all the prizes taken by the fleet. Having secret views of his own
concerning the unfortunate Princess Tarakanoff, the Count Orloff, who
is styled minister plenipotentiary, general of the Russian troops,
and admiral-general, proposed to spend the winter partly at Pisa, and
partly at Leghorn, "in order to take care of the Russian squadron," as
peace was expected. Greig is said to have demurred; Admiral Elphinstone
expressed dissatisfaction, and when ordered to sail on "a secret
expedition" he bluntly declined. An altercation ensued between him
and the count. He was put under arrest, and reported to the Empress,
who recalled him, and he retired from her service in disgust. On his
presentation to Catherine he appeared in the blue uniform of the
British navy, on which she turned coldly away, saying to one of her
favourites, "It is high time this Scot was out of my service, when he
has laid aside my uniform!"
Meanwhile the fleet was not inactive, for Mackenzie, Brodie, and other
officers, who served under Spiritoff, were very zealous. Thus, by the
20th January, 1771, they had destroyed nineteen Dulcignotte tartans,
and exacted from the Isles of the Archipelago the same tribute which
they yearly paid the Sultan. At the same time the Russian troops had
taken the city of Sinope, on the Black Sea, the fortress of Giurgievo,
and other places in the Turkish provinces. A squadron, commanded by
the Knights of Malta, joined Orloff's flag; Scio was again ravaged by
the Russians, a large dulcignotte destroyed, and the fighting among
the fertile and beautiful isles of Greece was incessant; Greig was
constantly employed, and daily added to his reputation as a brave and
skilful officer.
He had assisted in the destruction of all the magazines which had been
formed to supply the Turkish capital; at the bombardment of Negropont,
the capital of the ancient Euboea, where the troops were landed to
destroy the stores of corn and flour; he had cruised along the shore
of Macedonia; been at the bombardment of Cavalla in Romelia, and
the destruction of the storehouses at Salonica; and in the Gulf of
Kassanderah, while Count Theodore, the brother of Count Alexis Orloff,
scoured all the shores of Anadoli, and cannonaded Rhodez. The united
Russian fleet, under the three admirals, Orloff, Spiritoff, and Greig,
made sixty-six sail in all on the 1st of November.
While the Russian army by land was making daily successful attacks
on the Turks, and had crossed the Danube under General Romanzow, and
twice besieged Silistria, pushing the war round the shores of the
Black Sea, and into the Crimea, the naval squadrons had many desperate
encounters in the Archipelago, and one very sharp action off the Isle
of Scio, when seven Russian ships of the line and two frigates engaged
ten Turkish ships and six large galleys, on the 10th of October, 1773,
and after fighting from ten in the morning until long past mid-day,
entirely defeated them, taking five sail, sinking two, and putting the
rest to flight. In one of these encounters a ball struck Admiral Greig,
and bent one of the points of his cross of St. George, carrying away
a piece of the enamel. Every captain of the Russian navy then wore
the military order of St. George, the badge of which is a knight and
dragon, attached to a black ribbon.
A descent was made upon the Isle of Cyprus; another on Candia, and
elsewhere; but the Russians were repulsed, and four sacks filled with
their _scalps_ were sent from Stanchio as a proof of the reception
they had met with in that island.
In the end of 1773 Greig returned to St. Petersburg, and, with Admiral
Sir Charles Knowles, made every exertion to have a better and more
efficient squadron dispatched to the Dardanelles. With this under
his command he sailed again from Cronstadt, and after touching at
Portsmouth, bore on for the Mediterranean on the 17th of February,
1774. With his flag flying as vice-admiral, he reached Leghorn,
where, for purposes of his own, Alexis Orloff was again loitering.
On this expedition Greig was accompanied by his wife, for whom every
accommodation had been made in his ship, the _Issidorum_; but being of
course unwilling that she should risk the dangers of the Turkish war,
he landed her at Leghorn, where the house of the Russian consul was
assigned to her as a residence. The ships composing his fleet were--
The Issidorum, 74 guns Captain Surminoff.
The Mironfitz, 74 guns Captain Mouskin Pouskin.
St. Alexander Newski, 64 guns Captain Voronari.
Demetrius Douski, 64 guns Captain Pajaskoff.
St. Paulus, 30 guns Captain Palovski.
During Greig's brief sojourn at Leghorn there occurred one of those
atrocities which so frequently blackened the reign of Catherine II.
