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XXX. History of the Boat which gave Peter the Great the first Thought of building the Russian Fleet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

Among the Sloane Manuscripts in the British Museum there is one, entitled “The Story of the Ship's Boat which gave Peter the Great the first Thought of building the Russian Fleet.”

I am not aware that it has been in print; nor have I found it known to persons whose literary means, and whose knowledge of all which has been published in this or any other country relating to Russia, has enabled them to call such a Tract to recollection. It must have been written more than a century ago, since it is found in Sir Hans Sloane's Collection of Manuscripts, which was transferred to the Trustees of the British Museum in, or soon after, 1753.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1855

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References

page 334 note a A small river that runs by the suburbs of Moscow, wherein the English and Dutch merchants dwell, and falls into the Mosqua a little above the city.

page 336 note a “Baron Huyssen, Councillor in the Colledge of Ivan, in the History of his Majesty's Life, tells us that his Majesty perceived the method and manner of building ships in England to be more regular and much better than that in Holland, and was often heard to say that had henever gone to England he had still remained ignorant of the art.

page 334 note b “For as soon as he returned from England he went down to Veronez, whither he carried the two English builders Deanand Noy. The first soon after desired a discharge, which was granted, without giving any proof of his art; the Czar himself and Joseph Noy received orders from the Lord High Admiral Theodore Alexowitch Golovin to build each of them a man-of-war.

“The Czar having taken upon himself the title of a master ship-builder, was pleased to subject himself to the condition of that character; and in compliance with that order gave the first proof of his skill in the art which he had learn'd abroad, and continued afterwards to bear that title, and had at all times, notwithstanding his great engagement in many other affairs, one ship uponthe stocks; and at his death left one ship half-built, one of the largest in Europe, 180 feet long upon the deck, 51 broad, and 21 deep, and mounts 110 guns, and is by relation one of the finest bodies that has ever been seen, as were indeed all the rest he built. He himself drew the draught of this great ship at Riga, where was no master ship-builder but himself: and when he returned to Petersburgh he gave the Surveyor an account that he had drawn his draught of the great ship which he had orders to build from the Surveyor's Office, and, according to the regulations of the Navy, presented his draught to be examined.”