'Stepan Osipovich Makarov' (; — ) was a famous
Russian vice-admiral, a highly accomplished and decorated commander of the
Russian Navy, and a distinguished
oceanographer, awarded by the
Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books.
Stepan Makarov was born in Nikolaev, now
Mykolayiv,
Ukraine in a family of a fleet
praporshchik (прапорщик по Адмиралтейству, an auxiliary officer).
He was highly decorated for his service as a
captain of the Russian torpedo boat
tender ''
Velikiy Knyaz Konstantin'' in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. He was one of the first adopters of the idea of
torpedo boats and he himself went to action in torpedo boats. On
January 16,
1877 he was first in the world to launch
torpedoes from a boat (which itself was launched from a tender) against a
Turkish armed ship ''Intibah''.
He directed two round-the-world oceanographic expeditions on the
corvette ''
Vityaz'' (1886-1889 and 1894-1896).
He proposed the idea, oversaw the construction and commanded the world's first
icebreaker ''"
Yermak"'' in two arctic expeditions in 1899 and 1901.
Made commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Admiral Makarov was killed in action during the
Russo-Japanese War of
1904-
1905 on the battleship ''
Petropavlovsk'' which was destroyed by a
mine.
There are monuments to Makarov in his native Mykolayiv, Ukraine, and in
Vladivostok,
Russia. A number of ships were named ''
Admiral Makarov''.
External links
★
Admiral Makarov, in Russian
★
Biography at peoples.ru, in Russian