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exemplified in the present instance and likewise intwo 96-gun ships now upon the stocks, measuringlonger than the Royal Sovereign. 1 The third shiplaunched was the 2 Le Firme, hauled up in 1720, beingnow made a new ship. The Slutelburg is appointedto be hauled up this winter for rebuilding ; for tillthe dock is perfected, there is no way to come atand rebuild their bottoms. When, therefore, in thisnarrative any other ships have been said to berebuilt, it is to be understood only of the partabove the water’s edge. And the Tsar is so muchthe more desirous of finishing the dock because itwill save the excessive expense of hauling up shipson dry land, and likewise as the ships built of oaktimber at St. Petersburg—the only ones he values—are considerably increased in number. So severalof ’em waxing old, some already, and others soon,will want an entire rebuilding. This summer, like-wise, strict orders were published, forbidding theaccess of all persons not immediately in the service,to the haven of Kronslot; and the officers on guardwere commanded to apprehend any that shouldmake an attempt of that kind.

In November Mr. Cooper, after two years’attend-ance and reducement to poverty, was fixed in themanagement of the naval stores, at the salary of600 roubles for the first year, with a Russian promiseof performing his first agreement amounting to fourtimes that sum for the future ; on condition of hisaccomplishing what he pretended to.

1 The author probably refers to the Royal Sovereign, on boardwhich Sir George Rooke hoisted his flag in 1702. Derrick(. Memoirs , &c., p. 260) gives the dimensions of a ship of 100 gunsfor the year 1719 as follows : length on gun-deck, 174 ft. ; lengthof keel for tonnage, 140 ft. 7 in. ; breadth, extreme, 50 ft. ; depthin hold, 19 ft. 2 in .; burthen in tons, 1869 (see note 3, p. 10).

2 See note 1, p. 30.