MAKAROV

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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8.3.1849 Nikolayev/RU - 13.4.1904 Port Arthur/RU

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Stepan Osipovich Makarov graduated in 1865 from the Saint Petersburg Naval School. Assigned to the Black Sea fleet in 1876 as commander of a steamer, he conducted successful military actions during the Russo-Turkish War. He was the commander of an ambassadorial station ship in Constantinople from 1881 to 1882 and from 1886 to 1889 of a corvette on a roundthe-world voyage, to become in 1896 a viceadmiral. From 1899 Makarov was commander in chief of Kronshtadt port and military governor of the city. He died during the Russo-Japanese War, when his battleship was sunk by a Japanese mine.

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Makarov began his oceanographic studies in 1881 on the Bosporus by proving the existence of a deep current running against the surface current. In the middle of the channel, he let down a barrel which was borne by the surface current toward the Sea of Marmara. At a certain depth the line began to pull in the opposite direction. The force of the deep current was so large that the barrel dragged the boat against the surface current. Makarov organized observations of the water density and temperature at various depths, and of the velocity of the current throughout the straight. The velocity was measured by a rotator, which Makarov had invented and was named fluctometer. The velocity of the surface current varied from 6 to 3 ft/s, and of the lower from 3 to 1.8 ft/s. The density of the upper water was 1.015, whereas the lower had 1.028 t/m3. This difference in density between the less saline Black Sea and the more saline Sea of Marmara appears to be the reason for the existence of counter-currents in the Bosporus. These results were published in 1885, marking a major contribution to oceanography. On the 1894 voyage, Makarov collected density and temperature data from all over the Pacific Ocean; his publication gives the first account on the water temperatures for the North Pacific Ocean. Another work on the primary significance of the Coriolis force on sea currents was awarded by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

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_{Eremeev, L.M. (1977). Makarov, Stefan Osipovich. Great Soviet Encyclopedia 15: 339-340. Fedoseyev, I.A. (1974). Makarov, S.O. Dictionary of scientific biography 9: 42-43.}

_{Krylov, A.N. (1944). Vice-Admiral Makarov. Moscow, Leningrad (in Russian).}

_{Makarov, S.O., Vrangel, F. (1897). Research in the Northern Arctic Ocean. Saint Petersburg. Makarov, S.O. (1950). Okeanograficheskie raboty. Moskva (re-edition of the 1885 work). Melua, A.I. (1996). Makarov, S.O. Engineers of Saint Petersburg: 381. Saint Petersburg. P Schott, G. (1904). Stepan O. Makarov. Annalen der Hydrographie 32(5): 193-195.}