Thanks to the fact that nowadays more and more books are
digitized we are able to read books that are some times for decades no longer
available for the public for several reasons. That’s quite a pity while these
books contains useful information while the archives are destroyed, incomplete
or nor accessible. In his book for politicians and merchants Martin described
all the countries part of the so-called civilised world. If available he
published information dealing with the armed forces and the merchant trade shipping.
“The following are the particulars of the Russian fleet,
as given in the Journal of St. Petersburgh, from the report of the Ministry of
the Marine. On the 1st of January 1869, the fleet counted 230 steamers and 87
sailing vessels. The former consisted of the following armor-plated vessels: 4
frigates, 8 batteries and 13 monitors. Non-plated vessels: 6 ships of the line,
8 frigates, 18 corvettes, 7 clippers, 62 gunboats, 6 vessels called
vapeurs-frigates. 4 imperial yachts, 13 schooners, 22 transports, 48
despatchboats, and 16 chaloupes. The sailing vessels consisted of 5 yachts, 4
schooners, 15 transports and 13 (?) chaloupes. Of these 150 vessels were in the
Baltic, 1 in
the White Sea, 30 in
the Caspian Sea. 41 in
the Black Sea, 31 on the eastern coasts of Siberia and 22 in the sea of Ural. There
were, in addition 4 plated frigates and a steam yacht on the stocks in the
Baltic, and 2 gunboats on the Siberian coast.”
Source
Van Nostrands’s Eclectic Engineering Magazine,
volume I, 1869, p. 758.
