Sailor from Archangelsk

Many years ago, I received a very interesting email asking me to help with the translation and research of this photograph. It was later published in a book "Stories from the sandstone".



Матрос
Григорий И. Докучаев
с. Нюхча Архангелськ[ая губерния]
Мыс Доброй Надежды
30.11.99

Unfortunately, at that time I was unable to crack it but last week while deciding to revisit the case I was able to gather more information.

This is the story about a sailor who was born in a village not far away from Archangelsk. His name was Grigoriy I[vanovich] Dokoutchaeff.  And the surname Dokoutchaeff has a close connection to the village Nukhcha.

Village Nukhcha [с. Нюхча] takes origin in the 15th century when it belonged to the wife of the Novgorod mayor Isak Boretsky, Marfa Boretskaya. In the 15th-16th centuries, after the fall of Novgorod and annexation to Moscow, the village was assigned to a monastery on the Solovetsky Islands. The village gained fame in the era of Peter the Great because it was used to transport troops and fleet to the Baltic Sea during the Northern War. But over the centuries lack of work in villages in the region has been a constant problem. Many male residents in Archangelsk region went to work on Russian and foreign ships to support their families. Grigoriy was one of them.

When did Grigoriy Dokoutchaeff arrive in Sydney and which ship brought him in? Did he stay or left Australia after spending his time in a quarantine station?

The internet was more helpful this time. I was able to find and contact potential relatives of Grigoriy through the internet. They still live in Russia and told me what happened to a mysterious sailor.

Grigoriy was born in Nukhcha on 24 January 1894 to Ivan Maksymovich Dokoutchaeff and his wife Akulina Nikolaevna. They have four sons - Fyodor, Alexander, Evgeniy and Grigoriy. In 1918, Grigory Ivanovich Dokoutchaeff, a participant in the First World War, returned to his native village. He managed to have fun at the wedding of his brother Fyodor, and soon went to earn money to the Murmansk fisheries. But he was unable to return home. It was the beginning of Foreign Intervention in the North.  He did not have the chance to hug his father and mother, to hold his young nephews on his lap. 

He stayed in Europe. We know from relatives that Grigoriy made Belgium a home, married, had a child and a grandson and continued to communicate with family in Russia for a while, until it was safe to do.

"To dear parents and brothers from the tramp son and brother Grigory. Liege, Belgium"


He continued to sail and worked for the Antwerp-Bruges Port Authority for many years. From internet resources we know that on 10 September 1942 the German submarine U-96 torpedoed the Belgian transport Elisabeth van Belgie. After the explosion, the ship, breaking into two, began to sink, the crew began hastily lowering the boats into the water and getting into them. “It seems that in the polyphony that reigned at that moment on the sinking ship, Russian swearing also sounded.” The author of the article mentions several Russian names, including boatswain Dokoutchaeff Grigoriy.

Dokoutchaeff Grigoriy died in 1970s in Belgium. His child Evgeny and grandchild Robert Dokoutchaeff also lived there but I was unable to contact them.

Grigoriy Doukoutchaeff with wife and son Evgeny. 

Let's return to the writing on the sandstone. My original research concentrated around the date on a stone - 30 November [18]99. Old newspapers revealed that there were two possible ships which entered Sydney Cove in November 1899 and went to a quarantine station but thanks to Grigoriy's relatives my attention was now drawn now to November 1929 and not 1899 as I previously thought.

"Мыс Доброй надежды" (The Cape of Good Hope) turned out to be a motorship, and not a physical location on the map. It was not without reason that the inscription “INGLISH M.V.” was carved into the stone (spelling observed), which meant an English motorboat or “motorship”.

Apparently "The Cape of Good Hope" brought not only about 4,000,000 feet of timber to Sydney on 17 November 1929 but a disease as well.

"...it was found that a Chinese steward was suffering from smallpox. The patient was landed at the quarantine station...and other members of the crew who have been vaccinated."


18 days later and five lines were scripted in Russian on North Sydney sandstone for the eternity.

18 days later and Grigoriy Dokoutchaeff and "The Cape of Good Hope" left Sydney on 5 December 1929. On the way to Europe the ship sailed through New Caledonia. Grigoriy Dokoutchaeff returned home to Belgium to his wife and a child. He never saw his Russian family again. 






CAPE OF GOOD HOPE LEAVES TO-DAY (1929, December 5). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), p. 15. Retrieved June 12, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245515878

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. (1929, November 20). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 22. Retrieved June 12, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16603581


Some people with surname Dokoutchaeff from village Nukhcha