vessel
Dir (steamer)
Dir
also: "Дир"
A mangy little cargo steamer on which Chekhov and Suvorin-fils crossed the Black Sea from Sukhum to Poti on the night of 27-28 July 1888, the setting of the mock-feuilleton letter to Mikhail Chekhov describing the crossing, a sleepless night, and a near collision with the steamer "Tweedie."
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §9 Tell Alexei Alexeyevich that the steamer "Dir," on which we sailed to Poti this summer and suffered such torments, has given up the ghost: it was wrecked on the southern coast of the Crimea.
The steamer "Dir," already established in this corpus (first appearance) as the vessel on which Chekhov and Suvorin's son crossed the Black Sea to Poti (also already established) in July 1888; this letter adds the detail that it was subsequently wrecked off the southern Crimean coast. "Alexei Alexeyevich" here is Suvorin's son, already an established recurring figure in this corpus's Suvorin correspondence -- a continuing cross-reference, not a new or unresolved figure.