The Kronstadt fortress and the city of Kronstadt, as you know, originate from the Kronshlot fort, founded on the Kotlin island in 1704. Since then, the defense of the capital has been one of the main concerns of the king. For this, a Russian fleet was created in the Baltic and the seaside fortress of Kronstadt. Many books and articles have been written about this fortress and the city of the same name during the Peter the Great's era, but they are mainly devoted to fortresses. However, Kronstadt, Peter I is famous not only for its forts, given the advantageous military-strategic location of Fr. Kotlin, paid great attention to its shipyards. This is understandable, because soon after the first fortress was laid on the island, Kronshlot became the main base of the young Baltic fleet.
The first mention of Kroneslotsk shipbuilding dates back to August 7, 1705: Vice-Admiral Cornelius Cruis reported to Peter I that a pramor (more precisely, pram - a flat-bottomed floating battery, also used to lift sunken ships), on which two 12- and five 6-pounders are installed.
In 1707, on about. Kotlin repaired bots for the ships of the Kronslot squadron. Despite the worse, in comparison with St. Petersburg, working conditions, it was here that three small shnyavs arrived from St. Petersburg (sailing three-masted warships for reconnaissance and messenger services) and a bombarding ship were completed.
According to Cruis's letter to the commander-in-chief of the Russian naval forces, Admiral F. M. Apraksin, on September 9, 1713, five unfinished brigantines laid down on the Luga River in 1712, but then dismantled, according to the decree of Peter I of June 27, 1713, were delivered to Kronslot on transport ships in disassembled form, Cruis assured Apraksin that these ships would be reassembled as soon as weather permits, as well as other dismantled brigantines expected to arrive. There were eight such ships in total.
In the autumn of the same year on about. Kotlin arrived with an inspection Peter I and "Mr. Bass" (as the chief shipbuilder was called at that time) I. M. Golovin. The tsar recognized all the ships of the Kotlin squadron as fit, except for "St. Anthony ", which, because of rottenness, recommended to be converted into a fire-ship (a vessel filled with flammable and explosive substances and intended to set fire to or explode enemy ships). In April 1714, under the leadership of the English fortifier and shipbuilder Edward Lane, who served in Russia, at the Fr. Kotlin battleships "St. Catherine "and" Victoria ", as well as on" St. Anthony ", replaced the rotten masts, and on the frigate" St. Pavel "made the repair of the stem. Judging by the report of Captain-Commander Shelting to Count Apraksin, at the beginning of May of the same year, all the Kronslot battleships were keeled, during which their underwater parts were inspected, repaired and painted under the leadership of St. Petersburg ship masters Nye and Brown. In the fall of 1714, the battleships "Gabriel", "Raphael" and "Pearl" were repaired, and in the winter, the repairs of the "Pernov", "Randolph" and "Arondel" were due.
Due to the lack of manpower and materials, the state of affairs at the Kronshlot shipyards was not entirely safe, so at the beginning of December 1714 Peter arrived here, under whose leadership the development of a grandiose project for the reconstruction of Kronshlot, which was implemented with some changes after his death, began. Peter. Already in 1715, things went much faster: in the spring, almost simultaneously, a major overhaul of the battleships Leferm, Pernov and Arondel, as well as the frigate St. Jacob ", which it was decided to" roll "(tilt the ship to repair damage in the underwater part). Here on the ships "Narva", "Shlisselburg", "Pearl", "St. Catherine "and" Raphael ", as well as on the frigate" Esperance ", they replaced the rotten masts and made minor repairs.
On June 27, 1715, an unforeseen event happened: the battleship Narva was struck by lightning in the inner Kronshlot roadstead, which exploded and sank. A few days later, Peter's instructions followed by all means to raise the ship, since sand was quickly applied to it, and the resulting sand could spoil the fairway. Peter suggested using a pram, a lighter masts (a special vessel for lifting masts and keeling ships) and two evers (small single-masted ships) for lifting work. A month later, in a letter to the tsar's secretary Makarov, one of the best Peter's shipbuilders Fedosey Sklyaev reported that it was useless to repair the sunken Narva, and if the aft beams could withstand, they would try to lift the ship not in parts, but completely. However, this was done much later, in 1723, with the help of a diver called from Amsterdam, and the masts of a lighter who arrived on the island. Kotlin in 1722.
