Мурманская миля. 2016, № 3.

ONBOARD THE RESEARCH VESSEL 44 deployed in several stages with attaching so called ‘birds’ to it at the certain intervals. The ‘birds’ are depth controllers allowing to change the incidence angle when moving in water on principle of an airplane wing in order to control the depth of one or another part of the multiton streamer of many kilometers long. Deployment of all this overboard equipment took more than a day. But it was done in no time, as the saying goes, before the rain. As the first storm in the voyage came on the seismic operations had to be interrupted before their start. A severe storm distorts acoustic signals and it makes the attempts to pick up a signal vain. But, holy mackerel, how beautiful and restless storm in the Kara Sea is when the small NALIVKIN shears through the incoming waves! MAKING MONEY FOR BUYING A COW! In the first days of the voyage when, bit by bit, I started to get acquainted with every of the fifty seafarers and geoscientists onboard the NALIVKIN personally, an unnoticeable cosm ic event happened which gave me a clue of what literary device to use. The Internet had been operating during the voyage almost w ithout fail and we all were aware of the latest news of Murmansk, Russia and the world. And at the beginning of August it was reported that on August, 4th, the old Soviet satellite of the ‘Kosmos’ model which was launched from the spaceport in Plesetsk in April 1977 would finish its existence right above the Kara Sea. It had been floating around in the non-operational state due to its age fo r a long time and finally lowered to the upper atmosphere according to the physical laws to be burnt in it. A le k s a n d r DERBIN А л е к с а н д р ДЕРБИН The old Kosmos-904 had been floating around the planet fo r 37 years and, so to say, was back to earth exactly above our heads in the Kara Sea. I rushed to flip through the crew list and became certain that not less than a half of the crew had already been adult enough in the days when that Kosmos blasted off. A meeting taking place 37 years later! The idea to ask my shipmates on what they were doing in the spring 1977 seemed attractive to me. First of all, I must have got a description both fancy and vivid. And secondly, as I know by my journalistic experience that people like to remember their long-gone youth moreover when such an allusive occasion occurs. And the first person I addressed this insignificant (at the first sight) question was, of course, my two-berth cabin mate Aleksandr Derbin, the seism ic source points [ ‘air guns’] operator. Curiously enough, the seafarer with the 30 years’ experience distinctively remembered these long-gone days: “April of 1977? Back then I lived in the town of Nikolsk in the Vologda Region and was studying fo r my finals at school. That spring in Nikolsk (I remember it very well) came very early. Already in April we had been wearing T-shirts! And in May snow suddenly f e l l . A fter school I was sent to the Voluntary Association fo r Assistance to Army, Air Force and Navy courses as a ‘youth undergoing preconscription military train ing ’ and then I was sent to the settlement of Sputnik, the Murmansk Region, to do military service in marine infantry. So, you see a sea- soldier, reserve sergeant, in fron t of you.” “A fter the m ilitary service I decided to stay in Murmansk and become a seafarer although there have not ever been any seafarers in my fam ily. I got a job as a seaman in the Traw ler Fleet. Seem ingly, fo r these 30 years I have worked onboard all the fishing vessel types and cleaned and cu t open thousands of tons of codfish. And in 2011 I go t a job in MAGE and w ork onboard the NALIVKIN. I have seen lots of vessels in my life but the NALIVKIN is probably my favorite vessel. Its operations are unusual and the steamboat itself is so w e ll-b u ilt.” MURMANSK MILE • 3-2016