“Two days afterwards, Alexiano returned on board the Wolodimir, having caught a malignant fever, of which he died on the 8th of July. The Prince of Nassau, who had made use of him in cabaling against me—God knows wherefore—neither visited him in his sickness nor assisted at his funeral. At first it was given out, that the service must sustain the loss of every Greek in it, on account of his death; but I soon experienced the reverse. Not one asked to be dismissed; they remained under my command with the Russians, and were more contented than before. On the day preceding the death of Alexiano he had received intelligence of having been promoted two grades; and that her majesty had bestowed on him a fine estate and peasants, in White Russia.
“At the same time, the Prince of Nassau had received a very valuable estate, with three or four thousand peasants, also in White Russia, and the military Order of St. George, of the second class. Her majesty likewise gave him liberty to hoist the flag of vice-admiral at the taking of Oczakow, to which event it was apparently believed he would greatly contribute.
“I received the Order of St. Anne, an honor with which I am highly flattered, and with which I could have been perfectly satisfied, had others been recompensed only in the same proportion, and according to the merit of their services.[[G]] All the officers of the flotilla received a step of promotion, and the gratuity of a year’s pay. The greater part of them also obtained the Order of St. George of the last class. Only two of these officers had been bred to the sea; none of the others had been engaged in navigation. The officers of the squadron under my command were almost wholly marine officers. They had done their duty well, when opposed to the enemy; but they obtained no promotion, no mark of distinction, no pecuniary gratification. My mortification was excessive; but my officers at this time gave me a very gratifying proof of their attachment. On promising that I would demand justice for them from the Prince Potemkin, at the close of the campaign, they stifled their vexation, and made no complaint.”
Three days after this important naval battle, Prince Potemkin came from the headquarters of the army, to visit Admiral Jones on board the flag-ship Wolodimir. The prince was accompanied by quite a brilliant retinue of the highest dignitaries of his military court. They all remained to dine with the admiral in his spacious cabin. The prince was very anxious to promote harmonious action between the admiral and the Prince of Nassau. By his powerful influence he succeeded in inducing the Prince of Nassau to make an apology to the admiral, in the presence of all around the table. The apology was cordially accepted; and the admiral, knowing the versatile and frivolous character of the prince, hoped that it was sincere.
As Potemkin took his leave, he requested Admiral Jones to do all in his power toward raising the cannon, anchors, and other effects, belonging to the Turkish ships which had been burned. The next day, Admiral Jones, in a spirit of conciliation[conciliation], made a visit to the Prince of Nassau. He had previously detailed one of the transport ships, which was empty and unemployed, to the work of raising some of the sunken guns. As soon as he stepped on board the gun-boat of the prince, he was disrespectfully assailed, when he expected to have been received with open arms.
“That transport,” exclaimed the Prince of Nassau[Nassau], angrily, “which you have ventured to employ on your own services, belonged to my flotilla, and you had no right to take it under your command.”
The admiral mildly replied, “Prince Potemkin charged me to engage at once in that important business, as a servant of the empress. As all the vessels of war, and all the transports alike belong to her imperial majesty, and as the transport in question was empty and unemployed, I cannot see that you have any reasonable cause of complaint against me.”
But Nassau fumed and raged. The admiral, ashamed of such puerile quarrelling, sadly took leave of him, begging him to reflect that he had no cause for displeasure. Thus affairs went on, day after day. There were heart-burnings and bickerings, and the admiral found such influences operating against him, that his hands were effectually tied.
At the close of the American war, there were many British officers thrown out of employment, who eagerly entered into the service of the Empress of Russia.
This vast northern empire, with then no access to the ocean but through the Baltic Sea, was not a maritime power. The empress had very few naval officers of any experience. By seizing Constantinople, undoubtedly the finest port in the world, the empress expected that the sails of her ships would whiten all the seas. Eagerly, therefore, she accepted the services of able military men from whatever nation. There were no better naval officers than England could afford. These men with one accord, as we have mentioned, combined, with the most astonishing and persistent malignity, to crush Admiral Jones. The Englishman, W. Tooke, to whom we have before referred, with his bitter British prejudices expresses the sentiments of them one and all. In his Life of Catherine II. he writes: