Thread by @RWApodcast

It is said that the floating church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker took the blows of five severe storms, but was never damaged and always returned to its home port of Astrakhan. This ship sailed the Caspian Sea & was the only full-fledged floating church in the Russian Empire.

The paddle steamer featured a whole parish complex: the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for five hundred parishioners, icon and candle shops, a pharmacy and even a small hospital for the sick.

The first voyage of the floating church occurred in September 1910 with the blessing of Bishop Georgiy (Orlov) of Astrakhan. The church was entrusted with the implementation of an important spiritual task.

By the early 20th century, trade and fishing in the Caspian Sea was so lively that a full-fledged floating city existed around a hundred miles from Astrakhan. It was a chain of real "districts" consisting of ships, boats, barges, and some unknown floating offices and chanceries.

Since the shallow waters at the mouth of the Volga River did not allow ships to moor to Astrakhan, many inhabitants of the sea city did not go ashore for six months at a time. Some claim that in some periods the population of the Caspian megalopolis reached a whopping 100,000.

For comparison, that's as many as lived in Astrakhan itself. In order to "meet the spiritual needs of fishermen and sailors" it was decided to build and launch the giant floating church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Its crew was part clergy, part laymen. The laymen were in charge of navigation: the captain & the mechanic. Spiritual life on the ship was arranged by Hieromonk Irinarkh (he came from the Churkin monastery), Hierodeacon Seraphim, three singers and the doctor Damian (also a monk).

“Our floating church is the first experience of its kind ... intended to serve the delta of the Volga and the islands lying near the shores of the Caspian Sea, where the fisheries are located. Our ship is reminiscent of how the Savior sailed the Sea of Galilee...

... and taught the people who stood on the shore. From aboard our ship, as from the Gospel ship, the sermon of eternal salvation will be preached in the same way...” — said the crew of the ship.

They sailed to the city in the sea, rang the bell, and gathered everyone to the service. The ship would stay in one place for a few days, liturgies and prayers would be served, and then the church would leave for the other ships and sometimes for some of the coastal villages.

It wasn't only for Russians, either. Hieromonk Irinarkh knew the Kalmyk language & preached among the Kalmyks, often very successfully. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the reaction of a Kalmyk, or any other person really, who sees a huge floating church rippling on the waves.

Despite its popularity & how busy it was, in 1916 it was decided to sell the floating church due to its dilapidated state and high cost of maintenance. The icons and other church attributes were removed, and the ship itself was sent to get scrapped.

This aroused a storm of indignation, and Bishop Filaret, who made the decision to get rid of the church, was even forced into early retirement. Some say that the malicious destruction of the empire's first floating church esoterically brought the Revolution closer.

In the end, the matter of what to do with the floating church of Nicholas the Wonderworker was decided by the communists. The Bolsheviks removed the domes from the ship and made it a salvage ship, and then a barge.

In the 30s the ship was converted into a floating theater and given a new, very typical name (for that period): "Joseph Stalin". For thirty years the theater sailed along the Caspian Sea and entertained the Caspian fishermen with theater performances.

Eventually, it settled down in the tiny fishing village of Oranzhereynoye. It was converted into a hotel, but that didn't last long. By 1980 the ship's hull had completely fallen apart. And so ended the story of another Russian innovation — the incredible church-steamer.