Crewes, Cornelius

Childhood

The man, who became famous as Cornelius Kruys, was born on June 14, 1655 in the Norwegian city of Stavanger , in the family of tailor Ole Gundfastesen (? - November 1668 ) and his wife Apelune Cook ( 1627 - May 23, 1705 ). The boy was born before his parents got married, so the parents moved the official date of his birth 2 years later ^[2] . During the baptism carried out according to the Lutheran rite ^[3] , the boy was named Niels Ulsen. The future Russian admiral changed his name and surname only after entering the Dutch service ^[4] . The Kruys family was not rich, but, according to the concepts of the 17th century , it did not live poorly: an apprentice worked for Niels Ulsen's father, and Ole Gundfastesen himself raised six children - two girls and four boys, including Niels ^[5] . The Gundfastesen family house was located in the Beckenclave district, where (as of 1999) was the residence of the mayor of Stavanger. When Niels was 7 years old, his family moved from Beckenclave and settled on a slope opposite the modern Skagen Quay, just below and away from the existing Valbergtornet tower. The new house of the Niels family was located only 30–40 meters from the Stavanger harbor: the young Nils Ulsen literally grew up on the seashore, so it is not surprising that he connected his adult life with the sea ^[6] .

Life in 1668-1695

In November 1668, Niels lost his father ^[7] . Shortly after his death, Niels' mother, Apelune, sent a 14-year-old teenager Niels Ulsen to the sea, identifying him, most likely, on a Dutch ship, which delivered Niels to the Netherlands ^[8] . Kruys 'further advancement in the Dutch service was largely due to his ties with Norway ^[5] and the Norwegians - at the time of Kruys' youth, close ties existed between the Netherlands and southwestern Norway ^[9] .

Virtually nothing is known about the subsequent 12 years of Cornelius Kruys's life. According to Kruis, in 1672 - 1673 (that is, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War ) he served as a sailor in the Dutch fleet ^[10] . Once again, the name of the future admiral appears in the sources only in 1680 . Even then, he was the captain of the merchant ship "Africa", taking on board in Lisbon salt , sugar and fruit ^[3] . Written information about his sea voyages in that period is marked by poverty and extreme incompleteness. From Dutch documents it is only known that he worked for nine shipowners and before joining the Amsterdam Admiralty (1696) he traveled to three parts of the world: Europe, Asia, America ^[3] . It is well known that he visited Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark and a certain Italian state. Kruys himself, in one of his own letters, claimed that he served six monarchs and three republics ^[11] .

In 1681, Kruis married a young girl named Katharina Voigt, daughter of the Dutch captain and merchant Klaas Pieterson Voogt and his wife Jeannette Jans. Both newlyweds were Protestants: Kruys belonged to the Lutheran church , and Katarina belonged to the Reformed church . In the marriage with Katharina, Kruys had five children, two of them died in childhood. The three others - daughter Juhanna (1682) and two sons, Jan (1688) and Rudolph (1690) very rarely saw their father for many years ^[12] .

Kruis often went on merchant ships to Portugal and Spain (he visited the island port of Cadiz Kruis even during his youth). He also drove ships to South America with cargo for the Dutch colony of Curacao , in addition, he was involved in the delivery of goods to Cuba . Some researchers also believe that during these voyages Kruys was engaged in the slave trade, which was widespread in that era ^[3] . Crews drove ships to the East Indies, in the latter, as well as in the Netherlands, he was engaged in the lifting of sunken ships ^[3] .

Privateer career

During his voyages, Kruys had to marry . Such occupations in the era of the initial accumulation of capital were the usual thing for captains of well-armed merchant ships. So one day, around 1689 , on the way back from Cuba, he took as a prize a French merchant ship from Santo Domingo ^[12] .

But two years later, luck turned its back on Kruys himself. At that time, there was a war between France and the Netherlands, and the ship of Kruys on the way from Spain to the Netherlands captured French privateers. In October 1691, his former privateer ship was towed to the French port of Brest , and he himself was thrown into prison ^[13] .

