Admiral butakov patrol ship. Family of admirals

Naval leader, naval commander, adjutant general, admiral, founder of the tactics of the steam armored fleet, explorer of the Black Sea. Entered into national history as the hero of the Sevastopol defense and the founder of the tactics of the Russian steam armored fleet.

Carier start

Russian admiral G.I. Butakov was born on September 27 (October 9) 1820 in Riga in the family of a naval officer Ivan Nikolaevich Butakov.

May 6, 1831, at the age of 11, Grigory Ivanovich entered the St. Petersburg Marine cadet corps, and on January 9, 1836 he successfully completed the course. Then he sailed for two years in the Baltic Sea on the frigate "Alexander Nevsky".

Service in the navy

In 1838 he was promoted to warrant officer with an appointment to the battleship Silistria to the position of flag officer under the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral MP Lazarev; in May 1838, participating in the "Luch" sailing tender, he took part in battles with the mountaineers at the mouth of the Tuapse River. Subsequently, for these military operations, Butakov was awarded two orders with the inscription "For Bravery".

In April 1843, for his excellent service, Butakov was promoted to lieutenant and appointed commander of the "Hasty" tender. He remained in this position until 1850 and was engaged in hydrographic work - the study of the domestic and Turkish shores of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus. For excellent performance of the assignment, he was promoted to lieutenant commander and awarded the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree and a diamond ring.

In 1844 he sailed on the schooner Vestnik in the Mediterranean Sea.

On March 27, 1851, Butakov was sent to England, where he oversaw the construction of the Danube steamer, brought the ship to Nikolaev and commanded it for almost 3 years.

December 3, 1852 Lieutenant Commander G.I. Butakov was appointed commander of the best Black Sea Fleet steam frigate "Vladimir".

Participation in the Crimean War

November 5, 1853 "Vladimir", as part of a detachment of ships under the general command of Vice-Admiral V. Kornilov, captured the 10-gun Turkish steamer "Pervaz-Bahri". This was the first battle of two steam ships in the history of the world's fleets, which ended in a Russian victory. For this battle G.I. Butakov was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank and awarded the Order of George, 4th degree. On November 7, 1853 "Pervaz-Bahri" was transported to Sevastopol, repaired and put into operation under the new name "Kornilov".

On October 24, 1854, he commanded the artillery fire of the steamer during the battle of Inkerman, and on November 24, with the steam frigates Vladimir and Chersonesos, he took part in a sortie against Anglo-French-Turkish ships in Pesocha and Streletskaya bays. On December 12, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 2nd class with swords.

In 1854-1855. participated in the defense of Sevastopol, commanded a detachment of steam frigates, supported by fire from ships ground troops, distinguished himself in the battles for Malakhov Kurgan.

On October 9, 1854, Vladimir's guns fired at an invisible target for the first time in the history of Russian naval artillery.

In February 1855, Butakov was appointed chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet. In March 1855 he became a captain of the 1st rank.

On the night of August 30 to 31, 1855, Butakov commanded the sinking of the surviving ships, including the "Vladimir", in order to prevent the seizure of ships by enemy forces.

Post-war period of life

On August 26, 1856 G.I. Butakov, promoted to rear admiral with enrollment in the retinue of His Imperial Majesty, was appointed chief of staff in the city of Nikolaev, which after the fall of Sevastopol became the main naval base of Russia in the south. Then he was appointed the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet and the military governor of Nikolaev and Sevastopol, which, according to the Paris Peace Treaty, was returned to Russia.

22 years (1838-1860) Butakov served in the Black Sea Fleet, and at the beginning of 1860 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet as the head of the Practical Squadron of propeller driven ships, which was created to train sailors of the steam fleet.

In 1861-1862. commanded the Practical squadron of propeller-driven gunboats.

At the beginning of 1863 G.I. Butakov was appointed naval attaché to England and France.

On October 28, 1866, Grigory Ivanovich was promoted to vice admiral with the appointment of the head of a squadron of armored ships in the Baltic Sea. At the opening of the Paris World Exhibition in 1867, he was elected Chairman of the International Maritime Expert Commission.

On April 16, 1878, he was awarded the rank of admiral, but in fact, at the same time, he was demoted and appointed head of the coastal and naval defense of the Sveaborg fortress.

At the beginning of 1881, he was appointed chief commander of the St. Petersburg port

In March 1882, Butakov was removed from his post and appointed to the State Council

On May 31 (June 12), 1882, Grigory Ivanovich died of apoplectic stroke on his way home after a meeting of the State Council. The admiral was buried at the Nikolskoye cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. A bust by the sculptor M.A. Chizhov, which in the 1920s was removed from the pedestal and transferred to the Museum of City Sculpture of Leningrad.

GRIGORY IVANOVICH BUTAKOV

It was G.I. Butakov, who served in the Navy during the transition from sailing to a steam armored fleet, not only supervised the first combat operations of steam ships in practice, but also created the world-recognized tactics of using them.

Grigory Butakov was born on September 27, 1820 in Riga and came from the family of a naval officer Ivan Nikolaevich Butakov, who ended his life as a vice admiral. On May 6, 1831, Gregory entered the Naval Cadet Corps and on January 9, 1836, he successfully completed the course. After 2 years of practice in the Baltic, the midshipman was sent to the Black Sea as an officer to Admiral M.P. Lazarev, the chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet and ports. He ended up in the famous "Lazarevskaya naval school": he went to sea a lot, took part in hostilities off the coast of the Caucasus, and received awards for his bravery, resourcefulness and skill. In 1847-1850, the commander of the "Hasty" tender, Lieutenant Butakov spent with Lieutenant I.A. Shestakov, an inventory of the domestic and Turkish coasts of the Black Sea and the Bosphorus. For the excellent performance of the assignment, both were promoted to captain - lieutenant and awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree, for the compilation of the pilot, which was published in 1851, were awarded diamond rings.

On March 27, 1851, Butakov was sent to England, where he oversaw the construction of the Danube steamer, brought the ship to Nikolaev and commanded it for 3 years. At the same time, the sailor received a favorable review for his proposed compass with an inclined arrow. On December 3, 1852, he became the commander of the best steamship frigate of the Black Sea Fleet "Vladimir". On it the captain - lieutenant in the first battle of steam ships on November 5, 1853 captured the Turkish steamer "Pervaz? Bahri". He, laying the foundations of steamship tactics, maneuvered so as to shoot "Pervaz? Bahri" from the stern, where it had no guns.

Due to damage to the vehicles, "Vladimir" did not participate in the famous Battle of Sinop. But Butakov switched to "Odessa" and temporarily replaced the commander of this steam-frigate, towing the damaged ship to Sevastopol " Grand Duke Constantine "under the flag of P.S. Nakhimov.

At the beginning of 1854, the Anglo-French fleet entered the Black Sea under the pretext of protecting Turkey. By the spring, more and more enemy ships began to appear off the coast of the Crimea. "Vladimir" more than once met with British and French steamers in reconnaissance, but left them. The only steam-frigate of special construction could not fight the enemy alone. When in the fall of 1854 the Allies landed a landing in the Crimea with a huge sailing - steam squadron, Russian sailing ships could not prevent this. After the start of the siege of Sevastopol, steamers, primarily the Vladimir, remained an active part of the fleet.

