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Приветствую тебя, Всем!


St.Petersburg 300 year.

At May 16th 1703 on the Zajatsji island in the Russian river Neva, the
construction of a new city called St. Petersburg had started.
Some time before, Tsar Peter the Great (1672 - 1725) had given the order
to design and to build the new big city and seaport.

St. Petersburg became the Russian counterpart of the Dutch city of Amsterdam.
It was build upon piles, devided by canals and smal islands and a
harbour in the middle.

First was started with building a fort, the 'Peter and Paul'
fortification with the the first houses in its direct neighbourhood.
The fortification should be a barrier to the Neva river.
The naval base Kronstadt, build on the island Kotlin at the Neva mouth,
was intended to take over the defensive task from the fortification at
a later stage.

With building the Port of St. Petersburg, Peter hoped to divert the
West Europe trade route from Archangelsk to St. Petersburg. But his hope
was idle. No skipper did sail for the new port. They kept sailing to
Archangelsk. Eventual it was a Dutch merchant ship that was the first to
anchore at St Petersburg roads. The skipper, Jan Hillebrandsz van
Terschelling, got the permission to sell his gargo toll-free.
But the new route was not very busy.
To make sure that more shipping would come to St. Petersburg, Peter the Great
issued a decree, where he ordered that all the sea trade to and from
Russia should be routed via St. Petersburg.

Between all those activities, Peter worked on the realisation of his
"maritime dream"
Together with some shipping and maritime experts, he took with him to
Russia after his period of living and learning in The Netherlands, he
worked on with maritime projects.
Among his experts was Cornelis Cruys. Peter appointed him to
vice-admiral and Cruys became very involved by realizing Peters
'maritime dreams'.
Cornelis Cruys was the Tsars "right hand" and personal friend and thus
he got high respect.

By order of Peter the Great, Cruys was in charge with building and
organising the Black Sea naval Fleet and the Baltic naval Fleet. He started
with building 11 frigates in Voronezj at the river Don. Cruys also
realized a connection between the Don and the Wolga.
By means of constructing locks in a tributary (side river) the water was
diverted to the Wolga and so  connections between Moscow and the Kaspic
sea and the Black sea were realized.

With the growth of the fleet in the Black Sea and in the Baltic Sea, the
need for well educated and trained officers, increased in an explosive
way. Thanks to Cruys, many foreign seamen were lured to Russia for
training and study at the Russian military colledge and the Institute
for sea officers. Often the vice-admiral travelled to Western Europe to
crimp naval personal for the Tsar.

The influence of Dutchmen upon the Russian naval fleet was huge. And
since there were many Dutch among the ships crew, the Netherlands
language was often spoken onboard the ships.
The Russian language therefore is larded with Netherlands maritime words and
expressions. Just a few examples are 'matros', 'flagstok', 'botsman',
'bak', 'kamboez', 'lotsman', 'dok' and 'shturman'.

Cruys died on 14 June 1727 at the age of 70 years. His mortal remains
were tranferred to The Netherlands and burried in the "Oude Kerk" in
Amsterdam.

 Resources: "Naval Museum" at Den Helder, The Netherlands.



С дружеским приветом,
      Herman Neut

 e-mail: h.neut{at}hccnet.nl

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