Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1854-01-25
THE NAVAL POWER OF RUSSIA.

The recent naval success of the Russians on
the Black Sea will undoubtedly turn the specu-
lations of political writer's into new channel,
and give rise to the very significant and impor-
tant question whether Russia is destined to- be-
come formidable as a naval power.
Peter the Great was the father of the Russian
navy. The story Of his working as ship-car-
penter in the Dutch dock-yard of Saardam is ia
miiiar to every one who has read anything of
his extraordinary life. 1t is hardly necessary to
saw that at the commencement of the last Gen.
fury Russia had nothing worth the name of
naval establishment. Peter and his successor
Catherine made great efforts for the creation of
a respectable marine, and their example has been
followed BY most of the Russian sovereigns
down to the present day. The greatest advan.
ces have been made in our own time under the
Gear Nicholas, who seems now to have begun
to realize the practical returns of his outlay.
Russia ought to build the best ships in the
world, for no country produces greater abun-
dance of excellent material for ship-building.-
The forests of Russia are inexhaustible, and her
oak timber is equal to that of Canada and the
United States, with the exception Of our own
live-oak. The iron, the cordage, the tar, and the
sail-cloth of Russia have furnished supplies for
every marine in Christendom In the art Of
eel. Their timber is chiefly from the forests of
the north, and worked up mostly in an unsound
condition. Russian ships are, therefore, CON-
paratively unsound, and will not last above one
half or twe-ttirds the time of well-built Eng
lish or American ship. In workmanship, the
Russian ship-carpenters are clumsy in COMPARE
son with our own. Their ships are built with
very thick planking, and altogether look like
awkward tubs in our eyes. But they are kept
clean and in good order, after the Dutch pattern
which Peter had before his eyes. The cabins are
most splendidly fitted up, in conformity with the
habits of the Muscovite aristocracy. The admi-
rails or captains are not rough tars like Van
Tromp or Old Ben Bow, but more in manners
like the English naval commanders in Charles
the Seconds time-such as Commodore Trunn-
ion called Guinea pigs" They saunter about
in morning gowns and slippers, and lo! on vel
vet sofas, reading novels or playing on the piano.
Still they are not Ignorant for the nautical acad-
emies of st. Petersburg, Cronstadt, Oramon-
baum, Odessa and Nicolajen furnish them with
the best of teachng-as far as theory can 60.
The Russian sailors knows very little of salt
water, and have no great fondness for it. The
greater part of them are not taken from the mar
thine provinces of the empire, but from the in
terror, chiefly from Mongolia. Salt water is a
new thing to them, and for the most part they
never snuff the sea-breeze till they enlist in the
navy. But they are orderly, industrious, regu-
lar and precise in their habits, and accommodate
themselves easily to the strictest rules of disci
pline. Every thing on board Russian man-of-
war goes on like clock work. Every hand
works so many hours and then goes to sleep
Every one has his special post and special duty;
and all the maneuvres in Russian fleet are ex-
al. A IT,
is a machine-very regular and faithful in its
operations-but still mere machine. His mind
is absorbed in the one thing to which he is re-
strcted by rule. He cannot, like Yankee tar,
turn his hand to anything. He pulls the rope
or handspike to which he belongs, that is all, and
that he will do in the face of the heaviest can
nonade, or when the enemy's boarding pixies are
upon the gangway. Both sailors and marines
stand in their high boots and stiff coats in the
exact position prescribed by the rules and regu-
lations of the service, so that their feet form an
angle of 45 degrees, and this position it is their
pride and their glory to preserve, on the spars,
at the pumps, and at the guns. The rules and
regulations of the service alone determine the
movements Of the Russian sailor. When he
sees a stray rope he does not coil it and put it
aside, he reports the matter TO his lieutenant,
and the lieutenant refers 10 the journal for the
name of the man who has neglected his duty,
and, having found the culprit, he takes hold of
his ears and pulls him up to the neglected rope.
Such is Russian order and discipline.
The Russian guns are excellent. The sailors
handle them well, but not so quickly as the
Americans. 1t is remarkable that the Russians
have no general code of laws or penal regula.
tons fer their navy Each captain has his own
set of rules and punishments He governs his
own crew according to his own discretion. III
he sails and fights his ship properly, it is all that
his superiors think of demanding
The Russian fleet consist Of five divisions, OF
which three are stationed in the Baltic, and two |
in the Black Sea. In the last war with Turkey, |
Russia, had 80 vessels of the line, rs frigates, |
20 corvetts and briggs, brigantines, cutters, "a
schooners, 20 galleys, % floating batteries, l2l
gun-boats, making total of AGA sail, and carry
ing 5000 guns. Since that time great activity
has prevailed in the Russian docks, and the re-
suit is that at the present day the Russian fleet
consists of 60 vessels of the line, of from 10 to
100 guns, 81 frigates of from 40 to 60 guns, 10
corvettes, briggs, and brigantines, 40 steamers,
200 gun-boats, and galleys, the whole manned
by $4,000 sailors and 10000 marines, with 5000
guns.
But Russia lacks two things requisite to make
ler great naval power: a maritime population
Ind an open sea port. Her mercantile marine
Ind fisheries are too Insignificant to effect any,
hing material in the way of creating seafaring
population and therefore the Russian navy is
Tot a natural offspring of the national taste or
III - I,,a aiI baf 10 |