“NEVA” – THE FIRST RUSSIAN NAVAL SHIP IN AUSTRALIA
On the dawn of
Thus the first in the history visit of a Russian
naval ship to
The crew of the sloop was small – 5 officers,
doctor, an RAC commissioner and 36 other ranks. Leontiy Andrianovich
Gagemeister (1780-1833) (his portrait on the left hand side) was its
captain. His ancestry was from the Baltic province of Russia, he graduated
from the Naval Cadet Corps in St Petersburg and dedicated his life to service
in the Russian Navy. Prior to the pacific navigation he had served in the
Baltic Fleet and sailed to the Atlantic and Mediterranean. During his volunteer
service in the English Navy the young Russian officer distinguished himself
and deserved a praise from Admiral Nelson himself. The 27-year old captain
was a well educated man, proficient in mathematics and astronomy, could
read and write in Russian, German, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese
languages.
Two other participants of the navigation were,
as well as Gagemeister, of Baltic-German descent – doctor Karl Mordgorst
and lieutenant Moritz Berkh, a future historian and admiral, commander
of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. A young podshturman (junior
navigator) of “Neva” Efim Klochkov was to make two more circumnavigations
– as a shturman of the “Kutuzov” ship in 1816-1819 and as
the captain of the Russian-American Company (RAC) “Riurik” ship on which
he would come to the Australian shores again in 1822. Other officers – second
lieutenant Alexander Kozlianinov and, apparently, shturman Ivan Vasiliev would also stay in Navy after the navigation.
The cargo was supervised by the commissioner Rodion Zakharov, whose task
was to collect data on opportunities of trade with the colonies.
“Neva” (picture on the right hand side - the
ship near the Kamchatka coast) made the open sea out of Kronshtadt on
20 October 1806; the delays on the way led to the point that, after the
call to Brazil in February 1807, it became clear to Gagemeister that it
would be too risky to sail to the Russian America around the Horn Cape in
those stormy autumn time and he chose a new route – across Atlantic and
Indian Oceans and “roaring forties”. The brave navigators had not seen land
for more than three months, and only on 26 May the shores of Van Diemen Land
came into sight. On 15 June 1806 “Neva” was at the entry into Port-Jackson.
The Russian seamen came during a very complicated
period of life of the young colony. Inefficient economy, based on forced
labor of the convicts, a small number of free settlers, dependence of food
import from England had led to the point that the real power had concentrated
in the hands of the “Rum Mafia” – officers of the New South Wales regiment,
which had been detached to guard the colony, and several major landlords.
They had been pooling money to buy delivered goods
and spirits, and then reselling them to the convicts and free settlers
for enormous prices, amassing huge profits. Rum, which fully belonged to
them, had become the only hard currency. Trying to enforce law and order
to the colony, in 1805 the English authorities assigned William Bligh –
a steadfast and resolute naval officer - to the Governor’s position.
It was that captain Bligh whose ship “Bounty”
in 1789 had been captured by her mutinied crew not far from Tahiti. The
mutineers settled down on the uninhabited Pitcairn
Island, and Bligh with a group of loyal officers, braving hardships, crossed
the pacific in a boat and reached Timor. Having arrived in Sydney in August
1806, he tried to overthrow the local Mafia. The confrontation lasted nearly
a year and a half. Seven months after the call of “Neva” in Port-Jackson
Bligh suffered a new fiasco – the local officers headed by Major J. Johnston
organised ‘Rum Rebellion’, overthrew Bligh and seized the power in the colony.
The Russian seamen had a chance to meet the
main personalities of the oncoming drama. On 24 June 1807 Gagemeister wrote
in his report to RAC:
“At the moment the local Governor Bligh is inspecting
the inland towns, during his absence the acting Commander Johnston and
chief of the Naval Department Mr. Campbell provided us with the utmost
courtesy. (Robert Campbell – another personality of the early history of
Sydney – who combined functions of the custom officer and merchant who delivered
rum to the colony against all prohibitions.) The Governor Bligh arrived
and yesterday paid us a visit, in the evening we were invited to his place
for a ball.”
There is no data to judge how deeply the Russians
could understand the conflict inside the colonial administration, but,
undoubtedly, Gagemeister favored the Bligh’s position:
The current Governor by his good directions
will, may be, increase the value of this settlement.”
The Bligh’s “directions” consisted exactly in
attempts to break the trade monopoly of the officers and rich landowners,
normalise the financial system, limit the uncontrolled usage of convict
labor by well-off colonists in their own interests.
Of course, for the Russians the colonial economy
was of much grater interest than the power struggle in it. The Russians
felt some economical problems on themselves. “They have delivered us meat
and supply us with bread and vegetables by the Governor’s order, - Gagemeister
wrote. – Honestly, I did not want [to buy] fresh meat here as a pound costs
2 shillings, but… in five days I hope to sail away and don’t want from
them anything else… Everything is excessively expensive here.”
