INTRODUCTION

xix

Russian diplomatic mission was enabled to force itsway to Constantinople in a ship of war. It had tobe given up in consequence of the disastrous issueof the campaign of the Pruth, to which allusion ismade by the author of the MS. History has shownthat the abandonment of the design was in realitybut temporary. Peter was able to concentrate hisefforts to form a navy on the expansion of thatwhich had been established in the Baltic.

The story of his visits to Holland and Englandis too well known to need detailed repetition inthis place. His occupation in the shipyards ofAmsterdam and Deptford forms the basis of someof the most trite of historical anecdotes. Whatreally attracted him to England was the importanceof that country as a naval power. The immediateinducement to come over from the Netherlands wasthe prospect of becoming personally acquaintedwith people who not only built seaworthy shipslike the Dutch, but who also were so skilled in theirprofession that they could draft a full plan of a shipbefore the actual operation of building her wasbegun. This, as much as the manual work in whichhe engaged, showed the thoroughness of Peter’sdesire to acquire a solid knowledge of maritimeaffairs. ‘ He did not,’as he says himself, ‘endurethinking long about it. He quickly set to work.’His conception of the kingly office was that ‘themonarch himself should not be shamefully behindthe rest of his subjects’ in any department ofknowledge useful to his country. The wordsbetween inverted commas are his own. The leadingcharacteristic of Peter’s statesmanship, its highly