Blocks of ice hung over the black water. The south wind, unaccustomed to snow, hesitantly took it in his hands, twisted it in a whirlwind, tasting it, and myriads of snowflakes, fluttering from the top of the iceberg, landed on the dark expanse of the sea, instantly dissolving in it. Complete calm ensued.
The old brig, battered by the elements and endless boardings, froze on the water. The bottom was covered with shells, the sails had long been torn. The black pirate flag with the skull and crossbones was frosty, hung helplessly, head down sullenly. At the bow of the ship, wrapped in a windbreaker, stood a dark-haired girl. Her name was Roberta. From the frost, her cheeks played with a blush, and her eyes watered. She gazed into the distance. Roberta inhaled the chilly air, looking for a way out of the icy labyrinth with her eyes, but the dark stormy sky above her did not bode well, although the damp cold that had pierced her to the bones yesterday had now receded.
For four days now the brig has not been able to get out of the trap. In one night, severe frost chained its victims, black magic entangled in a network of gloomy icebergs. The ship was not equipped for such weather, and the crew, already shabby after meeting with the war galleon, did not have warm clothes. For the first days they stoked the stove for days on end and wrapped themselves in blankets, carpets and canvas, and then at one moment the blizzard subsided, and when the sailors got out on the upper deck, the snowdrifts on it were already melting. The ship rocked slightly on the water, but the icebergs surrounding it, caused by dark magic, were immune to the sun's rays. Two more days have passed since then.
Straight ahead, Roberta spotted a small boat that had come from nowhere. Looking closer, she saw a man lying in it. The hilt of the rapier seemed to slip into his hand. Roberta, with another glance at the boat, quickly made her way to the poop. The tongue of the ship's bell rang out.
On the deck, shivering from the cold, with boarding sabers in their hands, six men in windbreakers sullenly came out. Jugel appeared first, surveying the empty deck with a displeased look. Karnaukh came out next, whistled:
Brought the dead.
Jacob, a pirate with a long thick beard, just in case, began to load his pistol:
In such places, even the dead walk, - he said, looking around.
With a whoop, Karnauch threw the rope, the hook got caught over the side, and the pirate pulled the boat towards him. She went easily, with acceleration she hit the hull of the brig.
Frozen, still, - blew his nose, said Karnaukh.
Get it upstairs,” Roberta ordered.
I don’t hear, - the pirate put his other ear, - what?
Roberta did not answer, only nodded at the two robbers who had already climbed into the boat, lifting the unconscious body by its blue hands. Leaning over the bulwark, Karnaukh grabbed the man by the dirty shirt, which had long since turned into tatters, and pulled him up. The fabric burst, and the body fell to the bottom of the boat with a thud, nearly capsizing it. A wounded torso was exposed, and emaciated skin appeared, painted in a variety of shades: from yellow to bright red. The pirates cursed rudely at Karnauch, but he did not hear, shouted irritably:
Get rid of this corpse!
Still alive, - they shouted to him in response, but again Karnaukh did not understand anything, he only thought that they were swearing at him and stretched out with feeling:
Well, freaks! ..
The strong fingers of the pirate grabbed the body under the armpits, abruptly pulled it aboard. Karnauch checked his pulse by touching his neck.
So he's alive! I never saw this when I was born.
I would like to bandage it, - Jacob said uncertainly from behind Roberta, - it's a pity, the doctors decided.
Wait, wait, ”Jugel spoke,“ what have you thought up? You are not sailors if you have not heard such stories! This is the messenger of the devil himself, not otherwise! Let's help - and he will drag us to the bottom!
Devil?! - Jacob stuck the pistol in his belt - look around, the devil has already caught us! And this guy… must have fallen into a trap too.
Shut up! - barked Zhyugel, - this is a trick, he will destroy us!
Let's leave it on board, Roberta decided.
Captain, - Zhyugel cleared his throat. - The devil has caught us, now he won't let go. And this is his servant. Not a human, but a demon. Haven't you heard such stories? He will kill everyone, and he will take a few who he likes to the bottom, forever serving the sea devil!
There was silence. The pirates eyed the wounded man with suspicion. He did not have a single deep wound, only bruises, torn skin, knocked down fingers. In tattered rags, one could guess the clothes worn by prisoners of any royal prison.
Let's leave the poor fellow, Roberta decided.
Captain! .. - Zhyuzhel was shaking with rage.
He is a victim, just like us. Take it to the cabin, treat the wounds! We are all in the same trap.
Jacob nodded to another pirate, William, and they picked up the body and dragged it down. The others followed, and only Roberta remained on the upper deck, pensively examining the rapier blade, covered with hoarfrost. As she wrapped herself in a windbreaker, she rubbed her nose and cheeks, which made them redden even more.
The pirates went down to the cabin, and, groaning, threw the body into a corner.
Heavy as a chest of gold, said Jacob.
