Ice-Breaking Ferry "Baikal", 1899. This album of six photographs depicts the launch of the icebreaking ferry Baikal at the village of Listvenichnoye on the western shore of Lake Baikal on June 17, 1899. Before completion of the Circum-Baikal Railway in 1905, the lake marked a break in the Trans-Siberian Railway linking European Russia with Vladivostok. To connect the western and eastern portions of the railroad, the committee in charge of the Trans-Siberian decided to purchase an icebreaking ferry capable of shuttling passengers and railroad cars across the lake in winter. A contract was placed with the shipbuilding firm of V.G. Armstrong and Company in Newcastle, United Kingdom. The icebreaker was transported in sections from Newcastle to Listvenichnoye, where it was assembled in 1898-99. Located in eastern Siberia near the Russian border with Mongolia, Lake Baikal is 636 kilometers long; its average width is 48 kilometers (80 kilometers at the widest point).