96

THE RUSSIAN FLEET

are of late date amongst them, and still by manyaccounted foreign ; up in the country none to befound, for as they have plenty of wood they wantno saw to make boards, but splitting 1 the timber,hew it to a convenient proportion, never makingmore than two planks of the thickness of a tree.

XXII. PAY OF OFFICERS AND DOCKYARDOFFICIALS.

Vice-Admiral Cruys is highly blamed by allforeign officers in the Tsar’s service, he being theonly man that might have influenced him to allowgood pay at the commencement of the establish-ment ; at least, that some equitable proportionshould have been observed between the differentappointments . 2

1 In Tasmania, and also in some parts of Australia, ‘ splitting ’is in common use. Trunks of the hardwood ( Eucalyptus) treesare split into short narrow planks with a single tool, and theamount of work done by one man in a working-day is astonishingto a stranger.

2 As the foreign officers who entered the Russian service underPeter the Great were not all—as some few of those of Britishnationality were—driven from their own country by politicaltroubles, it might be presumed that the rates of pay in Russia weredesignedly made sufficient to attract them. This, however, doesnot appear to have been the case. A comparison between therates of pay in the British and in the Russian navies in the earlieryears of the eighteenth century shows that the former—even whenthe exchange value of the rouble was at its highest—was moreliberal than the latter. When the rouble in exchange fell to 50per cent. of its former value, the Russian rate compares very un-favourably with the British.

In Russia, with the rouble — io§., the highest captain’s pay was20/. a month ; in the British Navy it was 21/. The Russiancaptain was allowed at first ‘six common peasants,’ afterwardsreduced to three. The British captain was allowed at first aboutthirty servants, and in 1705, eight. Assuming that in each case thecaptain—either by taking it, or by saving an equivalent expensefor wages—counted the pay of these men amongst his allowances,