Apart from it Gagemeister highly appraised the
energetic activities of the English in development of the colony:
“This settlement is in initial condition, though
surprisingly much has been done, apart from Sydney the towns of Paramatta
and Hawkesbury have been founded, and coal is mined in the Guntus (Hunter)
valley near the sea coast… The inner part of this vast island, barred
by the highest mountains, is yet unexplored.”
They Russians performed interest to the condition
of life of convicts, and especially to their successful return to normal
life: the convicts are “under strict supervision at the State’s cost or,
if their behavior wins respect, receive tickets of leave and can earn their
living by any trade. The labor is so expensive, that many convicts have
made big money over 10 years, particularly one of them, which now owns more
than 30 000 pounds.”
Telling about the development of Tasmania which
commenced in 1803, Gagemeister emphasizes that the convicts received land
allotments over there. This interest to the favorable conditions of convict
life in Australia would be expressed by the Russian seamen during following
visits.
Despite the economical and administration difficulties
suffered by the young colony, the Russians generally formed an optimistic
outlook about its future:
“ The soil is fertile… Eventually, one should
guess, - Gagemeister noted clairvoyantly, - this
land will abound in bread and almost everything what is needed for life,
and due to the short distance from China and East-Indies, as soon as the
local demand grows and products become recognised, a good trade will take
place.”
Thus, already in the beginning of the XIX century
Gagemeister foresaw that links with China and South-East Asia will play
a significant role in the economical thriving of Australia, i.e., what
is happening nowadays.
Gagemeister was the first in yet another field.
He stressed in his letter to RAC, that Russia could find “advantage in
trade with this part of the world, as all our products here are of a great
value, and timber products, which are known as she-oak and better than
mahogany wood for furniture, may be imported from here.” He also advised
about possible participation of the RAC ships in intermediary trade between
Australia and England, Australia and Brazil. The Russian seamen would write
about prospects of Russian-Australian trade many more times, but in the
XIX century it did not find development. Gagemeister also noted the navigation
advantages of the route from the European Russia to the Russian America
with a call to “New Holland” and emphasised the convenience of the Sydney
harbor as an anchorage during far ocean navigation.
The Russian seamen were also interested in the
life of the Aborigines what is evidenced by their ethnographic collection
described by Gagemeister the following way: “Arrows for war games, simple
with no notches – two, combat ones – four; the ones for fishing – one.
Shields – one.” (The listed above arrows are, in fact, spears and harpoon,
as the Aborigines didn’t know arrows.) There was also a special “plank
to throw arrows” – spear-thrower. A straight cylindrical stake – this was,
probably, a club, and skewed flat ones – boomerangs. The collection was
sent to St Petersburg and nowadays it would be of a great ethnographic interest,
but, unfortunately, its future whereabouts area unknown.
Bligh and Gagemeister developed warm relations
between themselves. Russia and England were then allies (a little longer
than a month left till the Tilzit peace agreement and temporary
deterioration of Russo-English relations). Bligh had met Russians before,
in particular, on the Unalashka Island where he called in 1778 on the
“Resolution” ship during the third expedition of James Cook, and later
in 1790-ties, when the Russian sailors assisted England during its war
against the continental Europe. No doubt, at the time the foreigners from
the far country ignited a lot of interest in the Sydney society. Gagemeister
paid Bligh an official visit, and on 23 June received him onboard of his
ship. The Russians greeted the high-ranking guest in accordance to all
the rules of the naval etiquette and saluted with the ship cannons. On
the night of the same day the captain and the officers were invited for
dinner and ball to the Governor’s residence – so called Government House.
It was situated in the Bridge Street, and Russian seamen would come here
many times more in the following years. The elite of the local society,
“gentlemen and their ladies”, as the “Sydney Gazette’ described it, were
present. At 11 p.m. the night sky was illuminated
by firework, the dinner commenced at midnight, and then dancing lasted till
the very morning. The party was a success and, who knows, maybe it was one
of the last carefree nights fallen upon Bligh in Sydney… Anyway he had all grounds to write in his report to London that the Russian sloop ‘received every supply they
wished for; and every respect and attention was shown to the Imperial
Flag’. On 1 July 1807 “Neva”
left the hospitable shores of Port-Jackson and in September arrived in
the capital of the Russian America – Novoarchangelsk.
Gagemeister was to conduct two more circumnavigations – in 1816-1819 on “Suvorov” and in 1828-1830 on “Krotkyi”. Later he became the director of the Russian-American Company and director of a merchant navigation college.
The jubelee medal which honoured the 150th anniversary of the first Russian navigation to Australia
In 1957 the Australian section of the Historic
Military Society issued a jubilee medal honoring the 150th
anniversary of the visit of “Neva”. Thus, the Russians who settled in
Australia immortalized the name of the first Russian naval ship which
came to the shores of the fifth continent.