Having got into such a difficult life situation, 36-year-old Kruys did not despair. He turned to his family in Stavanger for evidence that he is a Norwegian, that is, a Danish subject. Since Denmark was not at that time in a state of war with France, in the event that Kruys would have received the necessary documents confirming his Danish citizenship, the seizure of his ship and his arrest should have been recognized as illegal under French law. Kruys spent almost half a year in prison before the police chief, Stavanger, at the request of his mother, sent the Kruis metric to France and issued a copy to his mother ^[13] . After Kruys secured the necessary evidence of his belonging to Danish citizenship, the French authorities “expressed regret” over the capture of the ship's captain from a neutral state, released him from prison and returned the ship ^[14] .

Despite the troubles that fell to his lot and the ongoing war, Kruys continued to shuttle between Cadiz and Amsterdam for the next three years. What cargoes he delivered from Spain to the Netherlands is not known. From the Netherlands, he delivered cheese to Spain, which protected five cats from ship rats ^[14] . After twenty-five voyages across the seas and oceans, Captain Kruys became a very active and skilled specialist in navigation and ship navigation, and in addition he gained good naval experience ^[14] .

Service in the Dutch Admiralty and transition to the Russian service

In 1696, Cornelius Kruys ended his service on merchant ships of private shipowners and began serving in the Amsterdam Admiralty. Although Kruys was assigned to the military department, nevertheless, he did not have a military rank ^[15] . At first, Kruys was presented with only temporary work for three months, but since October 1696 he received a permanent position as a non-commissioned crewmaster . His duties for two years included equipment and supervision of the Dutch warships ^[16] .

Life on the coast turned for Kruys in unforeseen troubles. On Christmas Eve of 1696, the settlement with a cooper for several ship barrels repaired by him for Kruys turned into an unpleasant story for the latter. The cooper, dissatisfied with the low pay, frantically left the furnished rooms of the Kruys dwelling, and then returned with a large horde of his friends and hard hit the non-commissioned crewmaster directly in the face, as a result of which Kruys, a sailor of considerable height (about 190 cm), was tipped over on his back, after which the Orava that attacked him left, leaving him with a sore head ^[16] .

In the new, 1697 , influential officials of the Amsterdam Admiralty blamed Cornelius for shortages in the treasury, while at the same time accusing him of loading poor-quality food on one of the Dutch vessels. In the winter of 1698, a new problem arose - the threat of dismissal and unemployment hung over Kruys: the war of 1688–1697 finally ended, and the conclusion of peace entailed an inevitable consequence - the reduction of personnel in the navy ^[16] . Suddenly, a new hope appeared on Kruys 'life horizon: Cornelius' friend, Amsterdam burgomaster Nikolaas Witsen in November 1697 hinted to him that the Russian Tsar Peter I wanted to hire Kruys for the construction of the Russian Navy ^[17] .

Peter I, who at that time was in the Netherlands as part of the Grand Embassy , initially hoped to hire the famous Dutch Vice Admiral Gill Schehe for the Russian naval service, but he rejected the Tsar’s offer and politely proposed Cornelius Kruys instead ^[18] . Communicating with Dutch officers and shipbuilders during his training at Dutch shipyards, Tsar Peter heard many flattering reviews about Cornelius Kruys, a sailor who traveled around the world ^[18] . According to eyewitnesses, Peter I met with Kruys and “was very pleased with him” ^[18] . Probably, the tsar’s favorable impression of his meetings with Kruys, as well as the recommendations of Nikolas Witsen, a longtime friend of Peter I ^[17] , allowed Kruys to enter the Russian naval service. At first, Kruys hesitated to accept or not to accept the offer of Tsar Peter: Russia at that time was “considered an outpost of barbarism before European civilization” ^[17] , but in the end, he agreed and signed a contract on April 9, 1698, to enter the Russian service. Under the terms of the contract, Cornelius Kruys received the rank of vice admiral , the annual salary of 9,000 guilders (the annual salary of the vice admiral of the Dutch fleet at that time was 2,400 guilders ^[18] ), an advance in the amount of a six-month salary, and the opportunity to get the same position in Amsterdam Admiralty, if he does not want to extend the contract with the Russian authorities in 3-4 years. In the event that the enemy captures Kruys prisoner, the king was obliged to redeem him ^[19] . In addition, Kruys was provided with a personal translator - Ivan Kropotkin, who spoke Dutch, two ministers, a personal secretary, five servants, among whom was a Lutheran pastor ^[20] .

