“Fully appreciating all that was involved in the question from his stand-point and what he considered of paramount importance,—the necessity of the Technical School for Naval Officials—I was prepared for the question, and determined that my answer should be apropos; and that I would not permit myself and my profession to be disparaged, knowing that in Russia and on the Continent generally there were no great private shipyards, and that if a naval architect or ship-builder there did not graduate from a technical school, he was practically nowhere at that time. Trained as I was in Philadelphia in a first-class shipyard, surrounded by others of the same kind and in close contact with New York, which city occupied the head and front of the ship-building profession in the world, I felt myself doubly armed and more than confident when my answer came promptly after the question.
“I said: ‘Your Imperial Highness! when I graduated from my father’s shipyard as a naval architect and ship-builder, there were no schools of naval architecture. I belong to that race which created them!’
“This unexpected answer, and the gravity of my manner, astonished for an instant the Grand Duke, who glanced at Captain Semetschkin, and rising to his feet he bowed profoundly to me and sat down.
“The history of the ‘Livadia’ is well known,—encountering a storm in the Bay of Biscay she was somewhat battered up under the bottom forward. On account of her peculiar shape and light draught she did not respond quickly to the motions of a head sea; when her bow was lifted clear of the water, the following seas would strike the bottom very severely before she would come down.
“After serving at Sebastopol somewhat under a cloud, she was laid up; the propeller engines were ultimately put in three new gun-boats.”
The departure of the “Cimbria” from Russia was a great event there, and all the officers who left Russia on that expedition have continued ever since to meet yearly on March 28 (O. S.), that being the date of their departure from Russia. On March 29, 1898, twenty years afterward, Mr. Cramp happened to be in Russia arranging for the contract between his Company and the Russian government for the construction of the battleship “Retvizan” and the cruiser “Variag.” A committee of officers at the time called and invited him to be present at their annual banquet as a guest. This committee was composed of some of the younger officers who were on the “Cimbria” expedition. They stated that no guest had ever been invited to one of these banquets, but they considered Mr. Cramp’s connection with the fitting out of that fleet entitled him to the distinction of being the only guest they ever had on one of those occasions. He found there Vice-Admiral Avalan, the Assistant of the Minister of Marine and now Minister of Marine,—he had been captain of the “Asia;” Admiral Grippenburg, who had been captain of the “Europe;” and also about thirty of the sixty officers who left on the “Cimbria” on its first voyage. Of those absent, a great many had died, and some, of course, were away. Admiral Alexeieff was in China.
Mr. Cramp had begun his overtures with a view to naval construction for Russia as early as the fall of 1893. During that period the Russian Atlantic fleet was present in our waters to take part in celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ discovery. The Grand Duke Alexander was an officer in that squadron, which during its stay in our waters was at anchor for some time in the Delaware, and its officers freely visited the shipyard, carefully inspecting and examining all the work then going on. The general result was that they became enthusiastic with regard to the development of the art in this country and with the character of work being done toward the rebuilding of our navy, and they were also profoundly impressed with the facilities of Cramps’ shipyard which might be utilized for increase of the Russian navy. They frankly said, however, that just at that moment it did not seem to be the policy of their government to have important work done for the Russian navy in foreign shipyards. This was, of course, true, for at that time Russia was not building any kind of naval construction more important than torpedo-boat destroyers outside of her own domain. During the following years (1894, 1895, 1896) certain correspondence passed between Mr. Cramp and high officials in the Russian Ministry of Marine; though little progress was made during those years except to call the attention of the Russians in a vivid and forceful manner to the capacities and facilities which he controlled, and to strengthen the entente cordiale which had so long existed between the Russian naval authorities and himself.
At this point it becomes necessary to take up a new branch of the general subject, which is that of foreign work.
MEDI-J-IEH LAUNCHING—TURKISH
Copyright, 1904, by John W. Dawson