Butakov fought skillfully. He used an artificial bank of the steam-frigate, which increased the range of its guns to 4–5 kilometers and made it possible to suppress the battery at the Kilenbalkoye Heights. On October 9, 1854, the guns of "Vladimir" for the first time in the history of Russian naval artillery fired at an invisible target. The next summer, when Butakov introduced improvements to the gun machines, it was possible to fire on the coast during the move. The sailors of the "Vladimir" made many improvements, including the armoring of the most important parts of the ship.

The role of the fleet was not limited to defense. November 24, 1854 P.S. Nakhimov ordered Butakov to drive away the French steamer "Megara", from which they watched the raid from Pesochnaya Bay. The captain of the 1st rank, in order to divert the attention of the enemy, sent the steam-frigate "Chersonesos" to shell the enemy at the Streletskaya Bay. Butakov himself came out first and attacked the Megara, which was running towards his fleet, and then supported the Chersonesos. When, on the retreat, the Russian ships entered into battle with two British and French steamers, the commander of the "Vladimir" carried one of the enemies under fire from coastal batteries. After this daring sortie, the Allies constantly kept several large steamers at the entrance to the bay.

"Vladimir", together with other ships, more than once opened fire, covering the flank of the Russian fortifications and repelling attacks. When retreating to the Northern side of Sevastopol, the ship carried 2,490 people in two voyages. On the night of August 31, it was lit and sunk together with other ships of the Black Sea Fleet that still survived.

On August 26, 1856, Rear Admiral G.I. Butakov was appointed chief commander of the Black Sea Fleet and ports. However, the Paris Peace Treaty prohibited Russia and Turkey from having large naval forces in the Black Sea. Instead of restoring the fleet, they had to deal with the reduction of institutions and the number of sailors. And at the beginning of 1860, Butakov was transferred to the Baltic Fleet as the head of a practical squadron of propeller driven ships, which was created to train sailors of the steam fleet. The Rear Admiral forced everyone to seriously study naval affairs. On the ships were introduced officers - rangefinders, instruments for measuring range, for transmitting data on sights from the bridge to the battery, signals were established to report speed to other ships. By experimenting, the Rear Admiral made sure that ships of different types learned to move in concert. On September 5, 1860, he was awarded the Order of Stanislav 1st degree with swords for his excellent service.

In the fall of 1860, the sailor was sent to England and France to study the development of shipbuilding and maritime affairs. He notified the General Admiral that he had learned new things, as well as about his developments on the theory of steamboat evolution, not yet known abroad.

Appointed head of a squadron of propeller-driven gunboats in the spring of 1861, Butakov used them to test his ideas. In the same year he published a book "A few excerpts from the experience of the initial foundations of steamship tactics", which the officers of the squadron had time to familiarize themselves with before the campaign. He began his training by checking the mechanics, whose training left much to be desired. As soon as they were ready, the boats were transferred in tow to Helsingfors. In an order dated July 11, 1861, Butakov formulated the main training tasks: to turn the squadron into a slender force and master the skerries in which the squadron was to operate. Avoiding external polish, Butakov sought fearless control of the ships from the commanders. By the end of the campaign, the boats were floating, keeping up well and performing complex maneuvers. The following summer, Butakov complicated his training by taking up maneuvering ram attacks. During the campaign of 1862, the sailors learned to walk and act decisively in the skerries, confidently carried out all the transformations.

At the end of the campaign, Butakov participated in the successful tests of a pole mine, and then was sent to England to study the experience of other fleets. The Rear Admiral got acquainted with modern turrets and artillery pieces. In early 1863 he returned and was appointed naval attaché to England and France. The sailor facilitated the dispatch of the Firstborn armored battery from England, sent information about the French collapsible gunboat, the submarine, and offered nets as a means of dealing with it. He came up with the idea of ​​using electric flashlights as battle searchlights and over time put this idea into practice.

In 1863, the major work "New Foundations of Steamship Tactics" was published, in which the sailor summarized his thoughts and calculations, tested in the campaigns of previous years. For this work, the Academy of Sciences awarded G.I. Butakov the full Demidov Prize. The work was soon translated into French, English and Spanish.

October 28, 1866 G.I. Butakov was promoted to vice admiral. At the opening of the Paris World Exhibition in 1867, he was elected chairman of the expert naval commission.

On February 6, 1867, the vice admiral was appointed head of a squadron of armored ships built in 1865-1866. To make the squadron combat-ready during the campaign, he applied a new system of combat training. Unlike the sailing fleet, for technically complex ships, before the start of the campaign, the crews should be trained on the shore, then at the parking lot, after which a single preparation of the ship followed in the roadstead and at sea. Only then could the squadron exercises begin. In June, after completing the preparation of single ships, the squadron gathered at the Transund roadstead. By the end of the campaign, dissimilar armored ships learned to stay in the ranks. The sailors treated their work with love, sought to improve their knowledge, competing with each other. In the summer of 1868, the flagship made preparations difficult. Two gunboats were converted into ships for ramming exercises. Butakov considered it necessary to train the gunners so that they could act on the basis of the demands of the battle. The sailors successfully fired on the move at fixed triangular shields, learned to hit the moving shields. When rifled guns entered service in 1870, Butakov introduced shooting exercises while rolling. The sailors were taught to swim. The flagship at the crossings between ports carried out the evolution of the squadron, acting as in a military cruise.

In the first month of the 1869 campaign, Butakov practiced cruising, in which ships, moving at full speed, took turns rounding the ships in the roadstead, writing out complex eights. The flagship sought coordination in the maneuvers of units of the same type of ships.

Butakov supported the implementation of the officers' proposals, and he himself often suggested improvements. On his initiative, the training of miners and experiments with mine weapons began. In the fall of 1869, the vice admiral founded a mine school for officers, primarily volunteers. Since the campaign of 1870, exercises with attacks by mine boats on battleships have become systematic. Since 1873, electric searchlights introduced by Butakov on some ships began to be used to repel mine attacks. In 1874, the position of the head of the mine unit was established in the navy, and on October 1, officers' mine classes and a mine school for sailors were opened. This was largely the merit of G.I. Butakov.

According to Butakov's project in 1874, the armored frigate "Petropavlovsk" was equipped with anti-mine artillery for the first time.

Exercises were also conducted on the use of the ram; post-campaign evolution blueprints were given to officers for guidance.

In 1877, Butakov prepared and submitted a note in which he argued that Russia did not have either an armored or a cruising fleet, with a mass of fine, but single vessels. He proposed building cruisers and battleships in series, designing them in accordance with the intended missions of the fleets, and training personnel for them.

With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, the armored squadron of the Baltic Fleet was taken over by the general admiral. Butakov was assigned the command of the squadron detachment. At the beginning of the war, this detachment set up minefields at Vyborg, Dinamünde and Sveaborg. When in the spring of 1878 there was a danger of the appearance of the British fleet, the vice-admiral proposed to keep detachments of mine boats in Kronstadt, Sveaborg, Rochensalm, Bjork, Narva, send a detachment of battleships to Sveaborg, create optical telegraph lines on the coast, linking observation posts with the capital, establish mine banks in different parts of the Gulf of Finland. He showed the weakness of the defense of Kronstadt and St. Petersburg. On the recommendation of the naval commander, the meeting decided to strengthen the minefields, covering them with the artillery of coastal batteries and ships, additionally equipped with mortars.

