JB/540/087/001

Click Here To Edit

Kritchoff July 18th O S. 1784.

Hond. Sir

Here am I at length settled apparently for some months at least on an
Estate of Prince Potemkin's larger I believe than any County of England.
The Population in this country is known to be very thin, yet in this estate and in
another of the Prince's called Dubrovna almost adjoining to it, he has upwards
of forty thousand male Vassals. This estate more particularly furnishes all
the principal Naval Stores in the greatest abundance; a navigable river which
passes through it renders the transport very easy to the Black Sea. Besides
Masts and Timber of all sorts for the Shipbuilding which are sent in the spring
to Cherson and the Crimea; the manufactures of Cordage and Sailcloth here not only supply
the Russian Ports in the black Sea; a contract is likewise made to deliver
a great quantity of Cordage at Constantinople.

The natural advantages of the situation of this place together with the much
more important consideration of its being the private property of the Prince
made me choose it for the putting in execution some of my ideas of improvement
in Shipbuilding. I seem to be at liberty to build any kind of Ships Vessels
or boats, whether for War Trade or Pleasure, and so little am I confined in the
mode of constructing them that one day in arguing with the Prince about some
alterations in a Frigate he proposed building to make a present of to the Empress
he told me by way of ending the dispute that there might be twenty masts and
one Gun if I pleased. I am as little confined in expence as in the form. Workmen
and assistants I am to find where I can and on what terms I can. Ships of above
200 tons cannot be built here. Their parts only can be prepared, so that it must
be at Cherson or perhaps in the Crimea that the Ships of war must be put

Identifier: | JB/540/087/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
Date_1	1784-07-18	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	540	Main Headings
Folio number	087	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	Correspondence	Number of Pages
Recto/Verso		Page Numbering
Penner	Samuel Bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number
Box Contents