Description of the attraction
The monument to those killed on the Oprichnik clipper was unveiled in Kronstadt on November 12, 1873. The Oprichnik clipper began its history on July 14, 1856, when a six-gun sail-screw ship with a 150-strong steam engine was launched in the city of Arkhangelsk … By the autumn of 1856 the ship arrived at the place of service in the city of Kronstadt.
Two years later, on June 24, 1858, the Oprichnik set off from Kronstadt for research and diplomatic purposes to the Far East as part of the second Amur detachment (under the command of Captain First Rank AA Popov). The ship was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Fedorovsky M. Ya. In the city of Nikolaevsk, the detachment was attached to the Far Eastern squadron and the ship was headed by N. I. Bakalyagin. The crew of the "Oprichnik" was engaged in various assignments, explored the Amur estuary, the shores of the Korean and Japanese islands.
On March 5, 1860, Lieutenant-Commander Petr Aleksandrovich Selivanov took command of the Oprichnik. In the same year, the clipper was included in the Pacific squadron under the command of Captain I. F. There, the crew continued their research and carried out special assignments on the Japanese islands.
In 1861, the captain of the ship P. A. Selivanov received an order to return the vessel back to Kronstadt and the Oprichnik set off. The ship's crew consisted of 95 people who were recruited from various ships that make up the Far Eastern squadron. On October 31, the clipper left the port of Shanghai, on November 26, 1861, after refueling in Batavia (Jakarta), the Oprichnik sailed into the Indian Ocean, and no one saw him again.
Searches for crew members have yielded no results. According to the conclusion of the Maritime Ministry, which was based on the testimony of the crew members of the ships who were at that time in the Indian Ocean, the "Oprichnik" sank as a result of a strong hurricane.
On April 7, 1863, the clipper was excluded from the list of ships, and the crew members were excluded from the lists of the personnel of the fleet. Killed on the ship: the captain of the ship Selivanov P. Ya., lieutenants: Konstantin Suslov, Franz De-Livron, Nikolay Kupreyanov; midshipman Alexei Koryakin; second lieutenant Nikolai Filippov; second lieutenant Theodor Ivanov; Dr. Gomolitsky, 14 non-commissioned officers, 73 people of lower ranks.
The idea of erecting the monument came from the colleagues and relatives of the deceased sailors. Fundraising began in 1867. On July 10, 1872, the Highest permission was received for the construction of the monument according to the approved sketch. Adjutant General N. K. Krabbe, managing the Ministry of the Navy, informed the chief commander of the Kronstadt port of permission to release the chains, guns and anchor from the port to make the monument. The flagpole and the flag were cast by the Kronstadt steamship plant. The stone was donated, and all the stone work was done free of charge by Ikonnikov and Volkov.
The base of the monument is a rather massive granite rock, set on a granite foundation. On top of the rock lies a chain rope and a broken anchor. At the very top of the cliff there is a flagpole with a lowered military flag. The end of the flag embraces the rock with relief folds. Chained ropes are stretched around the monument, installed in tools dug into the ground.
The monument to the lost ship and its crew was erected near the summer building of the Kronstadt Naval Assembly in the southeastern part of the Summer Garden.
The monument was consecrated on October 31, 1873 with a significant crowd of people. For the dead sailors of the "Oprichnik" in all the churches of Kronstadt funeral services were served. In memory of the crew of the ship, a bay and a bay on the northwestern coast of the Sea of Japan, as well as a bay in Chikhachev Bay, were named.
The bronze plaque depicting a ship located on the south side of the monument has been lost. Now, instead of it, a metal plaque with a commemorative inscription is attached.
