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.
P. 254: “We extract the following from the journal of a celebrated English
officer, who last summer was on board the Russian fleet while it was
manoeuvring in the Baltick, he having obtained permission of the government to
visit and examine whatever he might think worth his notice in the Russian naval
department. The Russian navy consists of five divisions, of which three are
stationed in the Baltick and two in the Black Sea. Each division comprehends
one three-decker, two two-deckers, six frigates, one corvette, and four smaller
ships. The three divisions of the Baltick are in full efficiency, only one
vessel of the line having failed in joining previous to the manoeuvres. It,
however, came up with the main body of the fleet shortly after. We will not be
positive as to the condition of the two divisions in the Black Sea, but
everything tends to confirm the belief that they also are ready for any
emergency; and if such is the case, the following will be found an accurate
statement of the naval forces of Russia. Forty-five ships of the line, five
three-deckers, ten vessels of eighty-four. To this we must add thirty frigates,
five corvettes, and one hundred smaller ships, each of which has stores and
ammunition on board, in readiness for the summer evolutions. The three deckers
which are in the Baltick, Peter the Great, Emperour Alexander, and St George,
carry one hundred and ten guns each. They have bronze mortars for forty pound
shells. A ship of one hundred and thirty guns, on the pattern of the English
one, the Neptune, is now being built. It will be launched in 1838. Two frigates
of fifty-four are also on the stocks; the other frigates carry forty-four guns
only. There ore three corvettes in the Baltic, the Narsasky, which was built
in America, the Levitza and the Navarin, which were taken from the Egyptians.
With the exception of the Pallas, built after the pattern of the English ship,
the President, and the Narsasky, and commanded by one of the emperour's
aids-decamp, all the Russian ships have an ugly appearance, but, on board, they
are as clean and tight as English men-of-war.”
Source
New-York Mirror, Devoted to literature and the fine arts, Saturday 4 February 1837.