In June 1698 , Cornelius Kruys left the Netherlands aboard one of four ships leaving for Russia with 600 Dutch sailors, craftsmen and apprentices hired by the Dutch Embassy during the Great Embassy . On the way to Russia, Kruys handed over to his mother and sister a copy of his will before his departure from the Netherlands regarding the property he had inherited from his father in Stavanger . On August 15, 1698, Kruys landed in Arkhangelsk , and a month later he arrived in Moscow ^[21] .

Work in Voronezh (1698-1702)

Peter I, who returned from the Great Embassy to Moscow a few weeks earlier than Kruys, met the Vice Admiral with all honors ^[22] . And soon Kruys with the king went to Voronezh , where he arrived at the end of October 1698 .

Peter I, upon arrival in Voronezh, entrusted Kruys with supervision of the ships and shipyards already in Voronezh. However, the fleet built by the camps established by Peter the Great turned out to be in disrepair: Kruys was of the opinion that it was not worth relying on the ships of this fleet and it was necessary to proceed with the construction of a completely new fleet using the most advanced technologies for that time, building with the most skilled shipbuilders ^[23] .

Taking up the work entrusted to him, Kruys showed his characteristic enthusiasm and extreme intransigence to poor-quality work, slowness and laziness ^[24] . In the spring of 1699, the vice admiral carried out several tasks at once, which Peter I hardly considered feasible when he entrusted them to Kruys. The admiral repaired and brought to “good” condition 58 military ships, which were previously considered unsuitable for navigation. At the same time, Kruys led the construction of 60 new ships, and also made draft drawings of the first Russian 58-gun battleship Goto Predestination (“God's Foresight”) and, together with Tsar Peter, oversaw its construction ^[25] .

After the death of the first head of the Russian naval department, Franz Lefort , in March 1699, the tsar appointed Fedor Alekseevich Golovin in his place - a man who was completely ignorant of naval affairs and, according to Turgrim Titlestad, who was appointed to this post only to not too annoying the enemies of Tsar Peter, who were very sensitive to the appointments of foreigners, such as Patrick Gordon and Franz Lefort, to high "command" posts ^[26] . Cornelius Kruys became Golovin’s closest adviser and, in fact, “true fleet leader” ^[25] .

On August 14, 1699, Vice Admiral Kruys, at the head of the Russian flotilla of 10 warships and 2 galleys, personally selected for the campaign by Peter I, sailed from the Sea of Azov on the ship " Good Start ". The flagship of the flotilla was the 46-gun ship "Fortress" under the command of Captain Pamburg. The Vice Admiral was entrusted with an important mission - to deliver safe and sound the Russian ambassador E.I. Ukraintsev to Istanbul for concluding a peace treaty with the Turks - a necessary guarantee of Turkey’s neutrality on the eve of Russia's already scheduled launch of military operations against Sweden in the Baltic ^[27] .

At dawn on August 18, 1699, the ships of the Kruys flotilla, aboard one of which was the Russian tsar , anchored in the harbor of Kerch . The Russian fleet in Kerch was met by the Turkish fleet consisting of 4 warships and 9 galleys: both fleets saluted each other with cannons ^[28] . Having learned that the Russian fleet accompanying the Ukraintsev’s embassy intends to move the Black Sea to Istanbul, the Turkish side represented by the commandant of Kerch Hasan Pasha, during the eleven-day negotiations, sought the Russian side’s refusal of its initial plans and suggested that the Ukraintsev’s embassy move to Istanbul by land ^{[28 ]} . As a result of negotiations, the Turks made concessions to the Russian delegation, which included Cornelius Kruys ^[29] , and allowed the Ukraintsev embassy to move to Istanbul by sea in the Russian 46-gun ship "Fortress" , accompanied by 1 Turkish ship. Apparently, the main merit in the favorable outcome of the negotiations for the Russian side belonged to Kruys, who allegedly declared with diplomatic directness after lengthy and ineffective negotiations:

In this case [in the event of a breakdown in negotiations] it will be easier for the Russians to find a way from Kerch to Constantinople than for the Turks in the opposite direction ^[30] .

