A Koch was small and flat deck sailing ship built of wood and fitted out with 1 or 2 masts. Especially built for transpolar voyages and strongly enough built to serve in the Arctic waters. The design goes back as far as the 11th Century and since then improved with some subtypes depending on the place of origin, sea-worthiness or for which areas they were used. Overlapping planks connected with the use of iron rivets and brackets. Length of the keel between the 10-25 metres or 30-70 feet. Although Raymond Fisher in his book The Voyage of Semon Dezhnev claimed that the largest koches had as dimensions 60x20x5-6 feet, a cargo capacity 45 tonnes or 40 people and a square sail rigged mast.. The Koch was preferred by the Pomors or Pomory who were Russian settlers originally from Novgorod and later living along the White Sea coastlines.
