SS Chelyuskin a Soviet steamship sent out on an expedition to navigate through polar ice along the Northern Maritime Route from Murmansk to Vladivostok that became ice-bound in Arctic waters during navigation it was caught in the ice fields in September. After that it drifted in the ice pack before sinking on February 13, 1934, crushed by the icepacks near Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea. The crew managed to escape onto the ice and built a makeshift airstrip using only a few spades, ice shovels and two crowbars , which helped in the rescue of the crew of the . Fifty three men walked over the ice with stores on husky sleds . 24 March 1934