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*”
866 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
duces vegetables, and a few fruits, fuch as apples, currants, goofeberries, and ftraw-
berries, which thrive in this northern climate.
Cronftadt is built upon the fouth-eaftern extremity of the ifland, and defended to-
wards the fea by wooden piers * projecting into the water, and towards the land by ram-
parts and baftions. It is a ftraggling place and occupies, like all the Ruffian towns, a
larger fpace of ground than the number of habitations feems to require: the houfes are
moftly of wood, excepting a few fronting the harbour, which are of brick ftuccoed
white; among thefe are the imperial hofpital for failors, the barracks, and the marine
academy which contained, in 1778, three hundred and feventy cadets, who are main-
tained and taught at the expence of the crown: they are admitted at the age of five,
and remain until feventeen. ‘They learn accounts, mathematics, drawing, fortification,
and navigation, and have matters in the French, German, Englifh, and Swedith
languages. ‘They are trained to naval tactics, and make an annual cruize as far as
Revel.
Cronftadt has a haven appropriated to fhips of war, and another to merchant veffels,
The men of war’s haven contained twenty fhips of the line, and nine frigates, which
were difmafted, with their guns and tackle on fhore. ‘The Ezekiel of eighty guns, ef-
teemed the fineft fhip in the navy, was built under the infpection of Admiral Knowles,
and carries eight hundred men.
Clofe to the haven for merchant fhips isa canal and feveral dry docks, begun in 1719
for the purpofe of refitting the men of war; this ufeful work was neglected under the
fucceflors of Peter, and not completed until the reign of Elizabeth: it has been ftill
further improved by Catherine, and is now applied for building as well.as for carecn-
ing fhips of theline. At the extremity of thefe docks isa great refervoir, five hundred
and fixty-eight feet in length, containing water fufficient to fupply all the docks, which
is pumped out by means of a fire engine, the diameter of whofe cylinder is fix feet,
The length of this work, from the beginning of the canal, to the end of the laft dock
is four thoufand two hundred and twenty-one feet. The fides of the docks are faced
with ftone, and the bottom paved with granite; they are forty feet deep, one hundred
and five broad, and capable of containing nine men of war on the ftocks.
Nothing can convey a higher idea of the vaft and perfevering genius of Peter the
Great, than the fituation in which he found the Ruffian navy, and the ftate in which he
left it. Though in the beginning of his reign he did not poflefs a man of war, yet in
the courfe of a few years he equipped a fleet of fifty fail of the line, which rode miftrefs
of the Baltic. Under his fucceffors the Ruffian navy was greatly neglected, and was
in fo bad a condition at the acceflion of Catherine, that fhe almoft equalled her prede-
ceffor in the creation of a new fleet: fhe invited Englith captains and fhipbuilders into
Ruffia, particularly Admiral Knowles, who was remarkable for his {kill in naval archi.
telure. Under her aufpices Europe lately beheld with aftonifhment the Ruffian flag
difplayed in the Archipelago, and the Turkifh fleet annihilated at ‘’chefme by a fqua-
dron from the North t.
Ruffia produces every article neceflary for the conftruétion and equipment of fhips
which are built chiefly at Cronftadt, Peterfburgh, and Archangel: thofe conftruéted
at Cronftadt and at Peterfburgh are made with oak; thofe from Archangel with larch-
wood. For the fupply of the dock-yards at Peterfburgh and Cronftadt, the oak is fent
from the province of Cafan; the Ukraine and the government of Mofcow fupply the
* In 1784 Cronftadt was fortifying with ftone piers. The eftimate was 7,000,000 roubles,
+ Since the acquifition of Crim Tartary, and the other conquefts from Turkey, fhips are now built at
Kerfon and in the harbours of Taurida.
hemp ;
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