On April 16, Butakov was promoted to admiral and soon appointed head of the coastal and naval defense of Sveaborg. The sailor brought a detachment of old battleships to the base. He was engaged in numerous works to strengthen the fortress, prepare mines, etc. It was necessary to correct many shortcomings in peacetime, including the consequences of abuse.

Dealing with the preparation of ships stationed in Sveaborg, in the summer of 1878 Butakov ordered the introduction of the world's first boat trawl to detect and destroy anchor mines. In the years 1879-1880, he developed and organized the sea game.

At the beginning of 1881 G.I. Butakov was appointed the chief commander of the Petersburg port. However, defending the interests of the fleet, he found himself in conflict with the higher leadership, was removed from his post and appointed to the State Council. The admiral was very upset by his dismissal and on the night of May 31, 1882, he died of an apoplectic stroke.

Butakov was the link between the sailors of the Lazarev school, mainly sailors, accustomed to achieving victories physical forces sailors and their own courage, and a new generation of officers, for whom technical education was of paramount importance. His book "New Foundations of Steamship Tactics" became a guide for sailors from different countries.

According to a source of our blog in the Russian shipbuilding industry, a contract signed in October 2018 with India for the construction of two frigates of Project 11356 still provides for the completion of two unfinished frigates of this type for the Indian fleet at JSC Baltic Shipyard Yantar in Kaliningrad. built for the Russian Navy - "Admiral Butakov"(production number 01360) and "Admiral Istomin"(serial number 01361) - and not the construction of completely new ships, as we did earlier. At the same time, according to the source, the actual cost of the contract for the completion of these two frigates for India is not $ 950 million, as reported by the Indian media, but $ 1.2 billion.

Launched the hulls of the frigates Admiral Butakov (serial number 01360) and Admiral Istomin (serial number 01361) of project 11356 suspended by the construction for the Russian Navy at JSC Baltic Shipyard Yantar. Kaliningrad, November 2018 (c) Drakon 64 / forums.airbase.ru

The fate of the third unfinished frigate at the Yantar shipyard "Admiral Kornilov"(serial number 01362) is still uncertain, however, we can assume that it will later be used as part of the planned additional contract for the construction of two frigates of project 11356 at the Indian state shipyard Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in Goa. Actually, from the very beginning of negotiations with India on an agreement on four frigates 11356 that the "localization" of the construction of two frigates in India presupposes the towing and completion of one unfinished hull to India and the construction of only one ship in India "from scratch".

Project 11356 frigates planned for completion for India at the Yantar shipyard will be equipped with their standard gas turbine main power plants M7N produced by the Nikolaev GP NPKG Zorya - Mashproekt (Ukraine) - with two sets originally manufactured in Nikolaev for these frigates, built for Russian Navy, but never sent to Russia due to the events of 2014. On August 17, 2017, the Defense Procurement Commission of the Government of India approved the purchase from Ukraine of the two specified sets of M7N gas turbine units for Project 11356 frigates for $ 76 million.

For two frigates planned for construction in India, the Indian side will order additional sets of power plants at the Zorya-Mashproekt RPCG.

Recall that the construction of the second three ships of the modified project 11356 (type "Admiral Grigorovich"; sometimes referred to as Project 11356R or 11357) for the Russian Navy, the Yantar shipyard was carried out in Kaliningrad under a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense No. З / 1/1/0553 / GK-11-DGOZ dated September 13, 2011 worth 40 billion rubles. All six ships of the modified project 11356 were originally planned to replenish the Black Sea Fleet.

The lead frigate of the second three "Admiral Butakov"(serial number 01360) was at Yantar on July 12, 2013 and March 2, 2016. Second frigate "Admiral Istomin"(serial number 01361) was November 15, 2013. Bookmark of the third ship with the assigned name "Admiral Kornilov"(serial number 01362) was not officially carried out, although in fact the construction of the ship began in 2013.

In 2016, the construction of the second three frigates of the modified project 11356 was suspended by the decision of the ordering authorities of the Russian Navy due to the absence of the main gas turbine power plants for them, produced by the Nikolaev GP NPKG Zorya - Mashproekt, which were not supplied for these ships due to the events in Ukraine. Hulls of frigates suspended by construction "Admiral Istomin" and"Admiral Kornilov" were on the water at the Yantar Shipyard in November 2017 with the aim of clearing the slipway.

According to the press release of the Nikolaev GP NPKG Zorya - Mashproekt published on February 25, 2016, this enterprise in October 2012 signed a contract with PSZ Yantar for the supply of three sets of M7N gas turbine units for the second three Russian frigates of the modified project 11356. According to To this contract, the Nikolaev enterprise should deliver the first set of units to Yantar in December 2014, and the second and third - in October-December 2015.

In June 2014, by order Public service export control of Ukraine, the permit for the export of military goods to The Russian Federation... In this regard, work on the order for Yantar at the Zorya-Mashproekt oil and gas production complex was terminated.

FAMILY OF ADMIRALS

The surname Butakovs in the Russian navy were borne by many generations of sailors. The most famous among them were five brothers: Alexey, Grigory, Ivan, Dmitry and Vladimir. Their father, Ivan Nikolaevich, a military officer, rose to the rank of vice admiral, and during his lifetime he was lucky to see black admiral eagles on the shoulder straps of his sons. He married quite mature, at 39 years old, to a young German woman, the daughter of Karl Christianson, an artillery colonel.

Her name was Caroline. Ivan Nikolaevich was lucky for his wife: she is smart, educated, and most importantly - Carolina married the captain of the 2nd rank Butakov for love, which is felt in her letters stored in archival affairs family fund Butakovs in the Russian state archives Navy. In those days, love marriage was not common. As a result, the fruits of passionate love appeared: 7 daughters and 6 sons (one died as a small child). Just for the fact that they have raised, raised and educated so many children, this married couple deserves great respect. V Soviet time Karolina Karlovna would have received the order and the title of "Mother-Heroine", but in those days far from us, mothers with many children were not rewarded with anything.

To be honest, in the nineteenth century, as a rule, all families of sailors were large. Fertility was regulated by the duration of the stay of the father of the family at sea, and even then not always. Sometimes a sailor who went on a long voyage, which sometimes lasted up to five years, was met by a lovely one-year-old baby on his return. Everything happened. In the absence of the head of the family, comrades in the service came to visit in order to console the friend who was sad for her husband. Some were very fond of it. The admiral, of course, cannot be attributed to the poor, but it was more absurd for him to support a large family. With his sons, the issue was solved simply: he sent him to the Naval Cadet Corps, and his head did not hurt. But what about the daughters, each of whom needed a good dowry? The task, as the leader of the world proletariat used to say, is daunting. Therefore, unlike brothers, the fate of the sisters, in the family sense, turned out to be more difficult. Some of them got married not very well and then constantly asked the brothers for money, which the daughters-in-law did not like very much, others stayed up in girls forever. At one time, the Butakovs bought a small estate near the village of Ostapovka. It was pointless to share the house when the children grew up, so all family members used it as a dacha, arriving there, whoever and when they could. Such luck did not happen often: the sons were swept all over the world. Karolina Karlovna commanded the parade in Ostapovka.

