Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter II.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
Flag, and made a knight of the order of Alexander
Nevsky.
In Peter the Great’s remarkable house in St.
Petersburg there is preserved, among many other relics, a yawl
which is called the grandfather of the fleet. With this,
Peter had begun his nautical experiments, and in 1723,
when he celebrated the founding of his fleet, he rowed
down the Neva in it. Peter himself was at the rudder,
Apraxin was cockswain, and Admiral Cruys,
Vice-Admiral Gordon, Sievers and Menshikoff were at the
oars. On this occasion the Czar embraced Cruys and
called him his father.
During his whole life Cruys preserved a warm
affection for his native land; hence it was natural that the
Scandinavian colony in St. Petersburg gathered about
him. His successor as vice-president of the council of
the Admiralty, and as master of ordnance, was the former
Danish naval lieutenant Peter Sievers, who likewise
elevated himself to most important positions, and exerted a
highly beneficial influence upon the development of the
Russian fleet. At the side of these two heroes, moreover,
there were others, as Admirals Daniel Wilster and Peter
Bredal, Commander Thure Trane, and also Skeving,
Herzenberg, Peder Grib, “Tordenskjold’s[1] brave comrade in arms,” and many others.
For a long time Vitus Bering was one of Cruys’s most
intimate associates, and these two, with Admiral Sievers,
form an honorable trio in that foreign navy. Bering was
soon appointed to a position in the Baltic fleet, and
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
