44. Second “ally”
“Russia has two allies: its army and its navy”
Nicholas I
After the end of the Ottoman War of 1707-1709 Russian ship-building program looked as following:
A. Admiralty of the Black and Azov Seas:
1. Wharf of
Voronezh - slowly dying out producing the small ships (up to the light frigates), capable of getting out even when the water levels of the Voronezh and Don rivers was low, for the Azov and Black Seas out of the previously collected materials [1]
2. Wharf of
Taganrog - founded in 1701. Gradually loses its position of the main supplier of the warships to the new wharfs on the Black Sea. However, still an important producer of the small and mid-sized warships and merchant ships.
2. Wharf and
Admiralty of
Cherson, fast enough transferred to
Nikolaev. Producing all types of the ships with the stress upon the ships of the line.
3. Wharf of
Ochakov - small wharf, mostly for the merchant ships.
4. Wharf of
Sevastopol - exclusively for the warships
B. Admiralty of the Baltic and White Seas:
1. Old
Olonets wharf on the Ladoga Lake - small craft capable of sailing down the Neva to the sea (galleys, cannon boats, etc.).
2.
Solombalskaya wharf near Archangelsk. Founded in 1693. Started with building the big commercial fluyt ships
but then added construction of the warships, mostly for the Baltic fleet (6 ships of the line by 1710). Small wharfs in the region kept building the traditional koch-style ships for the fishing and merchant activities in the icy seas.
3.
St-Petersburg wharf and
Admiralty. Predominantly the warships. Small wharfs near the city building some merchant ships.
In the case of the St-Petersburg wharf, just as was the case with Voronezh but on a larger scale, the huge number of the “forgotten” and then …er… “rediscovered”
oak timber on the shores of Ladoga Lake provided a multi-year wood supply for the naval construction. The draconian measures (all the way to a death penalty) had been taken to prevent this type of things from happening again.
Experience of the Ottoman war provided some useful lessons which had to be adopted for a possible engagement against more serious enemy.
1. The Russian ships had been slower than those of the Ottomans and one of the main reasons was that the Ottoman ships had tzeir bottoms covered with a copper.
2. Artillery on the Russian ships of the line was too light for causing a serious damage and on the frigates too light to cause any damage except on a point blank distance.
3. Blind sticking to the linear tactics did mot pay off and creation of the “reserve squadron” even out of the weak frigates gave significant tactical advantage.
To all this some regional news had been added: starting from 1701 the Danish navy under the leadership of
Ulrik Christian Gyldenløve got a serious upgrade of its firepower. Keeping in mind that the Danish fleet is going to operate on the relatively short distances of few hundreds miles, he “overloaded” ships with the guns and replacing the 30-pounders of a lower deck with 36-pounders, 18 pounders with 24 pounders and building a considerable number of the 50 guns ships for operations at the Sound and near the enemy’s coast [2].
Taking into the account that the first few ships of the line built for the Baltic fleet on the Ladoga wharf not only had low sea-going qualities bit also had 18-pounder guns as their greater caliber, situation was plain intolerable and, as soon as St.Petersburg wharf became operational and Solombalskaya wharf got new “specifications” the ship building policy changed dramatically.
Construction of the first ship of the line with 100 guns started in 1705 and by 1710 the Baltic fleet had 4 of those with 6 having 96 guns and 6 more of 86 guns (arriving from Archangelsk). There were also 16 ships of the 3rd rank with 70-60 guns and smaller ships. The biggest calibers on all ships of the line was 36 pounds but on the upper desk they had the short-barrel 40 pounders guns, “unicorns” modified for the naval service. While having a considerable caliber, these guns had been weighting less than conventional naval 18-pounders and could fire a wide variety of the projectiles from a solid shot and grapeshot to the bombs and brandskugels [3]. With a purpose not to reveal “unnecessary” information to the Danes, Russian ships of the line sailing from Archangelsk had only the light 20-, 18-, 12-pounders and had been reequipped with the heavier guns upon arrival to St. Petersburg.
One of the biggest Russian assets in the area of strategic disinformation was the Danish ambassador, vice-admiral Just Juel. He landed in Riga (not St. Petersburg) and from here had been traveling by land. When at St. Petersburg, he asked
once to show him the Russian fleet and after getting a refusal came to a logical conclusion that the Russians are simply hiding how bad their fleet is. On his route and while in Moscow he managed to spoil relations with each and every official by the countless complaints regarding them not following the diplomatic protocol properly and then showing disdain to pretty much everything from pedigree of the Russian aristocrats and all the way to the food [4]. All his observations he was putting in writing and the letters, which had been intercepted and studied, did not create him any additional friends. Why would they if he described the top Russian personages as the peasants without a sense of dignity (who else would be playing cards and dining with the subordinates?) and Russian nobility in general as lacking the willingness to serve in the military because they don’t have a proper sense of a honor. But the jesters and dwarfs of Peter’s court got his full attention. The projected image was that the Russians are rather pathetic barbarians who are still somewhere on a “back bench” in studying how to be properly civilized and can be safely ignored in the strategic planning.
AFAIK, he was not even being paid by the Russians. 😂
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[1] As with the case of New Ladoga wharfs, a lot of collected but “forgotten” wood had been found during the revision. Some of this material had been used in Voronezh and some transferred to Taganrog.
[2] This is from
https://george-rooke.livejournal.com/348772.html? I could not find any other sources so this is going to be an alt reality. 😉 As usually, wiki adds to the confusion because
Dannebroge in an article on a Battle of
Køge Bay shown as having 92 guns but on a link to this ship as 76 guns (with 24 pounders as a biggest caliber).
[3] Incendiary projectile, not very efficient and considered somewhat uncivilized but still being used. After the battle of Hogland (1788) the Swedes presumably sent a delegation to the Russian commander, admiral Greig, protesting against the Russian usage of the brandskugels to which Greig pointed to the burns left by the brandskugels fired by the Swedes. 😂
[4] One would assume that sturgeon is an expensive fish but, because it was not available in Denmark, he found its smell (?) and taste repulsive, and so on.