After the safe sending of the Ukraintsev embassy, ​​Kruys returned to Voronezh . Until 1702, Kruys continued to work in Voronezh . He was still engaged in the repair and supply of ships of the Azov fleet . In addition to fulfilling his basic duties, Vice Admiral Kruys paid considerable attention to the mapping work of the Sea of ​​Azov and the Don River , which had begun before him by Russian and Dutch experts. The result of this activity of the vice admiral was an accurate map of the Sea of ​​Azov and the mouth of the Don River, published in the Netherlands in 1704 , using which it was possible to navigate the Russian fleet through the shallow mouth of the Don to the Sea of ​​Azov and further to the Black ^[25] .

Captions

Kruys in Arkhangelsk (March — August 1702)

In March 1702, after a fourteen-day journey, Kruys arrived in Arkhangelsk ^[31] . Vice Admiral Peter I personally was entrusted with the task of strengthening the defensive system of the city in order to prevent the Swedes from trying again to destroy the only Russian commercial port through which all the foreign trade of the Russian state with Western Europe was carried out ^[32] . So, in the spring of 1702, the Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, Andrei Artamonovich Matveev , obtained information about the preparation by the Swedes of a larger expedition against Arkhangelsk than in 1701 ^[33] .

After arriving in Arkhangelsk, the vice admiral quickly established that from a military point of view, the state of Arkhangelsk was hopelessly bad: the fortifications of the city were launched, and two ships captured from the Swedes in 1701 were not combat-ready and no one was responsible for their unsuitability for naval service status ^[17] . Despite the fact that there was equipment and people to repair both the ships and the fortifications, the Arkhangelsk governor Alexei Petrovich Prozorovsky claimed that he had not received any orders from the tsar to begin work, and therefore did not see any reason to assist Kruys in both of these undertakings ^[17] .

Since Kruys had 1,200 Arkhangelsk soldiers under his command, he wanted to involve them in the repair of neglected city fortifications. However, the Arkhangelsk voivode again prevented Kruys in this matter. Using his official powers, he sabotaged the activities of the vice admiral, ordering the soldiers to carry out only those tasks that he considered necessary, and to defame those who disobeyed his order. In response to the protests of the Kruys, the governor replied: “The governor rules in Arkhangelsk, not the vice admiral” ^[17] . The outcome of the confrontation between Kruys and Prozorovsky is unknown.

Despite the opposition of the local governor, something was done to strengthen Arkhangelsk. Kruys as the commander of the Arkhangelsk squadron inspected her ships in the White Sea and sailed to the famous Solovetsky Monastery . In addition, the Vice Admiral collected information about the situation in the delta of the Northern Dvina. The result of his activity was the concentration in the hands of the Vice Admiral of important information on the resources available in this area for the fight against the Swedes ^[33] .

Peter I , who arrived at the end of May 1702 from Moscow to Arkhangelsk, immediately after his arrival, began to build the Arkhangelsk fortifications and new warships. However, there is no information on whether he demanded from Kruys a personal report on the events that occurred in Arkhangelsk ^[33] .

Trip to the Netherlands

In August 1702, Peter I left Arkhangelsk, entrusting Vice Admiral Kruys with an extremely important task for Russia. The Northern War demanded, along with new arms deliveries, new knowledge available abroad, as well as new officers and privates, so Kruys had to “get” them in the Netherlands, making the necessary purchases and hiring the officers and privates necessary for the Russian army and navy. The task entrusted by Peter I to Kruys was a kind of sign of the king's trust in Kruys. “The Vice Admiral arrived in Amsterdam with the state secrets of Russia and could betray Tsar Peter who gave him the order” ^[34] , but it is obvious that Tsar Peter trusted Kruyes's reputation and knew that Cornelius Kruyce would never do this.

Kruys, departing from Arkhangelsk on a Dutch ship in August 1702, arrived in Amsterdam in September or October of that year ^[35] . One of the most pleasant and easy tasks for Kruys was the publication of the Atlas of the Don River entrusted to him, the result of his own painstaking cartographic work. The atlas was eventually published in 1703 by the Amsterdam publishing house ^[35] .

