Medal - Kara Sea Expedition and the SS Baymingo

Reverse

Legend in eight lines above crossed and chained anchors.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
AWARDED
TO THE
OFFICERS AND CREW
OF THE
S.S.
BAYMINGO
COMMANDER
R. DOWLING

Comment

Awarded to the Officers and Crew

Following the expedition to what the Russians call the Northern Sea Route, these medals were privately issued in silver and copper. The Northern Sea Route runs from the Kara Sea to the Pacific Ocean, along the Russian Arctic coast - this being the majority of the North-East Passage. The SS Baymingo was part of a larger attempt aimed at supplying anti-communist forces in Archangelsk and Siberia, using a window of opportunity when the Kara Sea would be free of ice in the summer of 1919. J A Mikkelborg was in command of the expedition, and Captain R Dowling was appointed the Baymingo ’s navigating officer. With a cargo of mainly textile goods and chemical stores, the Baymingo was chartered by the UK’s Merchant Trading Company (a subsidiary of the Hudson’s Bay Company), in conjunction with the Cooperative Union of Russia and Central Russia. The SS Baymingo left Liverpool on 1 August 1919, her destination being the mouth of the River Ob, where she met up with a fleet of large barges. Under the command of Colonel Kotelnikov, these had been towed some 1500 miles by tugboats, all the way from Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk. The cargoes were exchanged, and the Baymingo returned to London, arriving on 19 October.