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CHAPTER III.

THE RESTORATION OF SEVASTOPOL AND THE RUSSIAN

FLEET.

Sevastopol and its Harbour-The Progress of the Place-Its Rival Nicolaeff-Restoration of the Great Granite Docks-The Fortifications-The Dockyard of the Black Sea Steam Navigation Company-The Origin of the Company-Statistics respecting its Growth and Present Condition-New Ocean Liners for the Black Sea-The new Ironclads-Russian Cruisers-The Present Condition of the Russian Navy-Sir Edward Reed, the Naval Professor Holloway-Admiral Popoff his Patent Pill--The Fleet during the Russo-Turkish War-Fall of Popoff-The régime of the Grand Duke Alexis-The Fleet of the Future-Sevastopol and the new Black Sea Fleet, and the Decadence of Turkey— Sevastopol as a Commercial Port-The new Route to Persia and Central Asia.

SEVASTOPOL has been so often described that I shall content myself with simply saying "ditto" to the many eminent authorities who, in language of more or less felicity, have declared it to be one of the most magnificent harbours in the world. Travellers often exaggerate what they see; but the chorus of encomium pronounced upon Sevastopol fails to create impressions which surpass the reality. I never imagined the harbour to be so. splendid, the scenery so lovely. An impression prevails that the Allies knocked the place into ruins, and that little of its former glory remains; but it is impossible to enter the harbour, passing the huge granite forts on the left and the ugly earthworks on the right, without feeling

surprised at there being so few perceivable traces of the great bombardment. Excluding the vast naked ruin of the naval barracks, which, being situated on a prominent cliff overlooking the harbour, arrests the attention the moment the batteries are passed, there is little to remind the traveller of the devastating effects of the siege.

As a matter of fact, Sevastopol has been looking up of late years, and before the close of the present decade will have recovered all its old prosperity and importance. The tearing up of the Treaty of Paris in 1871 was the first step towards the revival of Sevastopol; the completion, a few years later, of the Lozova-Sevastopol Railway, linking it with the Russian railway system, the second. In 1878 the earthworks that were erected at the mouth of the harbour, and the rows of torpedoes that blocked the channel, kept away the Turkish ironclad fleet from the place, as they would no doubt keep out an English fleet to-morrow. This defence "successful defence," the Russians call it, although there was never any serious attack-gave Sevastopol the position again of a fortified. harbour, and the security it accorded to Russian shipping during the war led the authorities to still further improve it. There was even a talk of dismantling Nicolaeff, and removing the dockyard there bodily back to Sevastopol, but more prudent counsellors suggested that it would be foolish to trust all the eggs in one basket again, and a decision was ultimately arrived at to retain Nicolaeff as it was, using it in the future as an auxiliary naval establishment.

During the last two years of Alexander II.'s reign the maladministration prevailing at the Russian Admiralty, by dissipating its pecuniary resources, checked the realization of the designs for re-establishing Sevastopol. The purer régime of the present High Admiral, however, has led to money being more freely forthcoming, and in excess of the heavy outlay on the four ironclads now in

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE RUINS.

43

course of construction for the Black Sea fleet, a sum of a quarter of a million sterling has been expended in restoring the large stone docks that were once the glory of Sevastopol. When the Crimean War broke out it was estimated that £20,000,000 sterling had been spent upon the harbour works and the fleet, and £7,000,000 on the fortifications. The docks were the work of a British officer, Colonel Upton, who had employed 30,000 labourers to excavate them. Engineering and military science has advanced very much since those days, and, thanks to skilful appliances, a Russian engineer officer is now restoring with two or three thousand men what would have needed tens of thousands a generation ago. So also a few heavy guns suffice to do the work of the 1,200 guns the Russians were able to concentrate upon one spot when the Allied fleet appeared before Sevastopol in 1854. Throughout the whole of the town we saw men at work like ants raising fresh structures, removing ruins, laying out new streets, and making squares and gardens. A few years ago there were 70 per cent. of ruins to 30 per cent. of houses; to-day the figures are reversed, and there are only 30 per cent. of ruins left.

