"St. Nikolai" ("Nikolais the Educator") - the a replica of the merchants' eldiya of Pomoranian 18th century (Russia)

For sailing in the northern seas, full of ice floes, the Pomoranians built very strong ships for long voyages. The Pomoranian eldia of the 13th century was a full-rigged ship with a continuous deck, transom stern and hanging rudder. The hull was divided into three compartments by watertight transverse bulkheads, and hatches were made in the deck for entering them. The aft compartment contained the captain's cabin and room for marine instruments. The team consisted of 25-30 sailors, who lived in the forward part of the ship, where there was also a brick oven for cooking. In the middle part there was a 4 m deep cargo hold. The cargo capacity of large ships reached 200 tons, (from the beginning of the 16th century - even 300), the length varied between 18 - 25 meters, width - 6 - 8 meters, board height - 2.5 - 3.5 m, draft - 1.5 - 2.7 m. Eldias drove two mainsails and one gaff sail on 3 masts, the sail area reached 460 m2. Such sailing equipment made it possible to sail up to 300 kilometers per day. In such ships, Russian Novgorod merchants sailed to the mouth of the Northern Dvina, to Grumant (Spitsbergen), covering 2,000 km, and traveled around the Scandinavian peninsula. Eldijas stopped building only around the beginning of 18th century. Replica of the Pomoranian Merchant Eldiya "St. Nikolaj" was built according to very close Pomoranian shipbuilding traditions - a very beautiful three-masted ship. Pomoranian merchants sailed on such ships to England, Grumant, Mangazeia, famous for its gold products, and Scandinavian countries. The ship was designed and built by the enthusiasts of the club "Polar Odisei" in the winter of 1990-1991.

The model is not complicated, so it will be perfectly glued even by an advanced beginner modeler under the supervision of a more experienced colleague. The sails are printed on thin paper with double-sided printing.
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