BUSY ARCHANGEL

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 700, 9 May 1916, Page 11

BUSY ARCHANGEL

WAR BRINGS PROSPERITY. BOOM-TIME IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. During the war Archangel has sprung iij) out of its age-Jong unnoticed existence near the White Sea coast into quite a miraculous period of development, which will disappear again when the "golden age" has passed away, and Archangel once more relapses into its Arctic torpor. Fable became reality when a couple of ice-breakers were procured in order to keep the port and bay of Archangel open as long as possible, and when the ice broke up in the spring of 1915 the traffic' actually expanded to such dimensions that, as the American commercial attache at Petrograd brought out in his report, the port could well nigh compete wiih New York harbour in respect of the number of outgoing and incoming ships, and likewise as regards tonnage. The entire life of this practically Arctic town was now changed at a single stroke; over 50,000 people streamed into it, brokers, merchants, and agents established themselves there, and the business life of the town so increased in extent as if Archangel I were a world-city. All the hotels were utilised as offices and stores, an electric tramway was laid and electric lighting installed while goods and wares from the interior of Russia were piled up and layready for shipment from the one Russfin exporting port in Europe. A Shipping Boom. Shortly after the disappearance of the ice in the White Sea in Maylast, ships began to arrive. Steamers up to 5000 tons burden made regular trips between Archangel and Britain, and one of the biggest, which brought coal from Britain, was of 7500 tons burden. A Russo-Ameri-can steamship line was also established, which had a sailing every second week between New York and Archangel, besides the many Norwegian and other steamers which plied to and fro. There was not room enough available for all these ships, and temporary wooden stages were therefore built, at which "the various craft loaded up, principally timber cargoes. Wheat, too, was an article of export; most of the grain, which formerly had been taken by the ports of the Baltic and Black Seas was now send northwards, and since May of this year 15,000,000 poods of wheat are said to have been shipped out from Archangel. Naturally the ships cannot be disposed of by far as quickly as is desirable and as takes place in ports which have always been accustomed to heavy traffic. The Ice Danger. In autumn, when the ice, which usually closes Archangel for 180 days in the year, begins to come in, it was reported that fifteen icebreakers were brought into service in the White Sea, and with their help it is hoped that it wijl be possible to keep navigation open on the river near Archangel right into December, and the harbour itself, which lies at a considerable distance from the sea, it is hoped will be kept open until the end of January even. That this, among other things, is counted on for certain would appear from the fact that steamers are said to have left Britain on November 5 for the White Sea. After January,'however, the ice is heaped up in uncompromisingly dense and solid masses round about Archangel, and then all shipping ceases.