Before leaving for Russia, Kruys was given two main assignments. The first of these was the deployment of 150 Russian youths on Dutch warships for practical training in maritime affairs. However, upon arriving in Holland with the implementation of this assignment, serious difficulties arose. Although Kruys' old friend, the Amsterdam burgomaster, Nikolaas Witsen , who was part of the leadership of the Dutch East India Company , did everything in his power, he was unable to get the young men on board the ships. Kruys, along with his wards, arrived in the Netherlands too late in the fall, when the Dutch vessels were already fully equipped with crews for winter swimming ^[35] . In addition, even the secretary of the Amsterdam Admiralty, De Wilde, who had favorably reacted to the request of Kruys who had addressed to him, noted that many of the Russians were still too young to be admitted to the courts.

Again, the Vice Admiral found himself in a situation that seemed hopeless. He was personally responsible for one and a half hundred young men who did not speak any other language except their native language. Every day Kruys had to take care of their food and housing and desperately seek a way out of this situation ^[35] .

Despite the problems, Kruys, nevertheless, managed to put a few people on the East Indian ships , he managed to place several more young men on whalers, going to icy Greenland. He had to arrange all his other students in the vicinity of Amsterdam with students of blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and tool makers. Crews expressed his own despair over the impossibility of finding Russian young people in a letter to Russia. In it, he wrote that it would be easier to arrange 2,000 adult Russians in the service than one and a half hundred of these young men. Moreover, due to the outbreak of the war for the Spanish inheritance , into which the Netherlands were drawn, the living conditions in Amsterdam worsened ^[36] . Kruys, who was unable to arrange all his wards even with students of local artisans, realized that the fifty remaining could be perceived as a threat to the unemployed Dutch, and therefore in a letter to Tsar Peter I proposed to pay for the school fees of the remaining unsettled at his own expense, and undertook to verify that some young men themselves asked to go to school, and also emphasized that in this large group of young men there are many very gifted ^[36] . He wrote:

I think that the great sovereign never did the best thing, below this, that he gave the children for teaching. If it was in my will, and I would have held the guys for another year at a German school and then I would have given them to doctoral, medical, and philosophical teachings ^[36] .

In the summer of 1703, Vice Admiral was given permission to send 33 young men to school. Kruys wrote to F. A. Golovin that he fulfills this task with joy; he also sent extracts from the letters of the young men to Moscow to show that they show abilities and diligence. Tsar Kruys assured that throughout his stay in Amsterdam he would take care of them as his own children ^[36] .

During his stay in Amsterdam, Vice Admiral Cornelius Kruys did not forget about the second main assignment of Tsar Peter I - the hiring of new officers and sailors, the purchase of weapons and ammunition. At first, Kruys managed to hire naval officers and sailors to the Russian service, but the success of the vice admiral in this endeavor began to worry the Amsterdam Admiralty more and more. The hiring of Dutch sailors for Russian service threatened a breakdown in the navy of the Republic of the United Provinces , which participated in the threatened long war of the Spanish Succession. In March 1703, the Dutch authorities ordered the completion of the campaign to recruit personnel for ships within fourteen days (hiring private sailors was forbidden), and only after a month this ban was lifted, and Kruys continued his work on recruiting people to Russian naval service. Since there was a shortage of skilled sailors in the Netherlands due to the war, Kruys was not satisfied with the number of people hired by him in the Netherlands. Therefore, part of the sailors was hired by him in Norway, on his return trip to Russia ^[36] . In total, in 1703-1704, Kruys employed 96 naval officers and sailors. In the autumn of 1703, thanks to the efforts of Kruys, about 450 people employed by Kruis arrived in Arkhangelsk with the first ships, including 190 women and children. In 1704, another 177 Dutch arrived in the Arkhangelsk port ^[36] . Among them were artists: sculptors, painters and architects ^[37] .

Many of the people who arrived in the summer of 1704 along with Kruys who returned to Russia later became famous and reached high ranks and positions. So, Kruis brought with him the future polar traveler and Admiral Vitus Bering , Chancellor and Admiral General Heinrich Johann Friedrich Osterman , Admiral Peter Bredal , as well as some less well-known, but no less important persons in the history of the Russian Navy: Schautbenacht Weybrant Shelting , Captain 1st Rank Henrik Wessel, Captain-Commander Peter Brandt and Captain Terres Traney (both of them were from Stavanger) ^[38] .