Our steamer stopped a couple of hours at Sevastopol, thus allowing us to have a ramble ashore and a sail across the harbour. Opposite the busy landing-place, with its stalls of cheap and luscious fruit, was the extensive yard belonging to the Black Sea Steam Navigation Company, where a deal of bustle was in progress, arising from the preparations for constructing the two new ironclads of the Inflexible type, Tchesme and Sinope, for the Black Sea fleet. Russia is well known as a country of contrarieties, but few things are more mysterious than that a company which cannot construct its own merchant steamers, should be deemed fit to entrust with the building of thick-ribbed ironclads.

The Black Sea Steam Navigation Company was estab

lished shortly after the Crimean War, with the object of evading the clause of the Treaty of Paris, limiting Russia's fleet to six steam vessels, of 800 tons maximum tonnage, by creating a flotilla of transports, capable of being turned into armed cruisers in time of war. The company receives a mileage subsidy, and up to the present time has drawn to the extent of nearly £3,000,000 sterling upon the Russian Treasury. A report that I have before me, published in 1881, states that its fleet then consisted of 76 steamers, of an aggregate of 78,162 tons, and 7,262 nominal horse-power. Of this fleet, costing 9,942,000 roubles, or a million sterling, not a single vessel had been constructed in Russia. The fleet burns 100,000 tons of coal a year, of which more than half is obtained from England, and the rest from the Donetz region, mostly from the company's own mines. The original 500 rouble shares of the company are now worth 750 roubles, and pay a dividend of 12 or 14 per cent. every year.

Before the Russo-Turkish War broke out in 1877, it was confidently anticipated that the company would render great assistance to the Government. In reality, it did very little at all. Several of its best steamers were purposely kept away from Russia when war became inevitable, and of the rest only two or three proved of any use as cruisers. This impotence caused great dissatisfaction in Russia, and the Press unanimously clamoured for a withdrawal of the subsidy; but the outery neither affected the Government nor the company until the present Emperor ascended the throne. The new Ministers of the altered régime then took the matter up, and the result of the pressure they exercised was a decision on the part of the company to build a fresh fleet of steamers, of which nearly half a dozen have already been constructed on the Tyne. Of these some have been built by Messrs. Leslie, intended for the Batoum service,

THE BLACK SEA MARINE.

45

and others by Messrs. Mitchell, for the direct trade between Odessa and the East. A representative of the former is the Pushkin, 1,485 tons register, 265 feet long, 34 broad, and 24 deep, with engines of 300 nominal horse-power, or 1,616 indicated, steaming at fifteen knots, and having accommodation for 166 first and second-class passengers and 250 steerage. Her cost was £46,000. A typical vessel of the latter is the Tsaritza, which is 332 feet long, 37 feet broad, 27 feet deep, and cost £55,000. All the new vessels are most luxuriously fitted up, and whatever their future role in the next war may be, they will certainly in the interval conduce to the comfort of thousands of travellers in the Black Sea.

To repair its steamers, the company early after its formation spent £100,000 in constructing workshops on a site presented by the Government, and furnishing them with machinery from England. Up to last year another £100,000 had been expended in the same manner, and when it seemed likely that the company would secure the contract for the two new ironclads £40,000 more was allotted, making altogether nearly a quarter of a million expended on the dockyard. Some months ago the Russian Admiralty gave the company the order for the two new vessels, and the keel of the first has recently been laid in the presence of the Minister of Marine. The two vessels, for which the company will receive a payment of £643,500 sterling, are each 314 feet long, 69 feet broad, and 42 feet deep. Their plating will be 5 inches thick above water line, and 3 inches below; the turret having 14 inches of plating in front and 12 inches behind. The engines will be of 9,000 horse-power, and comprise 3 cylinders, 14 boilers, and 2 screws. Twelve heavy guns will be carried by the vessels-six 12-inch guns in three open casemates, and six 6-inch in closed casemates on the upper deck. The steel for the

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