Kotlin Island
1824 Kronstadt, the main base of the Russian Baltic Fleet was swept by the disastrous flood of 1824. Of 28 capital ships moored in the inner harbours of Kotlin Island, only five were spared by the flood, and only three of them were deemed safe for the open seas. Twenty-two capital ships were written off and broken up. Most of them remained afloat when the flood recessed, but were too rotten to be worth salvaging. Alexander I saw no need to resurrect the fleet to its past strength, and in 1825 the shipyards of Arkhangelsk laid down only two new ships: "Azov" and "Ezekiel".