The eldest son, born in 1816, was named by his parents Alexei. The boy was baptized in the Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral. Alexey is most often remembered as a researcher The aral sea and as a person who kindly treated the poet and painter Taras Grigorievich Shevchenko exiled to the Orenburg region. Moreover, the latter is sometimes presented as the main act of his whole life. It is doubtful that Aleksey Ivanovich Butakov himself attached such importance to the relationship with Shevchenko during his service on the Aral Sea, which historians attribute to him. Judging by the correspondence preserved in the archives, Butakov meant much more to the beacon of Ukrainian literature and painting than a poet and painter to a sailor. With all due respect to Kobzar, we note that Aleksey Butakov was also an outstanding person, just the sailor's talents manifested themselves in other areas. Until the age of twelve, he was raised by almost one mother. The husband appeared at home extremely rarely, sometimes for months without seeing his family. Such a bitter fate for the wives of naval officers. As one famous Russian admiral put it: "At sea - at home, on the shore - at a party." A picture familiar to families of sailors in our time. Despite the fact that thanks to the efforts of those who replaced the old authorities, our fleet has shrunk, aged and shrunken, its officers and sailors continue to carry out their heavy service. At the age of twelve, and it happened that before, in noble families once and for all decided the fate of the sons. In the Butakov family, there are no hesitations about where to assign a son, according to understandable reasons did not have. Having collected all the necessary information and enlisting the petition of his superiors, the father, then still in the rank of captain of the 1st rank, took Alexei to the Naval Cadet Corps Whom to accept in an elite educational institution, the tsar himself decided.

The merits of Ivan Nikolaevich Butakov turned out to be well known to the emperor. Nicholas I even ordered to accept Alexei "out of line" and for state maintenance. It was truly a royal gift. For the education of many cadets, their parents paid, and the money was required at that time a lot. Ivan Nikolaevich felt like a mountain fell off his shoulders: the family got rid of significant financial expenses. The persistent notion that the children of only wealthy nobles studied in the Marine Corps is a deep error. In the questionnaires that the author looked through in the archive, the overwhelming majority of officers in the column "immovable property" read: "does not have." In Russia, only high-ranking officials have always lived well, and the authorities have always economized on ordinary defenders of the homeland. By the way, when the nuclear submarine "Kursk" was lost and the whole world found out what pennies our submariners received then and in what conditions their families lived, the feeling of shame was not visible on the arrogant bureaucratic faces.

A bronze admiral is standing with his arms crossed on his chest on the banks of the Neva. Everyone leaving the entrance of the building of the former Naval Cadet Corps meets with his searching eyes. He also looked at my father and his comrades, who set foot on the sea road, along which generations of sailors had passed before them. Only there were not among those, others, children of workers and peasants, and there were only people from the nobility. Many admirals led the Marine Corps, but only one of them was awarded the highest honor, and not from the hands of the kings, but much higher - from their pets. With their donations, a bronze monument was erected to him in front of the famous building. When Alyosha Butakov was brought to the Marine Corps to enter, there was no monument yet. Before the appointment of the director of the admiral, incarcerated in bronze, educational work in the Naval Cadet Corps was reduced to one thing - rods. They whipped for everything: for one thing - more, for another - less. Each officer had unlimited power over his students. Then the gray-haired and bald admirals recalled: “They kicked from a loss, from a drink, from a quarrel among themselves, delighted with the actress or in vexation with the lackey; in short, circular arbitrariness reigned. " In the room of the officer on duty there were always two hefty fellows, drummers. The surname of one of them has forever remained in the naval history - Dubakov. They were entrusted with the execution of the most responsible part of the educational work: mercilessly to tear the future commanders and admirals with rods. At 11 o'clock, when classes were over, the duty room was filled with cadets' screams, who were heartily flogged by the drummers. Those who did not yell during the flogging were called "cast iron" or "old man."

The latter was considered more honorable. The number of blows with rods reached five hundred, you get tired of counting, let alone beat. And there is nothing to say about who was flogged, after such a punishment the road was only to the infirmary. An eleven-year-old boy, Vanka Shestakov, was punished for being rude to an officer with 200 blows. Subsequently, Vanka became Ivan Alekseevich, vice admiral and naval minister. Here are the lines from his diary: “… some, who still retained shame and innate feelings, cried out of compassion for the unfortunate man; others gnashed their teeth in anger at his tormentors, and still others, having lost all humanity, admired Dubakov's outbursts and the convulsions of the sufferer. "

For cadets junior courses, who were flogged more often than senior students, even more terrible was the "fry training", during which the corporals, appointed from the senior students, mercilessly beat their junior colleagues, literally driving them into the basics of drill. The corps, as I have already said, accepted nobles, but not all, but hereditary, recorded in the sixth part of the Genealogy of the noble family book "Noble noble families." But some of them lived in the capital, while others lived in the bear's corner. The latter did not shine with education, but they masterly mastered the vile abuse, which our "great and mighty" is so rich in. On top of this "dignity", despite their young age, they managed to join all the vices of the owners of the villages located in the hinterland. From an early age, children from the capital were taught foreign languages, sciences, manners, and behavior in society.

They brought to the corps the offspring of different and externally: impudent bigs in sheepskin coats and bast shoes, and well-bred, European-dressed boys. It is clear that military uniform equalized everyone, but morality was also equalized. You probably already guessed in which direction. The real thing reigned in the building, let's use the modern term, "hazing". The elders had their own servants of little cadets. All possible vices flourished. Unsurprisingly, some famous admirals have remained bachelors forever. The cadets were degraded mentally and physically. There were still exceptions.

Otherwise, we would not have known the names of the commanders and naval commanders who made the glory of the Russian fleet. In conversations, we constantly heard abuse, obscenities in poetry and prose flaunted on the walls of retreat places and on the pages of textbooks. Rough fun was practiced. In them, the imagination of the cadets was inexhaustible.

Civilian teachers, by the eternal Russian tradition, received a meager salary. Accordingly, they worked. Some just sat out for the allotted time, doing nothing. Teacher of English language For example, he often read a book, wrapped in an overcoat, ate prunes and did not pay the slightest attention to the 30 raging dunce. The mathematician was having fun, giving "cokes" on the head: he hurt him with his knuckles. The historian, instead of studying, under the guffaw of the young "Savras", talked about his adventures with the village ladies. There were almost no conscientious teachers. In the cadet environment, the cult of strength prevailed. Fist fights were practiced - company by company. Local poetry writers wrote poems about these battles that were not intended to be read in a decent society. In the summer they played with balls in rounders and a kind of football. When the white nights came, the night okroshka was prepared. Bread and beef were hidden at supper. Messengers sent to the small shop brought onions, kvass, baked eggs, all of which were pushed under the bed along with bowls and spoons, also taken from the Dining Hall. At ten o'clock in the evening, a duty officer appeared, followed by a soldier carrying a lantern. After making sure that everyone was asleep, the attendant walked on. As soon as the door closed, the "sleepers" jumped up and, setting out the sentries, began to cook a nightly supper, accompanied by general fun. On the temple holiday, if apples were not given, at night they beat the windows in the windows, broke the railings on the galleries connecting the buildings. Fights were going on all the time. They fought over uniforms, greatcoats, handkerchiefs, boots and just like that. The bruises were whitewashed with chalk. The weak and tearful were persecuted. They were on the parcels, cleaning the boots of the elders. Theft was despised, but still flourished. Once, in the junior company, a gift and money were stolen from a cadet at night from under a mattress. The company commander, himself a graduate of the corps, having built a cadet, barked: "Pray to be forgiven!" They are standing, praying. The company commander, sternly: "But the one who stole does not pray." The indignant voice of a naive thief: "No, I pray." The hotels were already eaten, but the money returned to the owner. They were also engaged in "commerce": they sold and exchanged candies, poppy seeds, rolls with butter, molasses for a dime, they exchanged tight boots for loose ones for a dime.

