(As with all the books in the "Classics of Sea Power" seri...)
As with all the books in the "Classics of Sea Power" series, this book is a key work of professional naval thought. Chosen for its eloquence and timelessness, it provides a depth and understanding that cannot be had from reading secondary sources alone. Makarov's work, published in Russia in 1897 and translated into English in 1898, contains important lessons for modern readers and gives insight into the birth of modern Soviet naval tactics. The introduction to this important theme in naval warfare illustrates how Makarov, by bridging the gap between new technology and old tactics, helped bring the Russian navy into the 20th century. Stephen Osipovich Makarov is considered one of Russia's most brilliant naval theoreticians. A contemporary of Alfred Thayer Mahan's, Makarov took a far more practical approach to the subject of naval tactics and seapower than his American counterpart. He is credited with never losing sight of the programmatic applications of his theories and experiments while maintaining a full appreciation of the human dimensions and the need for strong leadership in an increasingly technical age.
Stepan Osipovich Makarov was a Russian Imperial vice-admiral. Apart from being a navy commander, he was an oceanographer, engineer, and inventor awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books.
Background
Stepan Osipovich Makarov was born on January 8, 1849, in Nikolaev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Nikolaev, Mykolayivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine). His father, Osip Fyodorovich Makarov, retired from the navy in 1873 with the rank of junior captain. His mother Elizaveta Andreyevna Kirillova, a daughter of a non-commissioned officer, came from a simple family and had no education; she died in 1857, leaving two daughters and three sons, of whom Stepan was the youngest. When the family moved to Nikolayevsk-na-Amure the five-month voyage from St. Petersburg instilled in him a love for the ocean and for sea voyages: Makarov often said, “At sea means at home.”
Education
His officer’s rank enabled Makarov’s father to enroll his son in 1958 at the naval school at Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, to which his father had been transferred. Makarov graduated from the naval school in 1865. In 1863, he joined the Imperial Russian Navy where he served as a cadet aboard a clipper of the Russian Pacific Fleet.
In 1866 Stepan Makarov took part in the voyage of the corvette Askold from Vladivostok to Kronstadt via the Cape of Good Hope. He served as a cadet and in May 1869 he was commissioned a warrant officer. Makarov served with the Baltic Fleet between 1867 and 1876 serving as flag captain under Admiral Andrei Popov. He transferred to the Black Sea Fleet in 1876.
In 1870, Makarov invented a design for a collision mat, to seal holes in a ship's hull. The invention was displayed at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, which Makarov attended.
Assigned to the Black Sea fleet in 1876 as commander of a steamer, he conducted successful military actions during the Russo-Turkish War.
In 1881-1882 as commander of the ambassadorial station ship Taman in Constantinople, Makarov conducted hydrological research in the Bosporus. In 1886-1889 he commanded the corvette Vityaz on its round-the-world voyage, and in 1896 he became vice-admiral. From the beginning of 1897, Makarov was actively involved in research on an icebreaker in the North Atlantic. While planning the icebreaker Ermak Makarov studied previous voyages through ice, particularly on the Great Lakes. He supervised the building of the Ermak in England and in 1899-1901 completed the first voyages on it in polar latitudes. In December 1899 Makarov was named commander in chief of the Kronshtadt port and military governor of Kronshtadt. Makarov died during the Russo-Japanese War, when his battleship, the Petropavlovsk, was sunk by a Japanese mine.
Makarov began his oceanographic studies in 1881–1882 on currents in the Bosporus. In his first experiment, Makarov proved the existence of a deep current running counter to the surface current. In the middle of the channel, he let down a barrel which was borne by the surface current toward the Sea of Marmara. At a certain depth the line began to pull in the opposite direction. The force of the deep current was so great that the barrel dragged the boat against the surface current. Makarov organized systematic observations of the water density and temperature at various depths, and of the velocity of the current throughout the strait. The velocity of the current was measured by a rotator, which Makarov invented and which he called a fluctometer. The velocity of the surface current varied from 6 to 3.22 feet per second, and of the lower from 3.22 to 1.84 feet per second. The density of the upper water was 1. 015; the lower, 1.028. This difference in density between the less saline Black Sea and the more saline Sea of Marmara appears to be the reason for the existence of contrary currents in the Bosporus. Makarov estimated that the ratio of the volume of inflow to outflow in the Black Sea is 1: 1.85; the difference is accounted for by fresh water flowing into the Black Sea. The results of Makarov’s Bosporus research were published in Ob obmene vod Chernogo i Sredizemnogo morey (“On the Exchange of Water of the Black and Mediterranean Seas,” 1885), which was a major contribution to oceanography.
In his main oceanographic work, Vityaz i Tikhy okean (“The Vityaz and the Pacific Ocean,” 1894), he explained the hydrological observations carried out under his direction aboard the corvette Vityaz on its thirty-three-month round-the-world voyage. Although it was undertaken mainly for purposes of military instruction, Makarov began oceanographic observation at the outset. Makarov made more than 250 individual measurements of water density and temperature at depths from twenty-five to 800 meters. After careful analysis of the results of these observations and also descriptions in logs of other voyages, Makarov compiled the first water temperature tables for the North Pacific Ocean. He also considered the origin of the deep waters of the North Pacific, the reason for the homogeneous temperature and density of the water at every depth of the English Channel, the reason for the rising of deep waters near the mouths of large rivers, and the general pattern of ocean currents, with an indication of the primary significance of the action of the Coriolis force on sea currents. This main work of Makarov’s, published simultaneously in Russian and French and awarded prizes by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Russian Geographical Society, brought Makarov international recognition as a scientific oceanographer.
Makarov conceived the idea of opening up navigation along the northern borders of Siberia with the aid of icebreakers. “Straight Through to the North Pole!” was the expressive title of his report in 1897 to the Russian Geographical Society. On two voyages on the icebreaker Ermak to Spitsbergen and to Novaya Zemlya (1899-1901), Makarov gathered data on the Arctic ice and on the temperatures and salinity of the Arctic basin.
Although the Ermak, constructed on Makarov’s initiative, did not achieve all the results for which its creator hoped, research in the Arctic Ocean with icebreakers has subsequently been widely realized in the Soviet Union.
Connections
Stepan Osipovich Makarov married Kapitolina Nikolaevna Yakimovskaya, daughter of First-Class Captain Nikolai Fedorovich Yakimovsky; cavalier lady of the Order of St. Catherine. They had three children: Olga, Alexandra, and Vadim.