At the beginning of 1716, the construction of 20 island boats, adapted to skerry conditions, and 20 boats for them, began in Kronshlot. At the same time, intensive repairs of the fleet continued. So, on the ships "London", "Leferm" and "Pernov" rotted masts are being replaced. Special attention was paid to painting work, for which special paints were made in St. Petersburg by English craftsmen, which were then delivered to about. Kotlin.
After some lull, ship work in 1717 unfolded with renewed vigor. In the spring on Kotlin, 13 boats were built from oak and the same number of boats for them, later sent to the capital. On June 3 of the same year, the shipmaster Brown returned again, heading shipbuilding and ship repair. Immediately after his arrival in Kronshlot, the Prince Alexander kick began to remodel the masts, and later began intensive keeling of the ships of the Kotlin squadron. The first to be repaired was the flagship of Peter I "Ingermanland". Brown called in several St. Petersburg artisans to work on the Lansdow. In mid-October 1717, the ship "Britannia" came to Kronshlot for overhaul.
Judging by the decree of Peter I of November 13, 1718 on the construction of boat barns in Kronshlot, it was possible to provide boats not only to all the ships of the Kotlin squadron, but also to create their reserve on the shore. Taking care of expanding the scale of repair work, Master Brown requested in February 1718 120 carpenters from the regiments of Ostrovsky and Tolbukhin, stationed in Kotlin. An interesting fact became known from Cruis' report to the Senate on March 10 of the same year: in the unfinished harbor of Kronshlot, forty warships could be built or overhauled at the same time; and this despite the fact that the famous Peter the Great Canal began to be built only two months later. A special congestion of ships and vessels was observed in the fall of 1718, when Neptunus, Moscow, Shlisselburg, Le-Ferm, Riga, St. Ekaterina "and" Ingermanland ". In vacant places in the harbor, six pontoons (fire boats) were built, as well as privateers (private ships armed to attack the enemy's merchant ships), galleys and boats.
At the beginning of 1719, the old ships "Archangel Michael" and "Gabriel" were installed in place of the ships "Leferm" and "Riga", which were handed over to the Admiralty after repairs, but already in January of the same year the shipmaster informed Admiral Apraksin through Captain Sievers that they are unsuitable, suggesting that they be flooded in Rogervik, where the construction of a new port was planned. During the year, six Evers, the ships Revel, Gangut and London, and also Ingermanland and Shlisselburg were repaired in Kronshlot.
Peter's mechanic and fortifier Anisim Malyarov took an active part in the repair of the "Gangut", which was under the special care of the tsar, therefore, on May 17, 1719, the ship entered service. Even more attention was paid to the battleship Lesnoye, which got off the fairway and ran aground near about. Kotlin in May of the same year. The work on its rise was directed by A. D. Menshikov, shipwright Sklyaev and Franz helped him. On June 29, Menshikov reported that the ship was brought into the Kotlinsk harbor with great difficulty, after which keeling and the installation of new masts would follow. More than a month passed before the Lesnoye ship regained its buoyancy. Of the eight ships that came to Kronslot for repairs, four were keeled in September: Ingermanland, St. Alexander "," Moscow "and" St. Catherine". These facts indicate the fragility of the battleships of those years: they often had to be overhauled twice, and sometimes (like Ingermanland) even three times a year. In addition to Russian ships, the frigates Wachmeister and Karle Kron Wapen, captured from the Swedes, were repaired in the Kotlin harbor in the fall of 1719.