And when was the last time we saw a chest of gold? Jugel muttered. "Damned be the day I set foot on this vessel!" Three months wasted! Everything is around the bush, and now they got really stuck. What else was to be expected?
Say what's on your mind? - Karnaukh sat down next to him.
Clear as day! Time to change captain!
Oh, Zhyugel, you are not on time, two weeks ago, - Jacob said with annoyance.
Shut up! Jugel snapped. - The time is right! A little more - and we are dead.
Karnaukh frowned, listening intently, but did not make out anything and, just in case, hissed:
Well, freaks! ..
Jugel jumped up to answer, but he was interrupted by the sound of a sob. The pirates, seizing their sabers, rushed to the deck. There, under the piercing wind, following the tip of Roberta's rapier, they saw a human figure approaching them across the ice. The pirates peered, but the silhouette was too far away. Roberta silently passed the spyglass to Jacob. The fingers squeezed the body, the robber turned his eye, screamed in fright. Jugel snatched the pipe from him and looked for himself.
The sea devil wants us dead,” he whispered.
The figure reached the edge of the ice floe, twenty meters from the ship, and now it was easy to see that it was not a person at all, but a yellowed skeleton, in dirty torn rags, tightly clutching a rusty sword. Behind his back he carried a torn standard, on which the symbols of the Crown were guessed. Under such banners, the cavalry of the monarch Theador III goes into battle.
Roberta threw off her windbreaker. The pirate was wearing a silk white shirt and a short gray jacket. On his feet are black pants with ribbons at the knees and low boots.
The skeleton soared into the air, a monstrous push cracking the ice under their feet. A rusty saber whistled in the air. The dead man landed on the deck with such force that the ship shuddered and heeled over.
Roberta grabbed her pistol, the trigger clicked, and the bullet blew off a couple of ribs, which shattered into rotten crumbs. The dead man staggered, stumbled on the ropes, but then an unknown force threw him forward. He rushed to Roberta, raised a rusty sword, a dull blade flashed. As if in a dance, the pirate's boots counted three steps to the side, and she pierced the skull with a short lunge, which immediately shattered into smithereens, like clay. The skeleton did not have time to fall - with dashing cries the pirates rushed at him, the blades with a deaf crunch were chopping bones and piercingly rang, accidentally meeting each other. Fragments of bones sprayed apart, and soon the skeleton turned into a shapeless heap.
Devilry! - shouted Zhyugel, - how many years I have been swimming, and this is the first time!
You swim a little, - Karnaukh blew his nose, wiped his fingers on his pants, - I saw the ghouls. They seem scary, but in fact - spit, and crumble.
Boarding team (boarding party) - a specially trained group (part of the personnel), equipped with special boarding equipment (pistols, sabers, cats, axes), whose main task is to conduct hand-to-hand combat during boarding, as well as clutching ships to transfer (receive) cargo.
On old pirate ships, the quartermaster (quarterdeck master) was the first deputy captain, who was also the commander of the boarding team. In the event of the death or removal of the captain, he was the first candidate to fill the vacant position.
John Silver on the Walrus at Flint (in the novel by the Scottish writer Robert Stevenson Treasure Island) served as quartermaster.
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Notes
Literature
- Naval Dictionary / Ch. ed. Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Admiral of the Fleet V. N. Chernavin. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1990. - 511 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00174-x.
An excerpt characterizing the boarding party
Prince Vasily looked impressively at Pierre. “I know from good sources that the Empress Dowager takes a keen interest in this whole matter. You know, she's very kind to Helen.Several times Pierre was about to speak, but on the one hand, Prince Vasily did not allow him to do so, on the other hand, Pierre himself was afraid to start speaking in that tone of decisive refusal and disagreement in which he firmly decided to answer his father-in-law. In addition, the words of the Masonic statute: "be kind and friendly" came to mind to him. He frowned, blushed, got up and lowered himself, working on himself in the most difficult thing for him in his life - to say something unpleasant in the face of a person, to say not what this person expected, whoever he was. He was so accustomed to obey this tone of careless self-confidence of Prince Vasily that even now he felt that he would not be able to resist her; but he felt that the whole further fate him: whether he will go along the old, old road, or along that new one, which was so attractively indicated to him by the Masons, and on which he firmly believed that he would find a rebirth to a new life.
Alexander Sergeyevich Suvorov ("Alexander Suvory")
Book-photo chronicle: "Legendary BOD" Ferocious ". DCBF 1971-1974.
Chapter 702 Division-crew of the BOD "Svirepy". Boarding team. May 29, 1972.