In the senior years, other interests appeared: they ran on leave on dates to seamstresses, milliners. Some were picked up by experienced ladies "from society". They visited brothels and the most suspicious Petersburg nativity scenes, for which they disguised themselves as "state". Sexually transmitted diseases did not surprise anyone. Among the officers-educators, there were bribe-takers, who did not disdain anything. Cadets in their companies paid off from flogging with money, things brought from home gifts. Among the corps officers there were also outright boors, sadists. Some went to the other extreme. For example, the Shirinsky-Shikhmatov princes tormented the cadets with their sanctimonious piety. Tortured with hunger during fasting There were few real, worthy people among the educators. When you read from the nostalgic for Russia, "which we have lost," that in tsarist time the officer corps consisted entirely of knights, real "gentlemen officers", well-mannered, I would like to disappoint the romantic authors of the tsarist era. The officer corps was the same as society. Read the classics or officer certifications like: "You cannot entrust the command of a steamer - he will steal coal." Well, and the words "I have the honor", which, according to some directors and authors, endlessly uttered by the tsarist officers, have already been worn out so that they feel sick. With these words, people who have no idea of ​​honor at all sign, engaging in squabbles in the press. The building of the corps was neglected, there was dirt everywhere, there was a stench in the yards, the reason for which was understandable. There was no need to talk about the level of training of future officers. Examinations for midshipmen and for the rank of midshipman were held formally. The naval corps, as one famous Russian admiral recalled, "fed two other cesspools - Kronstadt and Sevastopol." Graduates could be easily divided into categories: "drinking" and "gambling".

Nicholas I found the Marine Corps in such a state when he ascended the throne. To clear these Augean stables, he appointed Ivan Fyodorovich Kruzenshtern director, hoping that the "German", as Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev called him, would be able to restore order. And he really did. Kruzenshtern already had international fame as an outstanding navigator. He turned out to be no less talented educator. The admiral began with the main thing: he replaced officers and teachers in the corps. The junior and senior cadets were separated. Ivan Fedorovich invited famous scientists and professors to the corps. The officer class, created on his initiative, became the prototype of the future Naval Academy. For the first time, attention began to be paid to teaching methods, the principle of clarity. A museum appeared with models of ships, many of which were made by the hands of craftsmen from among the cadets. By the way, one of my college colleagues was just such a skilled worker. His works adorn the halls of the Central Naval Museum. Teachers developed tutorials in various subjects. The admiral also reorganized a detachment of training ships, on which cadets underwent naval practice.

Nicholas I closely followed all the reforms carried out by Kruzenshtern. The only thing that the admiral could not defeat was the theft of cadet provisions. This tradition was indestructible. Once, because of dissatisfaction with the food, the cadets rebelled: they knocked their feet under the table. Someone reported to the king. He immediately came to the building. Everyone was gathered in the Dining Hall. The emperor addressed the cadets, who were afraid to stir in the ranks, with an energetic speech, half of which consisted of curses. The instigator was immediately whipped and demoted to sailors, sixty others were sent as soldiers and non-commissioned officers to the regiments in the Caucasus, where the situation was no better than the current one. As for the housekeeper and the officers, they both stole and continued to steal.

Theft in Russia is as common a thing as sunrise and sunset. The tsar gave orders to bring the cadets to the Peterhof palace. The royal dinners, sumptuously served, created in adolescents the illusion of involvement in supreme power, a special power of attorney from the king. Nevertheless, the respectful attitude towards the royal family did not prevent the cadets from stealing and eating a luxurious melon from the royal greenhouse, which the empress lovingly looked after all summer. It is not known why the unfortunate turtle was killed with a stick in the marble basin. For these "feats" the cadets were not taken ashore from the hull ships for a whole month. With the arrival of Krusenstern, morals softened, but fights, bullying of newcomers did not stop.

Complaints to superiors were considered the very last thing. They were punished for offenses and poor studies. They were imprisoned in a punishment cell for up to five days. They rarely flogged with rods, but they were still in use. Only now the admiral himself gave permission to flog the guilty person. Here is the order of Kruzenshtern of February 4, 1830: "For his bad deed, I order the cadet of the 3rd company Lyubimov to whip up a whole company with rods at the meeting of a whole company and add it to the penalty book." Under Krusenstern, the lists of those admitted to the corps were hung in the round Compass Hall, where the parquet was laid out in the form of a compass card with the number 1701 in the center, the year of the founding of the Navigation School. There, the newcomers first got to know each other. They admired the large paintings on the walls of the art gallery, depicting naval battles or scenes from the life of sailors. Could they have thought that in our time the paintings would be stolen, and their descendant, a cadet, would be involved in this! The newcomers were greatly impressed by the huge Dining Hall, decorated with stucco images of coats of arms, an officer's broadsword, a ship's rudder and a hailstaff. The ceiling was suspended on chains. In the hall stood a large model of the Navarin brig. In the church, where they were then led, banners hung, and black marble plaques with the names and surnames of those who fell in battle were fixed on the walls. Planks of gray marble bore the names of those killed in the line of duty in peacetime. After the prayer service, the priest read a sermon to the new cadets.

Dinner time was imperceptibly approaching, and the hungry cadets were sent to the Dining Hall. An orchestra played that day. On ordinary days, they listened to music twice a week. Before dinner, everyone sang a prayer in chorus. A non-commissioned officer from the cadets presided at the table. He poured soup into bowls and laid out portions of meat. On each table were two large silver cups of kvass. These cups were captured in naval battle with the Swedes and granted to the Marine Corps by Catherine II. After the first enthusiastic impressions, the prose of life began. We got up at six thirty. Raised with a sharp signal of a trumpet or a beat of a drum It was still dark and cold, the stoves that heated the company premises cooled down overnight, and in the morning a tooth did not fall on a tooth. We washed ourselves with icy water from the washbasins with nipples, then fifteen minutes - charging and building. The non-commissioned officer on duty hurriedly mumbled a prayer, and went to the dining room to drink tea, which was supposed to be a cike or a French roll. Despite the strict prohibition, they loved to bring half a roll with them to the company premises and fry it there in the oven.

