RUSSIAN LIGHTSHIPS OF THE BALTIC SEA IN 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

Successful preliminary archival research in Russian Naval National Archives in St. Petersburg (RGAVMF) was conducted by the author in 2011. It concerned the period between the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, was a result of making archive materials available, however, only up to 1917.
Based on the available sources, one can state that the general situation concerning navigational security of shipping in the regions of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia in the times of Russian Empire, up to 1918, was complicated because Finnish land, between 1809-1917, formed Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. Due to this situation, the safety navigational regulations in the region were based on Russian law. Lightships and lighthouses of the described regions had Russian names. It was not until Finland was separated from Russia when the original, Finnish, names of navigational signs, written in Latin alphabet were introduced. The lightships shown in the monograph have both Russian and Finnish names written in Cyrillic alphabet. Some of the vessels are also present among Finnish lighthouses but have different names. A similar situation occurs when describing Estonian and Latvian light-ships, which belonged to those countries between 1920-1939 but, apart from that period, belonged to Russian and Soviet governments.