Photo illustration from the open Internet: Kaliningrad. Division-crew of the newly built BOD "Svirepy". At this time in the early 70s of the 20th century, everything was secret, and everything related to the newest large anti-submarine ship BOD "Svirepy" was super secret, so taking pictures in the crew division, and even more so on the ship or in training sessions, was almost impossible . In the presentation of our friends from the crew of the ship, we, the boarding team of the Fierce BOD, were presented as - anarchists from the movie "Optimistic Tragedy". In fact, we were perhaps the most responsible, friendly and disciplined sailors of the Fierce BOD. May 29, 1972
In the previous one:
After the publication of an article about the meeting-rally on May 11, 1972 in the main newspaper of the Baltic Fleet "Guardian of the Baltic" dated May 15, 1972, I was unexpectedly included in the ship's boarding team - a special armed group of officers, midshipmen, foremen and sailors to capture an enemy ship or ship .
On Monday, May 29, 1972, in the morning at the divorce of the ship's outfit, quite unexpectedly, the first officer, Lieutenant Commander A.A. Salnikov, read out a short list with an order marked: “Get out of action!” and led us, officers, warrant officers, foremen and sailors to the "red corner" of the 115th separate division of newly built and repaired ships of the DCBF - the "lenkayut" of the crew of the BOD "Svirepy". Here we were ordered to sit down at the tables and carefully listen to the guest - the captain of the 3rd rank of the marines (I don’t remember the last name - the author).
In accordance with the likely development of situations at sea during combat service, - the senior assistant commander of the ship, Captain-Lieutenant Alexander Andreevich Salnikov told us, - it was decided to create a special temporary combat unit in the crew of the BOD "Svirepy" - a boarding team to land on enemy vessels, ships, or ashore with the help of regular ship's watercraft - boats and boats, or from the ship's side.
The purpose of the landing of the boarding team is to capture an enemy ship or ship, capture the crew, intercept communications, prevent damage and destruction of property, machinery and mechanisms, cargo, weapons and ammunition, fuel, fresh water and food, duty, personal and secret documents and equipment.
In addition, the boarding team is obliged to independently or with the help of the crew restore the vessel or ship to working capacity, set it in motion and control the direction of its movement either independently or under tow. If it is impossible to fulfill this duty, the boarding team must destroy the enemy ship or ship using improvised or sabotage means.
In accordance with these goals and objectives, the BOD "Svirepy" boarding team includes combat numbers of the following military specialties:
boarding team commander, warhead commander, senior lieutenant;
deputy commander of the boarding team, head of the drill and demolition group, lieutenant;
weapons specialist, midshipman;
specialist in machines and mechanisms, midshipman;
communications specialist, foreman of the 1st article;
navigation and control specialist, foreman of the 1st article;
specialist in rigging and stocks, foreman of the 1st article;
specialists in hand-to-hand combat, sabotage and damage control, foremen and sailors.
The total number of the boarding team is 10-12 people.
You must, in complete secrecy, in the near future undergo a special short training and training in the behavior of a boarding or sabotage team on an enemy ship or a ship located at sea under the guns or torpedoes of the BOD "Svirepy", as well as methods and techniques for capturing, lifting from a boat to board a ship or a ship and perform assigned tasks in conditions of passive or active resistance and sabotage of the command and personnel of a captured ship-ship.
The principles of construction and arrangement of ships and ships all over the world are almost the same, so it will not be difficult for you to master the power plant, weapons, machines, mechanisms, communications, navigational equipment and steering gear. Most of the trouble and effort will require overcoming the resistance and sabotage of the crew of the captured ship-ship. Therefore, the emphasis in training and education will be placed on this element of the combat training of the boarding team.
Of what you have just been told and what you will learn and learn to do, no one, except for those present here and the commander of the ship, of course, can be said and reported. For violation given condition severe criminal punishment will immediately, steadily and automatically follow.
Responsibility for all legal and illegal actions of the boarding team lies with its immediate commander (the first officer gave his last name and introduced us to one of the most authoritative and physically trained commanders of the combat units of the newly built BOD "Svirepy" - the author).
To me personally, everything that was said by A.A. Salnikov, I liked it extremely, I was only embarrassed that I was not yet a foreman of the 1st article, mentally and physically I was not ready to fight to the death with someone, conflict, quarrel and be part of a boarding team, because I was “young”, thin and relatively weak, and around me were real "blockheads" ...
Participation in the boarding team is a voluntary matter, - the senior assistant commander of the ship, Lieutenant Commander A.A. told us. Salnikov. So I'll give you a minute to think. Those who consider themselves unprepared for this work can leave the premises and forever forget about everything that happened here. Time has gone...
None of us even exchanged glances with each other, but dully, in a murmur, informed the command that we were ready to immediately begin classes ...
An age-old captain of the 3rd rank of the Marine Corps with sharp features of a courageous face, cut through with deep wrinkles and slightly disfigured by some traces of pockmarks from a previous disease, immediately “raised us on our hind legs”, because he forced everyone to undergo a mini-examination of the physique, the size of the biceps, muscle power by “squeezing” from the floor on the hands and holding the “corner” with raised legs from the handstand between the tables.
