Photo by O.Y. Schmidt, head of the Chelyuskin expedition.

An extremely rare photograph taken by one of the participants in the famous examination of the Chelyuskin steamship. The photo shows members of the expedition next to its leader— Otto Yulevich Schmidt (full name Otto Friedrich Julius; September 18 [30], 1891, Mogilev — September 7, 1956, Moscow), a Soviet mathematician, geographer, geophysicist, astronomer, organizer of book publishing and educational reform. Explorer of the Pamirs (1928), explorer of the North. Professor (1924). Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (06/01/1935, corresponding member since 02/01/1933), Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (05/27/1934), Hero of the Soviet Union (1937). The size is 180*130 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

On July 16, 1933, the Chelyuskin steamer under the command of first captain Peteris Biezais and the head of the expedition, Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences O. Y. Schmidt, left Leningrad for Murmansk, calling at the docks of the manufacturing company in Copenhagen on the way, where several identified defects were eliminated. In Denmark, on July 27, 1933, Captain Biesais temporarily transferred command to experienced polar captain V. I. Voronin, who was a passenger on the ship, due to the workload with technical documentation related to the repairs. Nevertheless, Biezais got off the ship in Murmansk, and Voronin assumed the duties of captain of the Chelyuskin.

On August 2, 1933, with 112 people on board, the steamer left Murmansk for Vladivostok, working out a cargo delivery scheme along the Northern Sea Route in one summer navigation. In difficult sections of the way, icebreakers were planned to participate in the Chelyuskin's wiring. 53 crew members, 29 expedition members, 18 people who were going to winter on Wrangel Island and 12 construction workers were accommodated on board the steamer. 2,995 tons of coal, 500 tons of water, 26 cows and 4 piglets, and food for one and a half years of wintering were loaded into the luggage compartments.

The first ice floes met in the Kara Sea when leaving the Matochkin Shar Strait. With the help of an icebreaker, the ship overcame solid ice and continued to move independently. Cape Chelyuskin was reached on September 1. In the Chukchi Sea, the steamer again encountered solid ice and on September 23 was completely blocked in the area of the site of last year's accident of the Alexander Sibiryakov steamship. Chelyuskin drifted with the crew for almost five months. On November 4, 1933, due to a successful drift with the ice, Chelyuskin entered the Bering Strait. There were only a few miles left to clear water. However, the ship was then pulled back in a northwesterly direction. On February 13, 1934, as a result of strong compression, Chelyuskin was crushed by ice and sank within two hours.

Even in advance, fearing such an outcome, the crew prepared everything necessary for unloading on the surrounding ice. The last to leave Chelyuskin were Schmidt, Voronin and Boris Grigorievich Mogilevich, the head of the expedition. It was possible to transfer bricks and planks onto the ice, which were then used to build barracks.

As a result of the disaster, 104 people turned out to be on the ice (8 people left the steamer near Kolyuchin Island for various reasons; in the Kara Sea, a daughter Karina was born in the family of a surveyor V. G. Vasiliev, who went on an expedition with his pregnant wife[9][10]; one person, the caretaker B. G. Mogilevich, died during flooding of the vessel, being crushed by displaced deck cargo).

Two days after the shipwreck, a special commission was formed in Moscow, headed by Valerian Kuibyshev. The evacuation of the camp was carried out with the help of aviation. On March 5, 1934, pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky made his way to the camp on an ANT-4 aircraft and took ten women and two children off the ice floe. The next flight was completed only on April 7. Within a week, pilots Vasily Molokov, Nikolai Kamanin, Mikhail Vodopyanov on R-5 planes, Mauritius Slepnev on a Consolidated Flitster 17AF aircraft and Ivan Doronin on a Junkers W 33 took the rest of the Chelyuskin residents to the mainland. The last flight was made on April 13, 1934. In total, the pilots made 23 flights, transporting people to the Chukchi camp of Vankarem, located 140-160 km from the ice parking area. On April 2, pilot Mikhail Babushkin and flight mechanic Georgy Valavin independently flew from an ice floe to Vankarem on an amphibious aircraft Sh-2, which served Chelyuskin for ice reconnaissance. All 104 people who spent two months on an ice floe in the conditions of the polar winter were rescued. In the last days of his stay on the ice floe, Schmidt became seriously ill and, by decision of a government commission, was transferred to a hospital in Nome, Alaska, on April 11.