Page 49 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #36

which the Prosecutor took for one. The ship he refers
to as given to Kholmogorsky and Vazhsky Archbish-
op Athanasius, with all gear and flags, was a river boat
for sailing along the Nortehrn Dvina, that Peter I used
in 1693 to reach Arkhangelsk from Vologda, whereas
the first decree refers to “sovereign yacht Saint Peter”,
on which the tsar first made sea voyages around the
White Sea.
Archangel Vice-Governor Peter Lodyzhensky ex-
ecuted Pavel Yaguzhinsky’s order. The Saint Peter was
laid up on the bank of the Povrakulka River, where it
gradually went into decay without proper care.
In 1726, the captain of the port of Arkhangelsk,
Andrey Dioper, wrote a request to the Admiralty
Board to allow him to repair and use the old yacht
laid up in the Povrakulka River, as an inspection boat
for arriving Russian and foreign merchant ships. The
Admiralty Board allowed him to do so in the event the
yacht was in serviceable condition. However, upon a
closer examination by ship builder Nikifor Bazhenin,
the yacht was found unserviceable. The port captain
claimed he would be able to build a new boat by 1727.
In August 1727, the newly built packet boat was
handed over by Nikifor Bazhenin to the captain of
the Arkhangelsk port, Andrey Dioper. Earlier, in May
1727, Dioper asked the Admiralty Board to allow him
“to remove ten small cannons from the dilapidated
yacht in the Povrakulka River for installation on the
newly built inspector ship...” His request was satisfied
again, by Admiralty Board Order of June 20, 1727, but
wasn’t implemented due to change of the port cap-
tains.
The next time they remembered about the yacht
was in the following year, when the new captain, Jan
Walront, who replaced Andrei Dioper, requested the
Archangel provincial chancellery to transfer him for
his packet boat all the remaining gears of the rotting
Saint Peter. The request was not satisfied as the office
was aware that the packet boat had been handed over 30 или 31 июля царь впервые
by Nikifor Bazhenin to Andrey Dioper “with all prop- вступил на борт «Святого
er rigging”. According to a decree from the Admiralty
Board of August 19, 1728, “...the yacht appearing, ac- Петра» и поднял на нем русский
cording to the testimony of Nikifor Bazhenin, rotten триколор с золоченым двуглавым
and unfit for repairs must be left where it is without орлом. 4 августа Петр вышел
interference.” In pursuance of that decree of the Ad-
miralty Board, the yacht was left on the bank of the на своем судне в море
Povrakulka River. Its rigging was placed in a guarded On July 30–31, the tsar boarded the
barn. However, Jan Walront got that rigging anyway – St. Peter and hoisted the Russian
in June 1729, with the help of soldier Fyodor Mesh-
cherinov, who was put by Walront to guard the yacht tricolor with a gilded double-
and the barn. All its rigging – guy lines, ropes, which headed eagle. On August 4,
went as caulking, four old sails, two anchors weighing he went to sea
seven poods and three pounds, the two-pood iron til-
ler, 49 different parts, 23 yunfers (deadeyes), six mica
windows and miscellaneous ironware – was used by
Walront for the repair of his packet boat. Strazhin, to have the yacht dismantled by 14 soldiers
In the June of that year, Jan Walront filed another under the supervision of ensign Semyon Bolshiy. On
petition with Archangel provincial chancellery asking November 30, 1729, St. Peter was completely disas-
for the permission to burn the yacht and have its iron sembled.
used for covering his “inevitable Admiralty-imposed The iron with a total weight of 29 poods, the 25
costs.” The response stated that it had “no authority poods of lead and “the sixty-three carved elements on
to allow to burn the yacht...” and forwarded Walront’s the bow and the stern” were placed in the barn “near
request to the Admiralty Board. The response from it the Povrakulka River under the seal of ensign Bol-
reached Walront on October 6, 1729: “...since all ships shiy.” The planks of the yacht’s hull and the entire hull
belong to Admiralty’s jurisdiction and there is no ev- kit were all rotten. On April 16, 1730, the disassembled SOZVEZDYE #36
idence of the yacht having been built with the prov- property was handed over to new captain of Arkhan-
ince’s money, the yacht be burned for unfitness and its gelsk port, Peter Klaver.
iron parts be given to the Admiralty...” Such was the ending of Saint Peter’s life. Her ser- история
Having received that order, on November 13, vice life of thirty years was followed by six years of history
1729 the Archangelprovincial chancellery issued an lay-up until November 1729 as a living artifact of the
instruction to the commandant of Archangel Garri- domestic shipbuilding.
son, Commandant General Vilim Fermor, to allocate It is time to revive the memory of and the monu-
soldiers to destroy the yacht under the command of ment to this oldest naval vessel in Russia, which, ac-
the chief officer. The Commandant followed the in- cording to the will of Peter I, marked the start of the
struction by ordering the colonel of Ustyug Regiment, domestic shipbuilding. 47