a collection of modern charts and establishment of necessary aids to navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
Members of the HSR Council received this message with enthusiasm, expressing a hope that a period of some stagnation in Russian Hydrography was now at an end. A new era had now arrived in which it was possible to expect the acquisition of new vessels and modern devices to help FSHUD and the Navy Hydrographic Service to recommence hydrographic surveys, not only in Arctic region but also in other seas.

Contact
Hydrographic Society Russia (HSR)
Att. Viktor Rybine
Kozhevennaja linija 41
Saint-Petersburg 199106
Russia
Tel/Fax: +7 812 350 5026