Peter The Great’s English Yacht, Admiral Lord Carmarthen And The Russian Tobacco Monopoly By W.F. Ryan. An Original Article From The Mariner’s Mirror – Circa 1983

Peter The Great’s three-month stay in England in 1698 has been described often and with a wealth of details and anecdote in serious histories, memoirs and even improving books for Victorian children, but there remain gaps in our knowledge of what Peter did and why, during his stay in England, gaps which it should surely be possible to fill from English archives. One source of information which seems not to have been much used, or at any rate acknowledged, is the voluminous Admiralty archives in the Public Record Office and the National Maritime Museum. Examination of these archives throws some light on Peter’s activities in England, on the role played by Peregrine Osborne, Marquis of Camarthen, and on the ‘Royal Transport’, the ship presented by William III to Peter. Incidentally it also leads to a better understanding of the origins of the Russian Navy and the English tobacco monopoly in Russia.’ An original article (1983) – 25 pages H:24.5 x W:17cm