Alexis Count Orloff, a man of the most inhuman character and brutal
propensities, had conceived a passion for the young and beautiful
Princess Tarakanoff, daughter of the late Empress Elizabeth, by her
clandestine marriage with the Grand Veneur. This princess had been
conveyed to Rome by the artful Prince Radzivil, beyond the reach
of Catherine's intrigues and tyranny. But Orloff had been ordered
to _decoy her back_ to St. Petersburg on the first opportunity.
Accordingly, during one of his visits to Leghorn, he laid a snare for
her, by sending an Italian, named Signor Ribas, afterwards a Knight of
Malta, to visit her. This vile person, who found the poor princess in
a mean lodging, told her that he "had come to pay homage to her beauty
and misfortunes, and to deplore the destitution in which he found
her." He then offered her money, adding that he "was commissioned by
Alexis Orloff to promise her the throne her mother had filled, and
at the same time his sincere love, if she would honour him with her
hand." After some hesitation she was overcome by the apparent sincerity
and brilliance of the proposal, which seemed the more splendid by her
destitute condition, and accepted the offer of Orloff. He visited her
repeatedly; a feigned marriage was performed by two Russian officers,
disguised as Catholic priests; villainy completed the imposture: for
a time--two or three months--he placed her in a magnificent palace
at Pisa, and then brought her to Leghorn. It was at this crisis
that Admiral Greig entered the port, and his wife[9] is mentioned
as being among the first to visit the young princess, who was far
from suspecting the terrible snare laid for her--a snare of which
the _English_ consul is said to have been cognizant. Deluded by the
caresses and feigned love of Orloff, she begged to be "shown the large
and beautiful ships of the Russian fleet," which was ordered to prepare
for her reception.
On her arriving at the beach, she was placed by Orloff in a handsome
boat, screened by a silken awning; the second barge conveyed the
vice-admiral and other British officers, who for many years after were
all unconscious of the villainy of Orloff. Music, huzzas, and salutes
of artillery welcomed the unhappy daughter of the Empress Elizabeth on
board the nearest ship; and the moment she stood upon its deck, she
was _handcuffed_ with heavy irons, and thrust into one of the lowest
cabins. She threw herself at the feet of Orloff, and implored pity as
_his wife_; but was answered by laughter and mockery, while the anchor
was weighed, and the ship sailed for St. Petersburg, where she was shut
up in a fortress on the Neva, and was _never heard of again_!
Rumour adds a darker tinge to this tale of Russian cruelty, by
asserting that, two years afterwards, when the waters of the Neva rose
ten feet by an inundation, they filled the horrid vault in which she
was confined, and drowned her. Her body was then flung into the stream,
and swept by its current into the Gulf of Finland.
But to return. As the wind continued fair, Greig bore away for Paros,
a beautiful isle of the central Cyclades, which was the rendezvous of
the fleet under Spiritoff, and where a great many small vessels of an
entirely new construction, were prepared for the purpose of embarking
and landing troops.
Here the Russians had seized and sold a number of Venetian ships,
consequently the senate ordered all their vessels of war to be prepared
to resist the new armament of Greig, and in March rigged two ships of
84 guns each, and two more of 75: these ultimately came to blows with
the Turks, and defeated them off the Isle of Candia.
On the 10th of March, tidings having come to Paros that the Turkish
fleet were about to surprise the Russian garrison at Sciros, a 50-gun
ship and four frigates were despatched to oppose the attempt, but
signally failed--for they were all burned or taken but one. The general
head-quarters of the Czarina's forces were at the Isle of Paros; and
there, during the spring of 1774, the Admirals Spiritoff and Greig
anchored their armaments at Port Naussa, on the northern shore--one
of the finest harbours in the Archipelago, and in the channel between
Paros and the bold and lofty coast of Naxos. Their regular troops
occupied Marmora and Zimbido, while their Albanian allies were at
Bachia. Greig and Spiritoff made every effort to refit the old ships,
and prepare them for hostilities in summer, and when their cruisers
joined them from Patmos and Tasso; but before anything of importance
was achieved, the Empress concluded a peace with the Turks--a peace,
says Frederick the Great, "resplendent with glory, by the success which
her arms had met with against her enemies during the war;" and by this
peace, the treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardgi, Catherine stipulated that the
Crimea, which had hitherto been under the subjection of the Turks,
should be, in all time coming, an independent sovereignty under its
own khans, thus lessening the power of the Porte.
