Page 66 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #37

and outgoing ships pass through it… Laid up at the Holy Spirit and Courier (the latter is also known as the
tip of the shore is a newly built ship, its deck to be fin- Rapid Messenger) and laying of another small frigate,
ished yet. There’s a community next to the shipyard... St. Elijah. It took some time to complete the Holy Spir-
It’s name is Solombal.” it and the Courier, but once they were, in early August
1701, they immediately joined a squadron of 11 ships to
Frigates and fleuts accommodate the tsar with his retinue for their journey
first to the Solovetsky Isles and then to Nyukhcha, lo-
In February 1702, a new voivode, V. A. Rzhevsky, cated on the western coast of the White Sea. From there,
arrived in Arkhangelsk, tasked with supervising the they walked to Povenets, having laid the 160-verst-long
preparations for Tsar Peter’s the third voyage to the “sovereign’s road”.
North. To arrive next, in March 1702, were Elizarius Under the command of Vice Admiral Corne-
Ysbrants, now Admiralty Commissar, and Cornelis lis Cruijs, the squadron returned from the journey to
Cruijs, Vice Admiral. Their mission was to supervise Arkhangelsk safe and sound. It consisted of the ves-
the building of new ships in response to the outbreak sels built in Arkhangelsk (yacht Saint Peter, newly built
of the Great Northern War. smaller frigates Holy Spirit and Courier, five fleuts built
The main task was to ensure the safety of Solomba- in 1701), the Royal Transport schooner, donated by the
la shipyard. Since the Novodvinsk British fleet, and two Swedish trophy vessels. The sixth
Fortress was yet to be complet- flute had by that time been leased out to foreigner Stels.
Принято считать, что с 1693 ed, the Solombala shipyard, which The small frigate Saint Elijah, laid by Peter I earli-
по 1715 годы в Архангельске было had launched six flutes in 1701, re- er, was ready to set sail in the summer of 1703. In that
mained defenseless. It was decided
year, Arkhangelsk was building one ship after another.
построено 15 военных судов (семь to move the shipyard to a place up- Those were mostly small single-mast boats indented for
кораблей, семь фрегатов, одна stream of the Archangel Monastery the Baltic. In 1703, they reached the Ladoga by being
яхта) and close to the village of Siysky dragged over land along the “sovereign’s road” – that
was the first documented fact of dragging ships from
Byk. The place looked convenient: it
It is believed that Arkhangelsk built had sufficient depths, the river bend the White Sea to Lake Onega and further to Ladoga.
a total of fifteen naval ships between offered a good cover from sea winds Back then, the port of Arkhangelsk was experienc-
1693 and 1715 (seven warships, seven and curious eyes of foreigners, and ing its heyday. One more vessel was built there, which
there was the artillery of local forti-
was erroneously classified as heckboot, a light cargo
frigates, one yacht) fications and Russia’s first warships ship with high blind sides. In the language of Arkhan-
to block access. Siysky Byk sounded gelsk community, it sounded eke bot and represented a
a good alternative to building forti- well-armed ships that wasn’t meant for sale to foreign-
fications around Solombala, a pro- ers. At that time, the Admiralty took over the windmill
SOZVEZDYE #37 cess that would have taken a lot of time and money. In on Moseev Island. A number of new barns were built in
Siysky Byk, the yard had built two small frigates and re- Arkhangelsk to house oakum production, followed by
paired trophy sailboats of the Swedish fleet. Its territory the water-driven saw mill in Shirsha that later housed
история became Arkhangelsk Admiralty’s first yard and home also blacksmith’s for the needs of the Arkhangelsk Ad-
miralty. Elizarius Ysbrants built a ropery; its premises
to Russia’s first dry docks.
history Accompanied by his retinue and armed forces, Pe- currently house V. I. Voronin Arctic Marine Institute.
ter I arrived in Arkhangelsk on May 17, 1701. A week At that time, appointed to the post of Arkhangelsk
later, on May 24, the Holy Trinity Day, he boarded harbor master was Klas Fras. Among the officers sent
the captured Swedish galliot Falken, which Russians by the Admiralty to Solombala in 1707 was commis-
called frigate, for the Admiralty shipyard to celebrate sioner Semyon Plemyannikov. Possibly, Ysbrants health
64 the launching of two new small frigates Descent of the was deteriorating and he needed an assistant, although