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PETER THE GREAT

given the command of his proposed fleet, a part of whichwas to be stationed at the newly founded fortress ofSveaborg.

Ehrensvard, who was an influential member of thedominant political party, was enabled to force the adoptionof his views of naval policy; not, indeed, without opposi-tion, but for a long time without encountering effectiveobstruction. As he went on he increased his demands.He introduced into his fleet a great variety of craft, someof them essentially sea-going and very different from hisoriginally proposed galleys. To man his fleet he required22,300 soldiers, 5,862 seamen, and zoo volunteers. Inaddition to these, men were to be hired to act as ship-keepers. He was invested with the right of drawing uponthe navy for the officers, petty officers, and dockyardofficials, whom he found necessary.

Encouraged by the readiness with which his recom-mendations had been approved, he went further thanperhaps he himself had intended at first. He maintainedthat the skargard system should be extended to the wholeof the Baltic. Even amongst his adherents he was held tohave exaggerated the influence of coast operations on aland campaign. What he was now maintaining was reallythe negation of his own original recommendations. Toextend the radius of action of his fleet till it reached theopen sea, was to sever that connection between it and thearmy which he had laid down as essential. His casesupplies a good illustration of the result of giving aspecialist a free hand in dealing with the national defences.

In 1765 and 1766 the Caps—the party opposed toEhrensvard’s—came into power. His views and procedurehad recently been subjected to much unfavourable criticism ;and his political opponents needed no great amount of per-suasion to induce them to decide that the army’s fleet wasunnecessary, and should be abolished as a branch of theland forces. A skargards fleet was to be maintained, buton the former footing under the Admiralty, and in connec-tion with the navy.

In 1769 the Hats once more became the most powerfulparty in the Diet. Ehrensvard regained his former influ-ence and effected the re-establishment of his army’s fleet, atthe head of which he was again placed. A separate galley-