The order for the construction of the icebreaker was issued in England to the firm "Sir VG Armstrong" in the end of 1898. The ship was built in Newcastle and then the ship’s parts were delivered and assembled at the shipyard in the village Listvenichnoe (Listvyanka). On August 1, 1900, the icebreaker was put into cargo and passenger services. The icebreaker was built for the purpose of smashing a path through the ice of Lake Baikal. The icebreaker had the following characteristics: length overall - 60 m, width - 10.5, depth to main desk - 7.5 m, displacement - 1400 t, engine capacity - 1250 hp, draft - 4,5 m, maximum speed - 23,1 km/h. The icebreaker was capable of carrying 50 people. Before the implementation of the Circum-Baikal Railway, the icebreaker Angara, together with the larger icebreaker Baikal, served as ferries between the piers of port Baikal and Mysovaya. The first captain of the Angara was Johann Friedrich Mazur. In 1907, the icebreaker was laid up. After the revolution, the Angara was nationalized and took part in military operations under the Soviets in the summer of 1918. One of the most terrible pages in the history of the ship was the execution of criminals suspected in organizing an anti-Kolchak rebellion in January 1920. They were led out to the deck one at a time, killed by the hit of a wooden beater, used to crack the ice from the ship, and then dropped overboard. In the Soviet times, the icebreaker operated until 1949 and was out of service for major repairs, which lasted 11 years. Two years after the completion of the repair works, in 1962, the ship was dismissed suffering the crucial deterioration of its equipment. Until 1967, the icebreaker anchored in the Port Baikal, then it was towed to the Irkutsk reservoir. There the ship sank several times, but each time it was raised. In 1988, the restoration of the Angara began, which was organized by the VOOPIK office with active public participation. The ship was cleaned of dirt, the engine was repaired, deck structures and ship communications were restored. The icebreaker was turned into the museum of maritime history open to the public in March 1991. From 1993 to 1997 the Angara housed the newspaper office "Number One", then until 2000 an exposition of the Irkutsk Regional Museum "Maritime history on the Angara and Baikal". In 2015, the icebreaker was turned over to the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. The ship is the one of the first icebreakers, and the only one of its kind survived to our days.