Stepan Makarov (1849-1904) was a Russian Admiral and a polar explorer. He introduced the idea of using powerful icebreakers to explore the Arctic Ocean, and designed the project for the first-ever Arctic icebreaker Ermak, personally supervising her construction and he commanded her on her two expeditions to survey the coasts of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land (1899, 1901). As Captain of the corvette Vityaz he also directed a round-the-world voyage (1886-1889), carried out extensive oceanographic research and was awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1895, he developed the Russian semaphore alphabet that remains in use today. He was the only Russian naval commander who served in all four Russian fleet locations: Baltic; Pacific; North and Black Sea. One of the main Russian shipping universities - State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping in Saint Petersburg - and a city in Sakhalin region are named after Makarov.
A state-of-the-art platform supply icebreaker is named after Stepan Makarov. The vessel was built by order of PAO Sovcomflot, to serve the Sakhalin-2 project and is operated under the Russian Federation flag; her port of registration is St. Petersburg. Her main functions are to ensure the safety of personnel at oil and gas platforms in the Okhotsk Sea, and to respond to emergencies at sea, etc.
