p. 235: "The Commander-in-chief of the Black Sea fleet (Admiral Greig) resides here: and Kherson having now been abandoned as one of the Eyxine naval stations, on account of its insalubrity and difficulty of access, Nicholaef has risen into considerable importance since its foundation in 1789. It now contains from twelve to fourteen thousand inhabitants; principally sailors and workmen connected with the dock-yards. I did not expect to meet His Excellency the Admiral here: he was with the fleet in the Black Sea; but I intended to go on to Odessa, and by the assistance of Count Woronzoff, Governor-General of the Taurida, to embark in a vessel to join the Russian fleet. To my great surprise, I now learned that the plague had lately broken out at Odessa; that all communication was cut between the town and country; and that very house was a prison. In this case I determined to send my letters of introduction to Count Woronzoff, and request his advice how to act.
p. 236: I first visited the dock-yard, which is situated at the bottom of a high and semicircular bank on the Ingul, and is well protected from easterly winds. Above are the store-houses, rope-walks, carpenters' lofts, &c.; and on the banks of the river there was ship and boat-building going on in the open air, sheds not having yet been introduced.(1) I saw on the stocks two eighty-four and two sixty-gun brigs, an armed steam-vessel, a yacht, a corvette, two schooners, and five gun-boats; and a month or two before, there were launched two sixty-gun ships and one corvette; so that there was great activity in every department here. One of Morton's patent slips for five-hundred-ton vessels was just finishing: in clearing the foundation of it, there were found human skeletons, and numerous bolts, nails, and rude tools, probably left by the Greek colonists in the middle ages. The great disadvantage which Nicholaef labours under as a building-station, is the want of tide, which prevents their having docks; so that, from the difficulty of careening vessels, the ships of war last only about eight years. The wood
p. 237: employed in building comes from a great distance down the Boristhenes, or Dnieper. Formerly there was a bar below Nicholaef, with only nine feet water upon it; and the vessels had to be carried over it on camels; but Admiral Greig succeeded, by dredging and contracting the stream, in forming a canal of twenty-three feet water, which is sufficiently deep for the largest ships without their stores - for which they go round to Sevastopol in the Crimea. I went on board the Archipelago (60): she seemed a very smart vessel, and had only broken one inch and a half in launching, which tells well for her strength of frame: she is fitted with diagonal decks and other modern improvements in ship-building. The gun-boats were built on an excellent principle. Last year the admiral observed, that during the siege of Anapa in Circassia, the men in the gun-boats suffered most severely from being completely exposed on the decks, when obliged to be very near shore. He accordingly builds his gun-boats with a solid bow of sixteen feet of timber, which no shot can penetrate, and with an inclined plane from the bow to the hold, in which the gun is loaded under cover, and then run up and fired, by which means the head only of the man who fires is exposed. The ship's boats were all
p. 238: carvel-built. For the fitting-out room there was a steam-engine of twelve-horse power, and a turning machine, which had been originally put up by an Englishman, and worked well with two horses for thirty-five years. Several Turkish prizes were lying in the river with their high sterns and raking masts. The residence of the admiral is a long building, with an observatory and beautiful gardens attached to it. The site is a commanding one, on the lofty bank overlooking the Ingul: behind is a handsome boulevard for the evening promenade of the fashionables. The admiral lives like a prince with bands of music, theatrical entertainments, and balls, continually enlivening his elegant residence in the evening; but his days are devoted to intellectual improvement, and to superintending the multifarious and complicated operations in the dock-yard. I was surprised at the number and value of his books and instruments; and, though he himself was then absent, I spent my time most agreeably with his family. The museum at the artillery depôt contains a choice collection of books and models of vessels, besides some interesting antiques found in the Crimea and on the banks of the Dnieper."
Source
J.E. Alexander. Travels to the seat of war in the East, through Russia and the Crimea in 1829. With sketches of the Imperial fleet and army, personal adventures, and characteristic anecdotes. Vol. I. London, 1830. Digitized by Google
Note
1. According to commander L.S. Dawson, Memoirs of Hydrography including Brief Biographies of the Principal Officers who have served in H.M. Naval Surveying Service between the years 1750 and 1885, part I. 1750 to 1830 the Predpriatic was the first ship to built in Russia under a roof. She was completed 1 May 1823 and used by Otto von Kotzebue for his voyage.