Admiral Greig now returned to Russia with the fleet, and for many years
devoted himself entirely to the improvement of the Russian marine, and
the development of the naval resources of the Empire--remodelling its
code of discipline, relaxing its barbarity, civilizing and educating
its officers and men, by training the marine cadets on board of two
frigates or floating academies, and thus justly earning for himself the
honourable and endearing sobriquet of the _Father of the Russian Navy_.
For these and other valuable services the grateful Empress bestowed
upon him the government of Cronstadt, and a commission as High Admiral
of all the Russias, at the same time decorating him with the Orders
of St. Andrew, St. George of the second class, St. Vladimir, which
she instituted on the 22nd September, 1782 (her twentieth coronation
day), and St. Anne of Holstein, which is always the gift of the Grand
Duke. His great assistant was Mr. Gordon, director-general of the
ship-building, who at one time had building, under his own immediate
care, two ships of 100 guns each, three of 90 guns each, six of 70
guns each, and ten of 40 guns each--all of which, for their skilful
construction, strength, swiftness, and beauty of mould, had never been
equalled by any previous effort of Russian naval architecture.
The admiral's pay was now 7000 roubles per annum.
In accordance with the custom of the Russian nobility, who add the
Christian name of their father to their own, with the termination
_owitch_, which signifies _the son of_, we find the Scottish admiral
signing and designating himself "Samuel Carlovitch Greig." He was ever
treated with the greatest consideration and honour by the Empress, who,
in the year 1776, paid him the compliment of a visit--then esteemed
an unparalleled act of condescension for the crowned head of Russia,
who, among many absurd and hyperbolical titles, had (and perhaps still
retains) the blasphemous one of "Chamberlain to Almighty God."
On the 18th of July the Empress, attended by all the great officers of
her state and household, went in a magnificent barge from Oranienbaum
to Admiral Greig's ship, the yards of which he had manned. As soon as
he had handed her on board, the Imperial standard was hoisted, and the
whole fleet fired a salute, which was responded to by _nine hundred_
pieces of cannon in Cronstadt. Dinner was set in Greig's cabin for the
Empress and a hundred guests, who were the principal officers of her
marine and other departments. The whole fleet then weighed anchor, and
Catherine, accompanied by the infamous Orloff, Field-Marshal Count
Galitzin, and Count Bruce, the adjutant on duty, was rowed in her barge
along the line amid another salute of cannon. Before returning to
Oranienbaum she placed on Greig's breast the golden and eight-pointed
star of St. Alexander Newski, with the red ribbon, which is worn over
the left shoulder.
During the peace, Greig was unremitting in his efforts to draw British
officers into the service, and the number who offered their swords
and valour to the Czarina soon conduced, by their skill and talent,
to render her navy for the first time respectable and formidable in
Europe.[10]
Thus it was that, in 1799, in Lord Duncan's line of battle, August
24th, at the Texel, we find among the Russian ships of war, the
_Ratisvan_, commanded by Captain Greig; and in September, under the
same gallant admiral, the Scottish captains Scott, Dunn, Boyle,
Maclagan, Ogilvie, and Rose, commanding the Russian ships _Alexander
Newski_, 74; _Neptune_, 54; _Rafaill_, 44; _Revel_, 44; _Minerva_,
38; and _St. Nicholas_, 38, embarking the Russian troops at Revel;
and thus it was, that when Russia, fifteen years before, projected a
new war against the Turks, in consequence of their interference with
the affairs of the independent Crimea, the Empress found her fleet to
consist of upwards of ninety sail at Cronstadt, Revel, and in the Sea
of Asoph.
By the 11th of October, 1783, Admiral Greig had ready a fleet for the
Mediterranean consisting of twelve sail of the line--viz., one of 76
guns, two of 74, three of 70, four of 64, two of 60, four frigates,
a sloop, three store-ships, two fireships, two bomb-ketches, and
two galleys. The vice-admiral of this fine armament was his old
brother-officer, who had shared with him the glory of that night's
desperate work in the Bay of Chismeh. All these ships were in the best
condition, and British officers were judiciously distributed among
them; but the poor Khan of the Crimea, Sahim Gueray--the last of the
lineal descendants of the far-famed Ghengiz Khan--abdicated his power,
which he transferred to the Czarina, and his valuable territory on the
Black Sea was quietly confirmed to her by a treaty with the Sultan in
1784. Since then it has formed a part of the Russian Empire, together
with part of the Kuban and all the land between the Boog, the Dneister,
and the Black Sea.