Gradually, a lot of ships accumulated in Kronshlot, an examination of which showed their unsuitability for repair. By order of Peter I, the ships were sunk on the approaches to Kotlin, thereby blocking the path of the Swedish ships. The year 1720 passed relatively calmly for the Kroneslot shipbuilders. As in previous years, most of the ships were keeled in the spring. In the winter and spring of 1721, the repair of the ships "Gangut" and "Lesnoye" had to be completed. At the same time, work began on the completion of new St. Petersburg ships in Kronshlot. - "St. Peter "and" Panteleimon-Victoria ". In June of the same year, in accordance with the resolution of the Admiralty Collegiums and the instructions of Cruis, repairs began on the ships Poltava and Raphael, damaged by the storm at the beginning of the campaign, the Friedemaker, as well as the frigate Samson, the Prince Alexander kick and seized from the Swedes shnyav "Evva Eleonora" to "Polux". In July, at the direction of Peter I, the masts were shortened on the Friedrichstadt, which made it easier to navigate. In August, Astrakhan, St. Alexander "and" Moscow ". At the same time, by order of Peter I, five more ships were repaired, assigned to participate in the Madagascar Expedition.
An even more intensive repair of the fleet unfolded on about. Kotlin in 1722: a significant amount of work was carried out on the ships "St. Alexander, Revel, Marlburg and Shlisselburg, as well as Ingermanlandia and Moscow; on the frigate Amsterdam Galey, in particular, it was decided to equip the skipper's and boatswain's "closets" and move the commander's cabin forward. At the same time, large-scale construction of the fleet was unfolding. It is interesting that the ships that were planned to be commissioned in the next two or three years, it was decided, at the direction of Peter, to build only for a certain period of time - from May to the first frost, in order to improve their quality. Noteworthy is Cruis's proposal to move the anchor factories from Novaya Ladoga to Kronshlot, where they will be able to operate on cheaper coal imported from England for 1 ruble each. and 11 hryvnia instead of 2 rubles. for a pood. Measures were also taken to improve the quality of ship materials.
In 1722, at least two shipyards already existed in Kotlin, and work was carried out both in the old harbor, where ships were usually repaired, and in the new one. Confirmation that the Kotlin shipbuilders carried out the main ship repair work on the Russian coast of the Baltic Sea is the order of Rear Admiral Zmaevich, which refers to the production of minor repairs in Reval of the fins vessels that arrived from Helsingfors (Helsinki) and the large ones on the island. Kotlin. It was to Kronstadt (in 1722, due to the construction of the second Kotlin fortress, Kronshlot was renamed Kronstadt), in September 1722, General-Admiral Apraksin came to learn more about the construction and repair of ships. In the late autumn of the same year, bots were repaired here, supplying the fleet with provisions during the campaign. For the construction of large ships, slipways began to be erected. In addition to galleys, bots and boats, more than twenty warships were under repair in the Kotlin harbors, and five of them were on the capital: Gangut, St. Peter "," Friedemaker "," Panteleimon-Victoria "and gukor" Kronshlot ". The nature of the work performed can be judged, for example, by the Panteleimon-Victoria ship on the basis of a report written by its commander Wilster to the name of Chief Sarvier I. M. Golovin July 14, 1723 From this document it is clear that the ship was going to be sheathed with boards of the "Gangut" and "Lesnoye" type, and thicker in the stern than in the bow and middle part; sand ballast was replaced with cast iron, and it was proposed to remake the hold in such a way that the draft aft was greater than before the repair, the alteration also affected the mast: the masts were shortened by two, and the topmills by three feet. It should also be added that the repair of ships and vessels was usually carried out under the guidance of the same shipbuilders who built them.
In 1724 on about. Kotlin, in addition to the ongoing construction of the slipways and the sea channel, began to build docks. Management of these works by decree of October 5, 1724 was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Collegiums. The first use of the docks can be attributed to the following case: during a prolonged storm (July 19-25) near the Krasnaya Gorka fort, the battleships Moskva, Marlburg, St. Mikhail "," Poltava ", as well as frigates" Kisken "and" Amsterdam-Galey "; the unprecedentedly short repair time for nine ships (the Kronstadt shipbuilders, in addition, put in order the sailing equipment on the ships "Derbent", "Raphael" and the frigate "Wind Hund") would have been impossible without the use of new ship-lifting structures. As you can see, the Kronstadt shipyards of the Peter the Great's era played an important role in the formation, development and maintenance of the combat capability of the Baltic Fleet.