Lessons began at eight o'clock and continued in the afternoon. In addition to the sciences, there were lessons in formation and dancing. On one of the king's visits, a funny situation happened: an officer walking in front of everyone opened the door and loudly called the room into which the king and his retinue entered. Opening the doors of one of them, the officer announced: "Dance class." And there was a lesson in the law of God, the dancing was canceled that day. The tsar, looking at the priest in a long cassock, petrified with surprise, grinned: "This is noticeable from the teacher." The cadets' casual uniforms were trousers with sewn-in pockets to disaccustom teenagers to keep their hands in their pockets, and blue flannel shirts. For offenses they put on a gray jacket. Such a punishment was considered shameful. Smoking was severely persecuted - they feared a fire. Kruzenshtern took care of the state penny and taught his pupils to this. When released from the corps, even the money spent on the purchase of rods was calculated from the newly-made midshipman. The corps was forced to pay for the slightest damage caused. Aleksey Ivanovich Butakov recalled: “In the building you have to pay for everything, for a handkerchief that is lost, for a glass or a glass that you broke, if you don’t want to be put at a special table on bread and water, that is. excluded from the portion, in order to pay for the spoiled thing with the price of cadet food, and the cadet stomach is ready to dine three times a day, and the same amount of supper. "

Despite the cruelty of upbringing, among the cadets during the Kruzenshtern directorship, loyalty to the homeland, courage, and selflessness were valued above all. Deception, fiscalism, flattery, cowardice and greed were deeply despised. They were allowed to go to town on weekends based on their academic and behavioral points. When summer came, the younger ones went home, and the older ones went sailing. Maritime practice began with the performance of the duties of sailors. The sailors on the ships addressed the cadets - "master". Voin Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov recalled: “On clumsy, but rather conveniently arranged for cadet housing frigates, we ate with wooden spoons from a common bowl, one by one, and corned beef and beef without knives and forks, and really, we did not sigh about the corps hall. We slept well in our bunks, everyone tied his own; and it is good, smoothly rolling up the bed, making beautiful heads for it, was the subject of swagger for many. " They drank tea from pewter bowls, scooping it up like soup with spoons. Sometimes balls were held in the building. They were an event for which they carefully prepared. Everything was removed from the Dining Room. There were up to five thousand people. They opened the rooms that evening Maritime Museum... The visitors looked with curiosity at the models of ships, cars, and collections brought from distant countries. In the company premises, tea buffets were opened for guests and pupils. It was hot and stuffy in the hall. Eight huge gas chandeliers and many candles were burning, and heat was also coming from the stoves. Ladies and young ladies were constantly fanning themselves with fans. I don't want to go into details, but the atmosphere was not the same as in Bondarchuk's film at the first ball of Natalia Ilyinichna Rostova.

On the days of long holidays, boxes were rented for cadets in the theater; many loved Russian opera and ballet. They were also fond of skating. The skating rink was arranged in the courtyard and opposite the building, on the Neva. It was fenced with felled trees. Through the efforts of Kruzenshtern, the Marine Corps created large library, physical office, astronomical observatory. Years of study passed. It was time for graduation. In the Dining Hall, the orchestra played a ceremonial march, the entire edition was being built. After the official ceremony and congratulations, the presentation of honorary gifts to the best graduates, the warrant officers sat down at the table. Each appliance had a box of chocolates. The guests of honor were seated separately. Then a prayer followed, and after it, in the middle of the hall in last time sergeant major and non-commissioned officers came out, whistling according to the ship's custom in the silver pipes hanging from their chains on their chests: "For wine and dinner." Everyone was starting their last meal within the walls of the alma mater. The festive dinner consisted of four courses. There was certainly a goose with apples. Toasts were being made. Adulthood began. For four years the cadets walked the same road, and then their paths diverged. But the memory of the years spent together and of the man who served as an example to everyone was preserved forever, and the cadet friendship turned out to be the strongest.

In 1873, a monument was opened to Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern in a solemn atmosphere. The monument has stood quietly to this day, not counting the fact that in times of trouble they stole a dagger from a bronze figure. After the revolution of 1917, the Frunze Higher Naval School was located in the building of the Naval Corps. Since 2001, the oldest institution of higher education has been called Peter the Great's Naval Corps - St. Petersburg Naval Institute. V last years a tradition has appeared, they are trying to convince that it is old. But this is a lie. On the day of graduation, graduates put on a striped rag made from vests on the monument. Maybe it causes some tears of affection for someone, but the author, a former naval officer himself, does not like the sight of drunken young men clambering onto the monument in officer shirts with shoulder straps unbuttoned to the navel. An anecdotal old story is also connected with the monument, when a certain cadet introduced himself to one overly naive and gullible girl Vanya Kruzenshtern. The wonderful poet Alexei Alekseevich Lebedev studied with the father of the author of this book. He died in a submarine during the war. Lebedev wrote a poem on this subject, ending like this:

Stands before the sorrowful girl

Having seen hundreds of bad weather,

Tall and bronze-faced

The great Russian sailor.

And Klava says with a smile:

“A century has passed like smoke,

But before wandering and glory

You, the navigator, were young,

Been with both

And they acted straightforward

Without forgetting your name

Like your forgetful counterpart. "

But back to our hero. The midshipman released from the Marine Corps, after the final payment from the alma mater, knew that there was no money and would not be for several months. In order not to die of hunger, they laid a saber, a uniform, a dagger, a watch - in a word, everything for which one could get money from a usurer or in a pawnshop. We lived on 30 rubles for four months until the next annual third of the salary was given. In those days, there was no salary every month.

The cheapest apartments were rented, in attics and basements. On weekdays, instead of tea, they brewed chamomile, dined every other day. At home, preference was played for one hundredth of a penny. Everyone was in debt as if in silks. In order to somehow help each other, they created special amounts, something like “black cash registers” of the Soviet era, from which officers could borrow money. The junior officer, on the salary that he received, could not adequately support his family, and therefore they married, as a rule, by the age of forty. But the officer corps was hammered into the head of his special honorable role in the state and the illusion of closeness to the highest power, which was already mentioned, was emphasized. In general, something like a reception in the Kremlin on the occasion of graduation from higher military educational institutions, which was instituted back in Soviet times. It worked. The loyalty of the overwhelming majority of naval officers to the king in the first half of the nineteenth century was undeniable. But only until the time when capitalism began to develop rapidly in Russia. It is clear that the hungry cadets very quickly remembered all their close and distant relatives who lived in St. Petersburg, and they eagerly visited them.

Alexey went to visit his uncle, Alexander Nikolaevich, with the main purpose of eating, and at the same time asking for a dime. He served in a good position in the Naval Ministry. My uncle was not very generous, but he still remembered that he himself had once graduated from the Naval Corps, and therefore, after the indispensable notation, he always gave money. Hrke, if at that moment an aunt suddenly appeared, Alexandra Ivanovna, a lady with a rather difficult character. She "... will sort out in a long sermon all the old corps, corps, real and imaginary sins, and with all the cadets," but she will not give money and will not allow her husband. There is nothing to be done, women are often tougher than men in such matters. Moreover, his uncle, a military officer, was not afraid of the enemy, but he was afraid of his wife. Alexey studied well, was listed in the top ten in academic performance. But the best in his course was Nikolai Krabbe. Subsequently, the fate of all the Butakov brothers, one way or another, will be associated with this person. The title of midshipman Alexei Butakov was awarded on December 21, 1832.

Historical literature states that after the Naval Cadet Corps, Alexei graduated from the officer class. The author himself fell for this bait at first. But then I decided to double-check and found out that it was not so. Alexey was indeed in the top ten when he graduated from the Marine Corps, but his surname is not on the lists of graduates of the officer class. In addition, he received the rank of lieutenant in his sixth year of service, which means two options: either he did not enter the officer class, or he was expelled from there for some reason. A year before his graduation, in May 1831, Alexei Butakov's younger brother, Grigory, entered the Naval Cadet Corps. How wonderful it is when in the harsh barracks conditions, far from family and home, there is an older brother who will help with advice and, if necessary, stand up for the younger one! There was a lot of study in the brothers' corps, such "nepotism" was encouraged in every possible way, in my opinion, quite reasonably.