The next scene of Admiral Greig's active service was against the
Swedes, who became implicated in the dispute which ensued between
the Porte and the Czarina, against whom they rashly declared war.
Hostilities ensued; the Swedish troops advanced into Finland, and
recaptured several towns.
"Alexis Count Orloff, appointed to command the Mediterranean fleet,
has declined that honour, and left the court," says the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for April, 1788; "and Admiral Greig, on whom it in course
devolved, has pleaded the necessity of a journey to his native country,
to be excused from that service." The armament offered Greig by the
Empress was on a magnificent scale; it consisted of twenty-eight ships
of the line, three of them carrying 100 guns and 800 officers and
seamen each; six of 90 guns, with 650 seamen each; four of 80 guns,
with 600 seamen each; eleven of 74 guns, with 500 men each; two of 64
guns, with 400 men each; two hundred and forty-eight sail of frigates,
sloops, and transports, containing eleven battalions of infantry; two
carracques, with 1000 horse, and seven of marines; twenty-five victual
and hospital ships, mounting in all 1194 pieces of cannon, and having
28,000 men on board.
But the admiral does not seem either to have visited Scotland or sailed
with this armament to the Mediterranean, as he assumed command of the
Imperial Baltic fleet, destined to oppose the Duke of Sudermania,
brother of the King of Sweden, who put to sea with twenty-one sail,
consisting of the _Gustavus_, 111, _Sophia_, _Magdalena_, and _Prins
Gustaf_, of 70 guns each; nine 60-gun ships, six 40-gun frigates, and
three smaller vessels.
Count Wachdmeister led the van, Captain Linderstedt the rear. Sweden
made incredible exertions in this war, the object of which was to
retake Finland and Carelia; four 40-gun frigates were fitting out at
Gottenberg, and nine ships of the line at Carlscrona. The news of these
and other armaments filled St. Petersburg with something very like
consternation; but Greig prepared for sea with all the vessels he could
collect, and the utmost activity prevailed at Riga, where Count Brown,
a veteran Irish general, was governor. Greig declared, however, to the
Empress, that if the United Kingdoms of Great Britain engaged in this
war antagonistic to Russia, he would feel himself under the painful
necessity of resigning his high rank, and returning to his former
position of lieutenant in the Royal Navy; "that he would always exert
himself to the utmost against any other power who might be in alliance
with the enemy, but that he would never fire a shot in the face of his
native country." He ordered the calibre of the ship guns to be altered,
directing that all from 24-pounders downwards should be of less weight
with a larger bore.
In May, 1788, while war and preparations were pending, a dispute ensued
between the Empress and upwards of sixty British officers of her fleet,
on occasion of a rumour being spread abroad, that she meant to receive
into her service Paul Jones, the celebrated Scottish renegade. These
gentlemen, nearly all of whom were Scotsmen, waited on the President
of the Admiralty, and resigned their commissions, delivering, at the
same time, a manifesto, "whereby they not only refused to serve under,
but even _with_ that officer." The French officers who were paid by the
Czarina displayed the same repugnance to have this famous privateersman
for a comrade; and by this dispute, which, however, was soon arranged,
ten sail of the line were for a time completely unofficered. To the
satisfaction of Admiral Greig and his compatriots, it was arranged,
that "Mr. Jones should never be appointed to command in that part of
the ocean where they were employed." In the meantime, a scandalous
adventure of the Chevalier Paul with a girl of loose character, ended
his hope of employment _even_ under Catherine II.
Greig now received from the Emperor of Germany a present of 10,000
roubles and a valuable estate in Livonia. This was just before
he sailed from Cronstadt with the fleet, which consisted of one
three-decker, eight 74-gun ships, eight 66-gun ships, and seven
frigates, to oppose the formidable force of the Duke of Sudermania,
whom he overtook between the island of Schten Seaker and the Bay of
Cabo de Grund.