I tried very hard, but my thin “torso”, the absence of pronounced muscles on the body and only a few “push-ups” from the floor plus a “instant corner” between the tables, caused a restrained disapproving cheerful and mocking condemnation of those present.
The captain of the 3rd rank of the Marines calmly watched how our “blockheads” diligently did push-ups and kept their legs up in front of them for a long time, and then suddenly made an unexpected punch lunge with his fist right in my jaw ...
I barely managed to dodge this attack and not just dodge, but “spin” around me with a rebound to the side, thereby finding myself behind this crazy marine. He did not react to me in any way, but made the same lunge-blow in the direction of one, second, third "blockheads" - they steadfastly withstood painful punches in the chest and "under the stomach" ...
Error! our teacher said loudly. - Your task is not to proudly and dignifiedly take the blows of enemies, but to capture the ship, suppress the resistance of the team, fulfill the order, and here you show me your "oak stamina and endurance."
Sailor Suvorov did everything right, - said the "cap-three" of the Marines. - He avoided a dangerous physical impact, which, according to his physique and physical condition, can be fatal, and even managed to change position and ended up behind the attacker, and you “blockheads” were just lucky that I didn’t hit at full strength and at the wrong points of your beefy bodies that would make you disabled.
Your task is not to fight and not show your strength and prowess, your task is to avoid a fight, hand-to-hand combat, injury and death, your task is to capture the ship. Who needs your stupid heroism, bruises, bumps, scars, fractures and wounds? By doing this, you will only weaken the boarding team, add the hassle of caring for your wounds, and your heroic boasting and muscle flexing will only benefit the enemy, irritate them, encourage resistance and rebellion.
Our ship's "blockheads" were sincerely confused and drooped, they looked at me with hostility, as if I were to blame for something in front of them. After that, the captain of the 3rd rank of the Marine Corps began to tell and show us such things that not only I, not only our officers, midshipmen and foremen, but the "omniscient" first officer himself, lieutenant commander A.A. Salnikov, opened their mouths and made "round eyes" in amazement.
I can only say that this rough, tough, strong and courageous officer of the Marine Corps turned out to be a real subtle psychologist, an expert on the human soul and the laws and patterns of human behavior, especially genetically innate instinctive behavior. Moreover, he turned out to be a real anthropologist, an expert in the anatomy and physiology of the human body and organism, and we learned a lot of amazing things (we just touched the secret knowledge - the author).
The meeting, acquaintance and business communication with this amazing unknown person had a very strong impact and impression on me, prompted me to study science, which subsequently led to many of my personal discoveries in life, in biorhythmology, to predicting the fate of a person, to creative activity in politics, to study at the Academy public service under the President of the Russian Federation, to the creation of my main work-work - “Chronology of the history of the development of mankind. Experience in reconstructing the sequence of historical events in time and space in correlation with solar activity.
Of the many information that this “cap-three” from the Marine Corps literally “filled up” like an avalanche, I will show you and tell you only one indicative method-influence in relations with an aggressive member of the crew of a captured ship-ship.
He is in front of you and he is determined to beat you, hit you, kill you. You are armed, but he is not, so he has nothing to lose - he will beat you desperately, suddenly, insidiously, mercilessly, evilly, vilely, in order to kill or finish you off for sure. He feels like a hero, he is excited, he is “at the height” of his mood, but at the same time, he is instinctively afraid and alert, because there is a warship overboard of his ship, ready to immediately sink this “hero” even at the cost of the life of his boarding team. Therefore, this “hero” wants to feel like a self-confident hero, powerful over his fear, a worthy, self-respecting person.
How to immediately reduce his self-esteem, self-confidence and determination to be a “kamikaze hero” and at the cost of his life to fulfill his duty and “blah blah blah”? Moreover, please note that this is not ours, not a Russian, not a Soviet person, but a pupil of a capitalist society and state alien to us, an alien worldview and morality, who considers himself superior to us, more civilized than us, and therefore stronger morally and physically.
We did not know the answer to this question of the captain of the 3rd rank of the Marine Corps and were waiting for some kind of revelation from him ...
That's how! - he said and ordered three of our "blockheads" to adjust accordingly and stand in front of him in the aisle between the shifted tables, imitating a narrow ship corridor with turns.
They (you) are standing in the corridor and I need to go out to them (to you). They are waiting and ready from around the corner not just to stun me, but to “knock me out” with a blow with something heavy on the crown of my head. Stand in the pose of a man with a club or with something heavy (the ceilings in the ship corridors are low - the author).
This means that I should not expose my sensitive parts of the body to them, for example, my bare head, face (eyes, nose), arms and legs (my tools of work, defense and movement). Consequently, I only have to appear for a moment from around the corner, look out, “take a picture” of the situation with my eyes, instantly analyze the opponents’ readiness for any action and immediately recoil.
