Pavel, I am very impressed with your command of English. You write it very well. I do not have any contacts with the ORF people. It was many years ago, I do not know if they still even work there. It was at the main headquarters in Vienna. Only one of the production assistants spoke and wrote English. I know that one of the Russian Icebreakers has made several trips to support that group. They write about it on the web. I have not yet posted the picture as I had an unexpected visitor arrive and spend a couple of hours.

I was a camp manager for a mineral exploration camp near Galena, Alaska for about seven months many years ago. The local residents had similar stories about the fishing in the tributaries of the Yukon. We fished for salmon and grayling in streams around our camp. The numbers of salmon in the small stream was amazing. The grayling were very easy to catch.

It is wonderful to read about your experiences in Alaska and the activities you have been involved in. I look forward to reading more about your adventures. You can try richardnewman69@gmail.com to see if that will work.

Respectfully,

Rick Newman

Prviet Pavel, I haven't yet posted the picture but when I do I will send you the link. May I have your email address so I may more easily do so? My email address is amsrick@comcast.net.

My trip to Russia took me to the NEFTEGAS trade show in Moscow. . The company i worked for was interested in providing camps for oil and gas exploration. Our interpreter's father had been a scientist that worked in the Russian Space Program. After the exhibition he would take me to museums and other exhibition halls. One day he took me to the museum in the basement of the Kremlin. Perhaps you know of the items shown there. I remember seeing the carraige that the of the Tzar's. There were many other special things, it was a very special trip. I enjoyed my visit to Russia, the people were very friendly and nice.

Are you familiar with Franz Joseph Land? Do you know of Karl Weyprecht from Austria? I once traveled to Vienna, Austria to sell arctic clothing to the Austrian television station ORF. They had built a replica of the Tegetoff, the ship that Captain Weyprecht was on when they became stuck in the ice and discovered Franz Joseph Land. I got to stand on the deck of the replica before they packed it up and transported it to Franz Joseph Land to leave it for the winter so it would become covered in ice. In the spring they traveled on one of the Russian Icebreakers to return to film a documentary about the discovery of Franz Joseph land. I got many pictures from the crew that traveled there. They sent me  video tape of the production but I couldn't view it because it was formatted for European TV's.

Pavil I am very happy that you have joined out forum. I hope that I can help you determine the origin of the boat in the picture. For some unkown reason I felt that the boat was not a working boat but rather a pleasure boat. With my limited understanding of Russian history it seemed like only privileged classes. It is amazing to me that the boat could have belonged to the Tzar. I will post the picture tomorrow and send you a link.

If you come to the United States I will take you fishing in my drift boat. You can see many pictures of drift boats that I have taken on my page here on Wooden Boat People.

Warmest regards,

Rick Newman