The Duke of Sudermania states, that with thirty-one sail he was
cruising in the Narrows of Kalkboden and Elkhomen in a dense fog, with
an easterly wind, when, early on the morning of the 17th of July, the
report of alarm guns ahead summoned his crews hurriedly to quarters,
and almost before order of battle could be assumed, amid the dangers
of a lee shore, enveloped in the morning mist, the fleet of the
Scoto-Russian Admiral, consisting then of thirty-three sail, all in
close order, were within gunshot, his van being close to the prince's
centre. After considerable manoeuvring, in which the skill of Greig is
praised by the prince in his dispatch, they were within musket-shot by
five P.M., when the battle began in all its fury, and sixty-four ships,
twenty-nine of which were sail of the line, engaged in all the carnage
of a yard-arm conflict; and so thickly did the smoke of the Russian
fleet settle down upon the Swedes, "that it was impossible to make or
answer signals," says the Duke of Sudermania, "or even to distinguish
our own line."
The duke was in the _Charles Gustavus_, a three-decker; Greig fought
his own ship, the _Rotislaw_ of 100 guns; and the operations of the day
are thus detailed by him in his dispatch to the Empress:--
"I most humbly beg to inform your Imperial Majesty, that on the 17th
of July, about noon, we fell in with the Swedish fleet, consisting of
fifteen ships of the line, carrying from sixty to seventy guns; eight
large frigates (carrying 24-pounders), which were brought into the
line owing to their weight of metal; five smaller frigates, and three
tenders, commanded by the Prince of Sudermania, with an admiral's
flag, and having under his command one vice and two rear admirals. I
immediately signalled to make sail towards the enemy; they formed line
and awaited us--our fleet, as it came up, formed also. The weather was
clear, with a light breeze from the south-east. We bore right down on
the enemy's line, and my flagship, the _Rotislaw_, engaged the Swedish
admiral about five P.M.
"The engagement was very hot on both sides, and lasted without
intermission till six. Twice the Swedes attempted to retreat, but as
it fell quite calm during the contest, and the ships would not answer
their helms, the two fleets fell into some confusion, but the fire
was kept up on both sides till dark, and then the Swedes, assisted
by their boats, got to a distance from our ships. In this action
we have taken the _Prince Gustavus_, of 70 guns, which carried the
vice-admiral's flag.
"She was defended with great bravery for more than an hour against
the _Rotislaw_, and we had above 200 men killed and wounded on board
before she struck. On board of her was the Count Wachdmeister,
A.D.C. General to the King of Sweden, who commanded the van of the
Swedish fleet. He came on board of my ship with an officer whom I
sent to take possession, and delivered to me his flag and sword. In
consideration of his gallant defence, I restored to him the latter.
"I am sorry to inform your Majesty, that in the night, and _after_ the
battle had ceased, the _Wadislaw_ dropped astern of our line and fell
among the Swedish fleet, by whom she was taken, as the darkness of the
night and the thickness of the smoke concealed her from us. I received
notice of this disaster about midnight from a petty officer, who was
dispatched to me before the enemy took possession. In this engagement
several of your Majesty's ships have received considerable damage,
and the whole fleet so much in masts and rigging, that I was not in
a condition to pursue the enemy, who, favoured by the wind, crowded
all the sail they could to reach the coast of Finland, to the east of
Cabo de Grund, and we lost sight of them steering north-east. This
action began between the island of Schten Seaker and the Bay of Cabo
de Grund, the former bearing SSE. distant three German miles, and the
latter NWW. about the same distance, seven and a half miles east of
Hohlang. I subjoin a list of the killed and wounded. The whole fleet
are now repairing sails and rigging.
"I must say, on this occasion, that I never saw a battle maintained
with more spirit and courage on both sides; and we have nothing to
boast of but the capture of the commander of the vanguard, and that
the enemy left _us in possession_ of the field of battle. All the
flag officers, and the greater portion of the captains gave proofs
of the utmost courage and firmness; and the bravery of the subaltern
officers in general is entitled to every praise; BUT it is with grief,
that I am obliged to declare myself very much dissatisfied with the
conduct of certain captains, whom I shall be under the necessity of
superseding. This will be done after a more particular inquiry, the
account of which I shall transmit to your Majesty. If they had done
their duty like good officers and faithful subjects, this action would
have been more completely decisive, and have produced consequences
equally satisfactory to your Majesty and your glorious empire. I must
not fail, at the same time, to make a special report of those who, on
this occasion, personally distinguished themselves by their courage
and conduct. (Here follow the lists.)
"Sam. Carlovitch Greig.
"H.I.M. Ship _Rotislaw_, July 18th, 1788."