But if my enemies performed their action and lunged towards me when I showed up, that is, their hands and their weapons were already “discharged”, stretched forward, so I have the opportunity to instantly neutralize their “tools” with a strong crippling blow to the hands.
Why a strong and crippling blow? Because this is a fair punishment for trying to cripple or kill me: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Clear? This law has been known since primitive times, it is valid for cases of armed hand-to-hand combat-clash. We are not in the ring, but in a real battle, this is a war, they really kill here ...
Now something else. You looked out, saw tense enemies-opponents, but they do not perform any actions, but by all indications they are about to proudly and with contempt for pain and death, they will take a heroic deed, that is, they will attack you. What to do when you are right in front of them?
In any group of opponents there is necessarily a leader, a leader, a ringleader who is fueled by the energy of cowardice, caution and subjugation of others, therefore he is ready for heroism before their eyes. You know: "In the world and death is red!". Therefore, the leader feels at the height of the situation, above all, coolest of all. Yes, and others see him just like that - “hillock”, “van”, “ivan”, “main”. This means that his strength and confidence are in this height of the dominant position and the role of the leader in this group ...
Perhaps the true leader is not in front, but behind, in the midst of a group of hostile crew, and in front of a simple "doublore" - this is even easier and simpler. Three of you, choose from yourself one leader, whom I allow to hit me hard in the chest, in the stomach, in the jaw, while I put my hands behind my back and promise not to turn away and not retaliate with blow for blow. You can beat me hard, but, of course, not fatally.
Our “blockheads” conferred briefly and embarrassedly, and one of them habitually stood up in a boxing stance, like those “year-olds” in the crew division, who tested our “young” and “newbies” for endurance and stamina with similar blows-tests ...
As soon as he decided to strike with a blockhead, the captain of the 3rd rank of the Marine Corps, who calmly stood in front of our blockhead, suddenly simply spat relishfully in his face, in his eyes. He was instantly taken aback by the unexpectedness of the “dubolom”, stopped, recoiled, looked in bewilderment and fright at the “cap-three” and immediately looked back at his comrades - they were also taken aback and instinctively laughed.
The captain of the 3rd rank of the Marine Corps, without opening his hands behind his back, immediately took a step forward and these three “blockheads” again instinctively parted in front of him, giving him the way in the “ship corridor”, they were confused, dumbfounded and depressed by what had happened.
Wipe yourself off, - the cap-three calmly said, - and do not be offended, you acted instinctively and this reaction to the spit did not depend on you. Only now you know one of the tricks of how you can overcome the sabotage and resistance of a numerically superior enemy in narrowness and inconvenience.
Remember once and for all, - the authoritative naval combat teacher told us. - The most powerful weapon in human relations is an unexpected dominating mockery, a clever joke. Just remember, too, for life - a joke is good for its fleetingness, repeated twice or thrice, it turns into a mockery. With a mocking joke, you will get not the confusion of a wounded pride, but the furious fury of an offended human personality. Whoever your opponent is, but he is a man, do not be a mockery or contempt in a man of a werewolf beast.
And spitting in the face is not a mockery? - the "spitted" foreman-godok-dubolom dared to ask.
In ordinary civil relations - yes, - the “cap-three” simply answered, - but we are not in ordinary relations, but in combat, so even the enemy will understand that in these conditions, “spitting in the face” is a successful method of hand-to-hand combat. Opponents are also professionals, they understand a lot and appreciate successful combat techniques - this has been tested in practice.
The lesson continued, we did not even notice how it was time for lunch. At dinner, we proudly and significantly kept quiet, and the guys in every possible way “tortured” us, finding out why and why we were gathered in the “lenkayut” of the crew division.
After lunch and the “admiral hour”, which I spent in intense attempts to remember and repeat in my imagination everything that I learned in the first lesson, the captain of the 3rd rank and two more midshipmen (ensigns) of the Marine Corps showed us (as in slow motion cinema - the author) hand-to-hand combat techniques, and we diligently repeated and copied them. This lesson soaked through our sailor's white robes through and through ...
So we did this for a week, and then we were again taken to the coast in the back of the Ural Baltic Sea, where on the shore stood the superstructure of some trawler ship cut off from the hull. A group of Marines acted as the crew of this ship, and we were the boarding crew.
First, they also showed us, in the “slow motion” mode, how to climb with the help of a “cat” (boarding hooks - the author) onto the deck of the ship or through the windows, then how to capture the radio room, the navigation bridge and the navigational cabin, the engine room, how to lock in cockpit crew of a captured ship, how to start machines, pumps and fans, etc.
Then they showed us how the crew of a captured ship can resist, what typical sabotage actions they can take, and how they can passively or actively interfere with us, be rude, impudent and call for rudeness.
