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> I have often found references to books, on this >site, which I didn’t know existed, then ended up >buying, so I thought I’d return the favor with some >information about a book I recently purchased. While >trying to find another copy of A.A. Chernyshev’s first >book on the Russian sailing navy, I came across a >newer book by accident. Translated it is, 200 Years >of the Russian Sailing Navy, by A.B. Shirokorad. >Where Chernyshev covered mainly ships of the line and >frigates, in his first book, the second part covered >sloops and brigs. This book, in 445 pages, covers all >types of vessels for the period of 1696-1891. > > It’s been a few years since I’ve seen >Chernyshev’s book, but as I recall, it had more >information about the history of the vessels, but was >lacking on hard data as far as numbers and types of >guns. Like Chernyshev, Shirokorad gives the >dimensions of many of the vessels, but is sparing in >gunnery details. That said, I did manage to find >dimensions and complete gunnery information for more >vessels than I had by using Chernyshev. > > In a way, Shirokorad’s book asks more questions >than it answers. Case in point is the ship of the >line Vsevolod (74.) His dimensions are given as 51.8 >m. x 14.2 m. x 6.1 m. . Converting meters to feet, >then using the formula for BM tonnage, gives about >1639 tons. That makes for a small 74. The reason >this ship is important to me is that he (the Russians >use the masculine pronoun for ships) fought two >British ships of the line in 1808. First, H.M.S. >Implacable (74) made the Russian strike its colors >after thirty minutes at pistol-shot range. According >to James, Implacable was then recalled, so Vsevolod >was being towed to safety by the Russians when H.M.S. >Centaur (74) came up and had a go at yardarm-to >yardarm range. As far as I know, this is the only >documented example of a battle between ships of the >Royal and Imperial Russian navies. That said, it >annoys me that neither Shirokorad nor Chernyshev >included the guns carried by the Vsevolod. As a >wargamer, I would love to be able to calculate the >Russian gunnery performance, but can only guess as to >the particulars. It should be noted that James >appears to have gotten a few things wrong in his >portrayal of the actions. My preferred source is >Donald W. Mitchell’s A History of Russian and Soviet >Sea Power. Now, what I’m wondering is, because >Vsevolod was so small, he may not have carried the >24-36#, 24-18#, 18-8#s, plus unicorns (howitzers) we >have come to believe as standard on Russian 74s. I >say this because another ship listed in the book, >Sviatoy Pyotr (74), a ship of about 1683 tons, from >the same period, is listed as carrying 24-30# guns as >his primary armament. That makes me think that >Vsevolod may have had lighter armament, thus fighting >at a disadvantage to the much larger British ships. > > Another advantage of Shirokorad’s book was that >he listed the particulars for the Swedish 40 gun >frigate Venus. This was the frigate captured by the >Russian Lieutenant Roman Crown, aka the Irishman >Robert Cronin, in 1789. He was given command and the >Venus was rated as both a 44, then 50 by the Russians. > I have often wondered how the Russians armed this >ship. According to Shirokorad, it carried 26-24#, >16-6#, 8-24#c, and 2-3#. Under the Swedes it was >armed with 26-24# short guns and 16-6#. Due to the >tonnage, about 1,039 tons (BM), it is likely that the >Russians kept the light-weight Swedish 24#s. > > I know there are a few people out there who are >fans of the Imperial Russian Navy, so your obvious >question would be, where do I get the book? I found >it at Vasha-Kniga.com. It is a Russian book store in >New York. The price is listed at $21.93. With >shipping, I paid about $24.95, via MasterCard. It >also came very promptly. When you reach the site, >type in the following: 200 let parusnogo flota >rossii, then hit “go.”

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