Zarya (non-magnetic ship)

History
NameZarya
Operator
BuilderOy Laivateollisuus Ab, Turku, Finland
Launched1952
HomeportMurmansk
StatusUnknown
General characteristics
TypeThree-masted gaff-rigged schooner
Displacement600 long tons (610 t) full load
Length52.56 m (172 ft 5 in)
Beam8.97 m (29 ft 5 in)
Draught3.38 m (11 ft 1 in)
Propulsion1 × 300 bhp (224 kW) R6D136 diesel engine, 1 shaft
Speed8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Crew35 + 10 mission crew

Zarya (Russian: Заря, The Sunrise) was a sailing-motor schooner built in 1952, and since 1953 used by the USSR Academy of Sciences to study Earth's magnetic field.

After the Continuation War Finland was ordered by the USSR to provide 50 wooden sailing-motor fishing schooners as reparations. One of them was taken, and in 1952 modified, into a low magnetic research vessel named Zarya for the Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation (IZMIRAN). From 1953 the ship was used to measure the magnetic field of the Earth. She participated in the International Geophysical Year in 1957–1958.

In 1991 IZMIRAN was transferred to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 1976 a rupes on planet Mercury was named after the ship, the "Zarya Rupes".