Then we just, as spectators, walked and watched as the captain of the 3rd rank in the mode of real combat opposition, that is, real painful blows, pushes and pokes, walks along the corridors of the ship and overcomes the resistance of the "crew" of the ship, and the sailors and foremen of the marines, apparently, they "did not spare" their commander-instructor.
Then it was our turn. Now we, as well as the commander-instructor-teacher, diligently looked out, energetically moving along the corridors and trying to break the resistance of the Marines. The result was our bruises and bumps.
They also left me with a bruise on my cheekbone and a small bruise under my eye at the temple. True, I still, without spitting and hitting, broke into the wheelhouse and reported to our first mate, Lieutenant Commander A.A. Salnikov, who was standing in the distance on a hillock (imitation of the distance from the captured ship to the BOD "Svirepy" - the author), that "the steering and navigation equipment was captured."
By the way, the door to the navigational cabin helped me overcome the resistance of the crew member of the captured ship, which I kicked twice with all my anger. The first time I kicked this door to indicate that I was about to enter, and the second time, when I sensed that my opponent, who kept hitting me lightly all the time and immediately ran further, was outside the door and was waiting for me. I hit him badly with this door, and in retaliation he gave me a black eye...
Late in the evening, our boarding team, without any joy, moaning and groaning, crouching and staggering, returned to the crew division and our guys silently watched with suffering as we slowly and carefully climbed over the sides of the Ural. Almost the entire crew of the newly built BOD Svirepy somehow already knew that we were a boarding party, that we were training to capture an alien ship, that we were trained by Marines in real hand-to-hand combat, and that we were heroes.
To be honest, after several such classes, I wanted to give up and go back to a quiet naval service, to my usual duties as a simple sailor. Everyone felt bad and painful, even our famous wrestler, the commander of one of the combat units, our commander of the boarding team, who trained separately from the "cap-three" of the Marines.
When it became unbearable for everyone, we were given Saturday and Sunday to rest without the right to leave the crew division. These days we only ate little by little with bloodied lips, teeth and hands, and slept, slept, slept ...
Then there were individual lessons with each specialist of the boarding team, then classes and training only with demolition men, then a fight-fight of our "blockheads" with the "marines" for survival - "who wins", "all against one" and "one against all".
In the last exercise, the "game-fight" reached such a limit that our "dunk" with a bloodshot eye, a broken lip, loose teeth, all beaten and wounded, fought so furiously and ferociously that the "marines" surrendered. All the badly beaten and bloody participants in the final battle brotherly “embracing” went to their “Marine” bathhouse, where they “got drunk on alcohol” and went outside to our truck “brothers forever”.
The overall assessment of our boarding team of the BOD "Svirepy" in the report was "excellent" and noted in the text that "the boarding team of the BOD "Svirepy" showed collective and individual abilities and qualities corresponding to the goals, tasks and name of the ship." Such an emotional mention in the official report of the word-concept "ferocious" was made for the first time and our ship commander, captain 3rd rank E.P. Nazarov told us in confidence that the command of the training center-polygon "Khmelevka" insisted on such a wording.
When we returned to the usual ship life of the crew of the newly built BOD "Svirepy", our special relations between the members of the boarding team were preserved and I, a young sailor-helmsman, in the eyes of my comrades of the same age, suddenly became a "friend" of the most notorious "year-olds" - executors and keepers of laws and anniversary rules.
Moreover, it remained a mystery to everyone that my status position was beyond my years and service life in the Navy, again I “stand out” ...
How a captain from St. Petersburg created a global ship aggregator
Georgy Kozhukhovsky created the Anyships service so that buying a ticket for a steamship or renting a boat was as easy as calling a taxi. Starting the service in hometown, the entrepreneur is now scaling it globally
Georgy Kozhukhovsky
Walking around Venice in early 2017, Georgy Kozhukhovsky could hardly get on the water tram: not knowing Italian, he wandered the streets for a long time, tried to read the signs to find out the routes, and the staff on board the ships themselves did not know English. “I didn’t have enough service a la Uber, only for boats: I opened the application, called a boat or bought a ticket and went,” Kozhukhovsky recalls.
Returning home, he began to develop such a service in his native St. Petersburg. He managed to attract 10 million rubles. investments, and for the month of work in May 2018 received 1.2 million rubles. revenue.
Meeting on deck
28-year-old Georgy Kozhukhovsky has always dreamed of yachts and big water. In the first year of the geographical faculty of St. Petersburg state university he even started publishing the life-style magazine Open Eyes - about boats, yachts, cars and fashion. True, he released only one issue - the crisis of 2008 broke out. Then Kozhukhovsky went the other way - he bought a used yacht Bayliner 285 Cruiser in installments for 2.5 million rubles. and obtained the right to operate small boats.
He agreed with two berths at the Peter and Paul Fortress, hired a captain and began to carry tourists. We managed to pay for the yacht on the first summer season 2010. However, the business soon had to be frozen: under the new rules, any shipping company, even a very small one, had to have a license, but Kozhukhovsky did not have one. He could not get the document quickly due to bureaucratic delays. Then he rented the yacht to another company, and he got a job at the St. Petersburg media company PMI. She had her own ships on which parties were held. The young captain rode around St. Petersburg on a fashionable yacht Zemfira, the Scorpions group, Philip Kirkorov and other celebrities. In parallel, he founded the Numidal company and helped the familiar owners of yachts to rent them out. Now the company has eight light vessels, two of which are owned.
In June 2016, an acquaintance of the captain Georgy Kozhukhovsky asked to replace him on the yacht and take the helm. Arkady Pekarevsky, co-founder of the Sela clothing holding, turned out to be the owner of the ship. In 2010, he sold his 45% stake in Sela to his cousin Boris Ostrobrod, bought real estate and opened the Aztec chocolate and marzipan factory. “We talked with Arkady and made a good impression on each other,” recalls Kozhukhovsky.
Arkady Pekarevsky (Photo: Askhat Bardynov for RBC)
He remembered this acquaintance in Venice, when he decided to create an aggregator for courts: “I had a billionaire's phone number. I thought: I’ll try, what the hell is not joking, I will offer him an idea for a business. Pekarevsky liked the idea, and he invested 10 million rubles in the project. “There is such a thing as “the soul of an entrepreneur”. All my adult life I have been creating something new, and I had a desire to create a service that would be convenient for people and that could reach the international level,” Pekarevsky explains. He received 50% in the new company Eniships LLC. Kozhukhovsky invited the owner of the Topfaces.com dating service, Dmitry Borodin, to play the role of technical director, offering 5% of the company.
The partners have already chosen the name of the project together. Kozhukhovsky wanted to name the aggregator Allships. Pekarevsky, on the other hand, suggested calling it Anyships differently, by analogy with the Anywayanyday air ticket purchase service. As it turned out, the Anyships.ru domain was cheap - only 2 thousand rubles. “For me, it was a sign that the project needed to be developed,” Pekarevsky says.
Income on water
According to Ivan Bochurin, commercial director of the Moscow company Rivertickets.ru, the market for river transportation in Moscow and St. Petersburg has more than doubled over the past two years, mainly due to an increase in the number of tourists. For example, recently there have been a lot of tourists from China and Iran among clients. In 2015, there were 700 thousand passengers in Moscow river transport, and in 2017 - already 1.5 million. In total, 2.5 million tickets worth 600 million rubles were sold in Moscow and St. Petersburg last year, Bochurin calculated. In 2018, the market should continue to grow thanks to the World Cup. But so far this business is underdeveloped, especially in the regions. “We have only 1,000 ships in St. Petersburg. Only about 600 ships sail along the Moscow River, 120 in Kazan, and about 80 in Sochi, ”Kozhukhovsky cites his data.
Tickets for ships are sold either by the shipping companies themselves or by travel agencies. The capital already has a major ticket aggregator, Rivertickets.ru, which sells tickets for 70% of ship routes. According to Bochurin, now the company has gone further - it trains the staff of small companies that own one or two ships, organizes routes and hires cashiers who sell tickets on the pier.
“Most aggregator sites work with two or three shipping companies, but we immediately decided to sell tickets to any water transport online all over the world,” says Kozhukhovsky. “With the ability to see the ship itself and how it sails along the route, in real time, with a schedule and cost.”
Clients in a notebook
The development of the Anyships service took more than a year, the site was launched only in May 2018. By July, the developers promise to launch mobile app. Now the site is searching for ships and excursions. You can see on the map which route the ship will take, where it is now, the departure schedule, prices and vacancies.
Anyships employs 28 people. Half of them are developers, half are employees who are responsible for connecting partners. The main salesman is Kozhukhovsky himself. At first, he talked with representatives of all 40 shipping companies in St. Petersburg, many of them knew him personally. “We talked with shipowners and found out what they lack. Most often, they complained that it was inconvenient to keep records of clients: someone wrote down information in notebooks, someone drove data into Excel. Assign a captain to order, indicate how much fuel is needed for the flight, who is working tomorrow, which guides - we decided to automate this part of the process, ”says Kozhukhovsky.
If for customers the Anyships site looks like a ticket aggregator, then for ship owners it is, in fact, a specialized CRM system for water transportation. It contains information about the orders formed in the near future, routes, the location of the ships, who manages them, how much fuel is on board. Information about sold tickets is automatically updated in real time.
The first company to connect to the system was Minherz & Co. It has several ships and moorings near the Peter and Paul Fortress and Nevsky Prospekt. Then Astra Marine, which owns several Meteors plying between St. Petersburg and Peterhof, and other ships joined in. To date, 25 companies in St. Petersburg have connected to the system. Anyships.ru commission ranges from 5 to 35% depending on the volume of sales. Among the partners is Arkady Pekarevsky - he rents out his yacht Azimut 55.