Although the Dutch authorities did not like the fact that Kruys deprived them of sailors, nevertheless, they were very pleased with Russian arms purchases, despite the obligation before the Swedes not to supply Russia with weapons and ammunition. The fact that the members of the Amsterdam City Hall turned a blind eye to the sale of arms to Russia, Kruys owed his friend Nikolaas Witsen ^[39] .

The multilateral giftedness and activity of Kruys was expressed in the fact that at the same time as the aforementioned cases, he maintained contacts with the king. The Norwegian monitored political and military initiatives taking into account developments in the Baltic Sea and constantly participated in diplomatic discussions with representatives of states other than the Netherlands ... one should not exclude the possibility that he played an important role in the Russian intelligence network, about which in Western Europe almost suspected ... In general, we can say that Kruys not only watched the training of Russians in naval affairs, recruited officers and sailors, bought weapons, but also played a role in big politics. Working in the Netherlands, he acted in the geopolitical interests of Russia on the European continent ... It is hard to imagine how the country and Peter would have achieved such favorable results if it were not for the personal efforts and contribution to the work of Cornelius Kruys ^[39] .

Service in the years 1704-1710

Return to Russia and a new appointment

After returning to Russia in the summer of 1704, Cornelius Kruys was assigned to manage the armament of the ships of the Baltic Fleet and all the ranks of ship's crews ^[40] . Vice Admiral supervised the construction of housing for workers who built St. Petersburg , and was responsible for fire safety and protection of buildings from the Neva floods. At the same time, he developed a project for his own house, known as the Kruys Palace , which was started in 1705 and was a two-story wooden house that combined the features of the Russian, Dutch and Norwegian styles ^[37] . The house was located on the site between the Admiralty and the palace of Peter I (on the site of the future building of the Great Hermitage ), the courtyard extended to Greek Street . From 1719 to 1723, according to the project of G. Mattarnovi and N. Gerbel, a new admiral's house with 18 marinas was erected on the Neva embankment . The Kruys Palace was considered one of the most luxurious in the city. A baroque garden ^[41] and a church were built inside the courtyard.

Kotlin Defense

In the fall of 1704, the Vice Admiral arrived on the island of Kotlin . The main task of K.I. Kruys was to strengthen the island's defenses as soon as possible in order to successfully repel the impending attack on Kotlin by the Swedish squadron under the command of Kruys namesake Admiral Cornelius Ankarsherna and prevent the capture of the island by the Swedes. The capture of Kotlin by the Swedish landing threatened with a complete blockade of the mouth of the Neva and the destruction of St. Petersburg under construction. In the spring of 1705, Kruys was appointed commander of the Baltic Fleet and commander of the land units stationed on Kotlin ^[40] . By that time, the construction of an artillery battery, which was being built under the direction of Kruys son, Jan, was completed on the island. The battery received the name "Saint Jan", "Sant Jan" or simply "Ivanovskaya" - in honor of Jan Kruys ^{[42] [43]} .

Further Service

• Under the supervision of Kruys, the creation of a fortress and harbor in Kronstadt and Tolbukhin lighthouse was completed .
• In 1709, the first Lutheran parish was opened for foreign sailors and builders of the city on the territory of the estate of K. Kruys. The first school in the city for their children opened there. Subsequently, the school moved to Nevsky Prospect , d. 22/24 and received the name " Petrishule ". The school is the oldest educational institution in St. Petersburg, and K. Kruys is considered its founder.
• Headed the squadron in the Gulf of Finland in 1713 , Kruys had Peter the Great under his command. Near Revel (now Tallinn ), the Russian squadron, noticing enemy ships, set off in pursuit of them, but the ships "Riga" and "Vyborg" ran aground , and the enemy managed to leave. For this, the military court, which included the king himself, sentenced Kruys to death, replaced by exile in Kazan . After returning from exile, Kruys was appointed in 1717 as vice president of the Admiralty College .
• Only after the death of Peter, Catherine the First returned to Kruys all his awards and orders.
• Kruys died June 3 ( 14 ), 1727 from a heart attack in St. Petersburg . He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra .

