UNDER PETER THE GREAT nz

ing to the known method obtaining in Russia. Bythese means each ship may have its full complement,amounting to J or ^ more than the English 1establishment in like cases ; their way being thereto pick up all that belong to the sea and then divide'em in proportion, as far as they will go ; employingthe reduced serjeants and corporals for gunners andbombardiers ; and yet generally are obliged to sendout fewer ships than at first they designed. Thehalf the ships’ companies are soldiers ; and thegreater part of the residue such as, a year or twobefore, underwent a translation from soldiers toseamen ; so that, often in a 54-gun ship, whosecommon appointment is 400 men, when the upperand under officers, guard-marines, 2 and cabin-boysare deducted, not 40, except she is a flag, nay, not30 are to be found that deserve the character ofable sailors at their going out to sea.

In the Russian Navy are found some foreigners

1 The complements of English ships in the early part of theeighteenth century were-

1 st rates

. 96 to

0

0

guns;

706 to 800 men

2nd rates

• 84 „

90

„

524 „ 640 „

3rd rates

- 66 „

80

„

39° „ 476 „

4th rates

- 46 „

60

„

2 3° „ 346 „

5th rates

. 26 „

44

„

I 3 5 -- i5° „

6th rates

24

3 j

IIO „

(An Essay on the Navy , in two parts, by the author of theSeamen's Case [John Dennis], London, 1702).

2 ‘ Guard-marines,’ from the French Gardes-marines, thedesignation applied in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries toyoung officers in the Royal Navy of France, as being nominallygentlemen ‘ privates ’ in the King’s Guard. ‘ C’est a cette epoque[c. 1673] que Colbert crea, sous le nom de compagnies de gardes-marines, une pepiniere dofficiers de vaisseau; les compagniescomprenaient deux cents gentilshommes, repartis entre les troisports de Brest, Rochefort et Toulon. Les jeunes gens y etaientadmis de seize a vingt ans, au bon plaisir du roi et sans examens.La seule condition a remplir pour l’admission etait d’appartenir ala noblesse’ (Maurice Loir, La Marine Fran$aise, Paris, 1893,p. 46). See ante, p. 55.