A representative of Minherz & Co confirmed that the company had already signed an agreement with Anyships.ru, but refused to tell how many tickets had already been sold: “Now it’s only the beginning of the season, we haven’t figured it out yet.” Shipping company CEO Scarlet Sails"Dmitry Nechaev said that he is testing the Anyships.ru system, but he is not sure that he needs it - the fact is that the company is developing its own booking system, because "it does not want to be someone's hostage."
Georgy Kozhukhovsky and Arkady Pekarevsky (Photo: Askhat Bardynov for RBC)
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The goal of Kozhukhovsky is to automate the purchase of tickets and, as a result, reduce the number of employees who work on the piers. “Now the client first comes to the ticket office, where he pays for the ticket, then they tear off the ticket for him at the pier. Everything happens manually, and companies cannot track sales online,” he explains.
Some of the companies that have joined Anyships are already using an automated ticket verification system. Ticket offices are not needed, and the employee at the pier uses a mobile application, scanning, like in a cinema, the QR code of a ticket purchased from Anyships online. Every five seconds, the mobile application synchronizes with the database and sends information to the server. Shipowners see the loading of their vessels online and can change pricing policy. In the near future, Anyships plans to install turnstiles on the berths - then people will not be required at all.
It is usually unprofitable for shipowners themselves to sell tickets at the berths: they are often located in places remote from the thoroughfare streets, and they also have to hire barker promoters inviting tourists to buy a ticket for river trip. There is no electricity at some berths, and companies are forced to use diesel generators to operate cash desks.
In the open sea
The main problem of the water transportation business is seasonality, but Kozhukhovsky believes he has found a solution. “When the season ends in St. Petersburg, it starts at United Arab Emirates', says the entrepreneur. Having started in his hometown, he plans to earn money abroad. Expansion to some countries has already begun.
In 2018, Anyships hired representatives in 18 countries, including France, Italy, Spain, UAE, Israel and Cyprus. Basically, these are former compatriots and professional translators - Kozhukhovsky and Pekarevsky find them through mutual acquaintances. Representatives communicate with shipowners and offer them cooperation. As in St. Petersburg, the company works with both shipping companies and owners of yachts and boats. According to Kozhukhovsky, about 80 companies and 200 individuals have already signed preliminary contracts (there are 3,000 vessels in the database). Sales have not yet started, as the service is being translated into local languages. According to Kozhukhovsky, shipowners abroad, as a rule, are ready to cooperate, because for them "this is an additional influx of tourists, and it will not bother anyone."
France and Italy already have online bases for charter boats, but mostly sailing and motor yachts that are rented out to long term. Tickets for ferries or local pleasure trams are often not sold online at all. Kozhukhovsky is convinced that a company that makes the process of buying tickets and renting pleasure boats simple and universal will be able to capture this entire market.
In May 2018, the company earned RUB 1.2 million from commissions. She spends about 1.5 million rubles on office maintenance and software development. per month. They expect to go into the plus at the end of the first season. “To be honest, we are moving blindly, solving problems as they come. I call it playing from sight,” says Arkady Pekarevsky.
View from the outside
"It will be easier for companies to survive"
Svetlana Goncharova, Deputy CEO"Mosturflota"
“Anyships definitely has advantages. Such an aggregation IT system can be useful for tourists who are used to planning their own trip. And we, a company that works according to the traditional model with tourist groups, are interested in such a tourist, because usually he does not come to us.
If the aggregator makes it possible to reduce costs, for example, reduces personal communication with the client, then this will also be a plus. When we did not have an online booking and sales system, customers communicated with the call center. A large number of employees worked there. As soon as we started using online booking and abandoned the call center services, we solved several problems: we got rid of the mistakes of not very qualified employees and the answers that are given with a long delay - this factor is very annoying for tourists. True, it was not possible to significantly reduce costs, since the maintenance of the reservation system is not much cheaper than the services of a call center.
Companies using automated systems will find it easier to survive: they will be able to quickly change prices if demand grows. For example, now we cannot do this quickly, and demand is not always predictable.”
"Tourist Ubers don't work well"
Leta Capital Managing Partner Oleksandr Chachava
“I think that the prospects for this project are not very bright, and in St. Petersburg there are none at all. Navigation there lasts three months, and boats may be owned by hundreds, but by no means thousands or millions of people. Tourist Uber, as practice shows, generally does not work well, because user acquisition is expensive, while the profit is low: the tourist came and left, he does not use the service regularly.
If we talk about sea transport, then it is also almost never used regularly anywhere - probably only in Venice. Ordinary Petersburgers do not ride trams either. It won't work the way it does with taxi aggregators, no city has a large number potential customers who would use the service on a daily basis.
