The Ice Breaker Angara Museum - is one of the Irkutsk's most unusual monuments/museums. It is the only surviving ship of the original icebreakers in Russia.
In 1898, the Russian government ordered a ship on the same design as the icebreakers on Lake Erie from the Sir V G Armstrong, Vitvort and Co , an English ship firm in Newcastle. The
iceboat was sent in pieces to Listvyanka, where it was reassembled Before the foundation of the Circum-Baikal Railroad in 1905, the Angara and the ferry/icebreaker Baikal made two trips through Baikal daily Later on, it was used for shipping across the lake.
Historians note the Angara for two reasons first, it is one of the oldest icebreakers in the world, second it has been sunk more than any other ship in the world The first time the Angara sunk was in the 1920s, when it ran across rocks near the Ushkany islands The second and third time (in the 1970s and 1980s) it sunk in Irkutsk's reservoir, where it lay abandoned for a long time.
However, after restoration, the History of Navigation on Lake Baikal Museum opened in 1991 on the ice-breaker The exhibit shows models of the Baikal ships, historical photographs and documents relating to the Angara and navigation in the region.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT MUSEUM:
The address: prospect Zhukova, the Solnechny mikroraion
Open: Tuesday through Sunday, from 10.00 am to 06.00 pm;
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