Eisbär (1941 icebreaker)

Eisbär was a steam-powered Kriegsmarine port icebreaker built at Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad in Göteborg, Sweden, in 1942. She had two triple-expansion steam engines driving one propeller in the stern and another in the bow of the vessel.

Eisbär photographed in Frierfjord in 1942
History
Nazi Germany
Name:	Eisbär
Namesake:	German for polar bear
Operator:	Kriegsmarine
Builder:	Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstad, Göteborg, Sweden
Yard number:	319[1]
Launched:	20 October 1941[2]
Commissioned:	1 February 1942[2]
In service:	1942–1945
Fate:	Handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations in 1946
Soviet Union
Name:	Ilya Muromets (Илья Муромец)
Namesake:	Ilya Muromets, Russian folk hero
Operator:	Soviet Navy (1946–1957) Far East Shipping Company (1957–1979)[3]
Port of registry:	Vladivostok, Soviet Union (since 1957)
Acquired:	1946
In service:	1946–1979
Identification:	IMO number: 6805000 Call sign: UPXG
Fate:	Broken up in 1981[3]
General characteristics [1]
Type:	Icebreaker
Length:	56.9 m (187 ft)
Beam:	15 m (49 ft)
Draught:	6.35 m (21 ft)
Installed power:	Two triple-expansion steam engines
Propulsion:	Bow and stern propellers

In 1946, Eisbär was handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations and renamed Ilya Muromets after the Russian folk hero. She was first used by the Soviet Navy until 1957 and afterwards as a port icebreaker in Vladivostok by the Far Eastern Shipping Company until 1979. Ilya Muromets was broken up in 1981.[3]

In the 1950s, the hull form of Ilya Muromets was used as the basis for the development of the diesel-electric Project 97 icebreakers.[4][5]