After graduation, Alexei was assigned to the ship under construction "Ostrolenka", named in honor of the victory of Russian troops over the Polish rebels on May 14, 1831 near the town of Ostrolenka. There, the midshipman made friends with another graduate of the Marine Corps, Pavel Yakovlevich Shkot, with whom he will have to go through a lot and more than once look death in the face. But then they did not know about it. It's an amazing thing to be a historian: you literally feel like the supreme who knows all the destinies in advance. Maybe there really is someone up there who also knows everything about us, about our own destinies? The author, I will say this time about myself in the third person, has long come to the conclusion that no invention can compare with how true human destinies develop, and has long since switched mainly to reading biographical things and historical research... They seem to me much more interesting than any fantastic fiction. However, there are other opinions as well. In the nineteenth century, officers were constantly transferred from one ship to another. Look at the track record of any naval officer, and you will be amazed by the names of the ships on which they have served. I tried to find out the reason for this, talked with one of the most authoritative modern naval historians, but, unfortunately, I heard only guesses. Wherever Alexei Butakov served, he left a good memory of himself, he always treated the sailors in a human way. In a letter to his father on November 25, 1837, clearly expecting praise from him, he said: “In fact, I do not follow the rules of our current disciplines in dealing with the command, and that is why my current corvette commander once asked me:“ Why do people work on your watch better and harder than others? "

These things convince me to use as little reinforcing agents as possible, because good can be made to work better than with a stick. " Alexei served at that time as an officer of the watch on the corvette "Lioness", and "reinforcing means" is a euphemism, under which spanking with molts and scuffle was hidden. Service in the Baltic was not interesting: they spent most of the year in Kronstadt. Summer navigation time slipped imperceptibly, and swam nearby. In the fall, they returned to Kronstadt, where they were tormented by a constant lack of money. The salary was only 600 rubles in banknotes, and during the first two years after graduation from Alexei Ivanovich they calculated 100 rubles a year, it was calculated that he caused such damage

Marine Corps during training. It was too expensive to rent an apartment in the city alone, so Butakov agreed to rent an apartment on shares with another warrant officer, Count Lamsdorf. Young officers were constantly on duty in the barracks, on a ship standing at the wall, in the port, and stood guard at the prison houses. We lived from hand to mouth. Even tea was not always drunk, dinner was prepared by messengers, without any pickles, cabbage soup and porridge. No wonder they say that when there is no money, you feel like a cat in the rain. The messengers were much older than their bosses and wise in life, so they treated young officers like nannies. When the count and a hereditary nobleman sat without a penny in their pockets at all, they brought them something to eat from the barracks. Sometimes they were given to cheerful warrant officers good advice: "You would, sir, stay away from the owner's daughter, otherwise it is not even an hour and they will let you down the aisle."

The eternally hungry warrant officers regularly visited acquaintances and friends of their parents, where they always treated them to lunch or dinner. At the same time, they tried to avoid those families in which there were daughters for marriage. And they did it very rightly.

In 1837, the first railway was built in Russia between St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk. She made about the same impression on the inhabitants as on the author of these lines and his comrades in naval school opening of the first line of the Leningrad metro. Of course, Butakov could not resist the temptation to ride on it. He described the impressions of the trip, the station, the restaurant, the park, the illumination to his parents in detail, mentioning the sentries placed every 100 fathoms along railroad... Probably, then it was more difficult to steal non-ferrous metals or plant a bomb under the rails than in our time. Foreign languages ​​were easy for Alexey. While still in the corps, he perfectly mastered English and French languages, then considered necessary for sailors. German the family knew everything well thanks to the mother. He was attracted by Italian and managed to learn it on his own. Later, Portuguese was added to the Italian. Without a doubt, you need to have great ability and work hard to master foreign languages ​​on your own. Knowledge foreign languages helped to find additional income. Someone suggested to Butakov to do translations. He tried it and it worked. He began to regularly publish his translations in the journals "Son of the Fatherland" and "Library for Reading", for which he received small royalties. As Alexei joked about this, he received: "The profit of water in my empty pockets." Brother Gregory, who served in the Black Sea, congratulated him on his literary success, and at the same time on the fact that Alexei quit smoking. Only the older sister was upset by the last circumstance (then they did not yet suspect the dangers of smoking), because she wanted to give him a pouch embroidered by her for his birthday. But not one literary creation occupied everything free time Alexei Ivanovich. His interests were diverse, related to the profession and geographical sciences. That year was tragic for Russia - it lost Pushkin. The loss is irreparable. Another tragic event that occupied the minds happened - a fire in the Winter Palace, from which practically nothing remained. A French aristocrat, the Marquis de Custine, visited the Russian capital when the restoration of the palace was completed in an incredibly short time. In his book "Russia in 1839" he wrote: "Within a year the palace was reborn from the ashes ... It took unheard of efforts to finish the work by the time appointed by the emperor ... During the cold weather from 25 to 30 degrees six thousand unknown martyrs, martyrs without the merits of the martyrs of involuntary obedience were confined in halls heated to 30 degrees for the fastest drying of the walls.

Thus, these unfortunates, entering and leaving this dwelling of splendor and pleasure, experienced a difference in temperature from 50 to 60 degrees ... I was told that those of these unfortunates who painted inside the heated hall themselves were forced to wear something like hats on their heads with ice in order to be able to preserve my feelings in that searing temperature ... I have had an unpleasant feeling in Petersburg since I saw this palace and, as I was told, how many lives it cost ... Versailles millions fed as many families of French workers as Slavs slaves were killed by 12-month work in the Winter Palace ... ”. The Marquis was referring to the earnings of the French palace builders at Versailles. And the death of Pushkin, and the fire in the palace, excited the minds, talked about them in every home, wrote about these events to his family and Alexei Ivanovich.

The year came in 1838. Butakov was transferred to serve from the "courtier", as he put it, the frigate "Castor", which served the royal court, to the steamer-frigate "Bogatyr". This miracle of technology, with huge paddle wheels and thick clouds of smoke from the chimney, was the first steam frigate built in Russia. It was torture to sail on it: the coal supply was small, and the car consumed a lot of fuel, so they only loaded coal. On the upper deck, everything was always in soot and soot. The deck and superstructures had to be washed and scrubbed constantly, and besides, officers and sailors often developed eye diseases due to smoke and flying soot. Goggles with a metal mesh, which replaced the glasses, which were given to the personnel, did not protect against the smallest coal ash. Nevertheless, at that time it was the newest ship, and service on it was considered very honorable. The appointment to the "Bogatyr" Butakov was facilitated by the former commander, Lieutenant Commander Andrei Loginovich Juncker, who, as Alexey wrote to his parents, “firstly, made me a decent naval officer, and, secondly, shouted about me to everyone, that I just do not grab the stars from the sky. "

The experience gained from serving on a steamer came in handy much later, only then a young sailor, even in bad dream could not imagine under what circumstances this would happen. While Alexey was mastering service on the Baltic ships, many family events took place. He graduated from the Marine Corps Grigory and even managed to earn the first military award on the Black Sea, his brother Ivan, whom he always visited, when he was in St. Petersburg, finished his studies in the corps, it was Dmitry and Vladimir's turn to become cadets.

Alexei wrote a letter to Grigory, asking whether he should seek a transfer to the Black Sea Fleet. The brother categorically advised against doing this, emphasizing what to do literary work, to which Alexei had a penchant, in the Black Sea Fleet he would not have the opportunity. Many times I reread this letter, which had a fatal effect on the fate of Alexei, trying to understand the true motives of Gregory. Maybe that didn’t want to become the second in the fleet? True, while his father was serving, he was Butakov 1st, but his father's pension was not far off. In 1840, the military transport "Abo" was to go to deliver goods to Kamchatka. Traditionally, the commander was given the right to choose his own senior officer. Juncker was appointed commander of the transport, and he, highly appreciating the service qualities of Alexei Butakov, proposed his candidacy, which was approved at that time long voyages happened rarely, getting into them was considered a great success. Not only because the sailors acquired invaluable experience, it was an excellent start for further career growth.At the end of the circumnavigation, as a rule, orders and monetary awards, long vacations were generously distributed.And, without any doubt, all this is well deserved and fair, because each such voyage was a severe test of strength for its participants. Sometimes the ships simply disappeared without a trace.What happened to them, one can only guess - the seas and oceans reliably keep their secrets. Rear Admiral Ivan Nikolaevich Butakov, having learned about the appointment of his son, came from Nikolaev to St. Petersburg to say goodbye to Alexei before sailing around the world, to give him last advice and parting words.

The second purpose of the admiral's trip to the capital was to facilitate the appointment of Ivan's son, who graduated from the Marine Corps, to the Black Sea, where Gregory had already served. Ivan's brother Gregory for some reason did not dissuade him from serving on the Black Sea. But everyone was happy, both the father and the sons shared the joy of Alexei, who had caught the bird of luck by the tail. But never think ahead. In vain were Aleksey Butakov and the other lucky ones who got to "Abo" so happy about their appointment. Happiness turned into a big misfortune that left an imprint on the entire subsequent service of Alexei Ivanovich Butakov and his comrades and to a certain extent crippled their fate. Andrey Juncker, an experienced and courageous sailor, sailed on many ships, served in the navy for twenty years. It would seem that everything is fine, except for one thing - behind him was the trail of fame of a rare scoundrel. True, if you are told that the operation for which you were admitted to the hospital will be performed by a doctor, a person of great soul, the soul of any company, but a very weak surgeon, then this is also not the best option. When departing to circumnavigation the captain was required to personally check the readiness of the crew, the ship's stores, how the cargo was packed into the hold, whether it would not shift during strong rolling. And if only that! The duties of any ship officer are just enough so that there is not even a minute of free time left. To the amazement of the crew, the commander entrusted his captain's duties to Alexei Butakov, as if he did not have his own, and safely departed with an opportunity to the capital, where he indulged in all the vices. Butakov felt indebted to Yunker both for recommending him for the Bogatyr and for taking him as a senior officer on Abo. After all, it was Juncker who achieved his appointment to the circumnavigation of the world, and therefore Alexey Ivanovich meekly worked for two.

Seeking angels among sailors is not a serious business, but here, as subsequent events showed, the unclean himself turned out to be the captain. Young officers with "Abo" were not brought up in a boarding school for noble maidens. Themselves were not averse to taking a walk, but everything has its time. Service has always been in the first place among naval sailors. The captain among themselves was not condemned at all for a revelry in the capital, but for failure to fulfill his duties. In the rare free hours during the preparation of the transport for sailing, the young people also took an active rest from the ship's labors. Money flew in the wind like autumn leaves... Juncker sometimes visited Kronstadt, but not to get down to business, but in order to once again look into the money chest.

In those days, the ship's commander, when setting off on a round-the-world voyage, was immediately given a tidy sum in hard currency and in bills of exchange of the most famous banks in the world. It included a two-year salary for officers and crew, money for the purchase of food, medicine, repairs and extraordinary expenses. The ship's money chest was kept by the captain, and a sentry guarded it at the door of the captain's cabin. Lieutenants and warrant officers took advantage of Juncker's appearance to borrow money from him for future pay periods. This case is completely illegal, and the lieutenant commander should have brought his subordinates under control. But Juncker did not refuse anyone, behaved like Aladdin, who suddenly discovered a cave with gold, even encouraged: "Why not take a walk, this is a young thing, here, they say, I was in your age ..." The difference was that Juncker wasted government money , and lieutenants and warrant officers - their future salary. The lieutenant captain lent with extraordinary ease, as if the money chest was a bottomless Sentinel at the captain's cabin, guarding the treasury, was a props, he could not protect it from the main robber.

Before departing from Kronstadt, the sailors, with the ardent participation of Juncker, threw a grand farewell dinner. Cooks delivered from St. Petersburg were cooking. Many friends and acquaintances were present. This pleasure cost 3,000 rubles - an incredible sum for those times the Gypsy Choir and the ladies of the half-world helped the officers to part with the remnants of lieutenant and midshipman salaries. Now everyone was on the captain's hook. Even if someone wanted to leave the ship in the future, it was out of the question. Everyone was head over heels in debt to Juncker, or rather, to the treasury. There was nothing to give. Alexey Butakov, alas, was not an exception either. As his excuse, let me remind you that the senior officer was knocked then only 24 years old on September 5, 1840, the steamer "Hercules", all the power of which was in its proud name, took "Abo" in tow and, spewing huge clouds of black smoke, transport to the Tolbukhin lighthouse. They set sail there. Copenhagen was the first port stop.

Usually the Danes bought missing maps, navigational tools, and replenished provisions. It took at most three days. Junker went ashore and ... disappeared. Butakov was seriously worried. They began to look for the captain on the shore. Traces of him were found two weeks later in the most luxurious hotel in the city. Officers from an English frigate who were lucky enough to be with Juncker in the same restaurant told the Abo sailors with delight and envy about how he feasted and how generous he was. Walk so walk! The British remained with the deep conviction that from the Russians any midshipman receives, like an English admiral. The entire crew was bored on the ship. The voyage was just beginning, and less than half of the salary was already left. There was nothing to do with empty pockets on the shore, so they stuck out on the ship. Finally, the not quite sober captain showed up. He gave Butakov the order to go out to sea, and he retired to his cabin to sleep off, announcing that he was entrusting Alexei Ivanovich with his duties. Swimming continued. October 10 came to Portsmouth. The ship was badly battered by the North Sea, so the work to eliminate damage from the storm was enough for both the crew and the port employee. The provisions were supplied by the Englishman John Kettler, who immediately showed up on the ship on the day of his arrival at the harbor. A respectable plump gentleman presented a bundle of letters of recommendation from the Russian captains. But it was hardly worth showing them all: some of the recommendations were written by big jokers. With strong nautical words and expressions familiar to the Russian ear, they recommended not to trust the presenter too much. They did not disappoint the Englishman, they took into account the advice of their predecessors and, in turn, left an equally colorful letter of recommendation.

FROM "ADMIRALS" TO "KOCHEGARS" What did Schmidt actually do during the fleeting artillery battle on the cruiser, what did he do after the battle had just begun and stopped? Amazingly, in this "starry moment" of his life, which he allegedly dreamed of all his life,