Track record

• 1698 - Admitted to the Russian service in Holland from the captains, and was awarded the rank of vice admiral. Compiled the first rules of maritime service, borrowing them from the Dutch and Danish charters. He took part in the hiring for the fleet of many foreigners, with whom he arrived in Russia in the same year. Sent to Voronezh, where he was engaged in the construction of the Admiralty and the Navy established there.
• 1699 - Participated in the Kerch campaign, commanding the ship "Good Start" ; during the voyage along the Don, I made an inventory of the river and compiled its atlas and description of the naval voyage along the Don from the mouth of the river to Voronezh, and from Taganrog to Kerch, and vice versa.
• 1700 and 1701 - Engaged in the construction of the fleet in Voronezh.
• 1702 - Fortified Arkhangelsk, commanding the Arkhangelsk squadron, sailed with her in the White Sea to the Solovetsky Monastery and the village of Nyuhcha in the Onega Bay, and in the fall went on a foreign merchant ship to Holland.
• 1703 - He was in Holland, managing the employment of foreigners for the Russian fleet, and the distribution of ships sent to the ships, ports and schools of the Russians with him for training in naval affairs and admiralty skills.
• 1704 - Through Arkhangelsk he returned from Holland to Petersburg; upon arrival, took control of the Baltic Fleet. He established the order in the distribution of commands among ships, in the supply of ships and the admiralty with supplies, food and uniforms for naval officers.
• 1705 - He commanded the defense of Kotlin and the fleet located near Kronshlot , having a flag on the ship "Defam"; repelled the attack of the strongest Swedish fleet, which had the intention of ruining Petersburg.
• 1706 - He stood with the fleet at Kronshlot, having a flag on the ship "Olyphant" .
• 1707 - Having a flag on the Defam ship, he was in the fleet under the command of Admiral Apraksin and went on the first cruise to Krasnaya Gorka .
• 1708 - Having the flag on the ship "Olyphant", he was with the fleet near Kronshlot, in full readiness to repel the attack of the Swedish fleet that had come to look like Kotlin.
• 1709 - He was in charge of the fleet at Kotlin’s, having the flag first on the Olyphant ship, and then on the Dumkrat ship .
• 1710 - At the head of the fleet and having a flag on the Oliphant ship, he escorted transport to Vyborg to Vyborg with provisions and siege artillery. He measured the fairways at Kronshlot. In the event of a war with Turkey, in the fall, he was sent to Voronezh to prepare for the campaign of the Azov fleet .
• 1711 - Having a flag on the Mercury ship, he commanded a squadron of the Azov fleet, which was stationed in the Taganrog harbor. At the conclusion of peace with Turkey, he went to Petersburg; actively began to improve the admiralty in St. Petersburg and Kotlin; at the latter he was in charge of the construction of the harbor and barracks.
• 1712 - Commanded the fleet, standing at Kronshlot, having a flag on the ship "Riga"; he sent some of the ships of his squadron to pursue the cruisers who had separated from the Swedish fleet, and, subsequently, was brought to trial for terminating the chase prematurely. At the sovereign’s wedding, he occupied a “fatherly” place.
• 1713 - Was with the squadron in sailing, having a flag on the ship "Riga" ; sent to Revel to connect with purchased ships that came from abroad, he met and pursued three enemy ships. During this chase, the Vyborg and Riga ships ran aground, while others stopped the chase. The ship "Riga" was removed from the shallows, and the "Vyborg" was burned.
• 1714 - Charged in court with the loss of a ship and the neglect of the enemy, as well as for stopping the chase, sentenced to death, replaced by exile in Kazan, where he immediately went.
• 1715 - Returned from exile and appointed to manage Admiralty and crew affairs.
• 1716 - For the slowness in supplying the Revel squadron, he received a severe reprimand from the sovereign, with the threat, "if you continue to do so, you can lose your stomach."
• 1717 - Was sent to Revel to take measures to protect the port and the ships in it from the expected attack by the Swedes.
• 1717 - December 15 was appointed vice president of the Admiralty College , was in this position until his death.
• 1721 - October 22, on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with the Swedes, was promoted to admiral .
• 1722 - In the absence of Count Apraksin, he performed his duties in managing the fleet and ports.
• 1723 - For non-existence at the “water assembly” he was fined 50 rubles.
• 1725 - I often didn’t go to collegium for illness, but signed cases at home.
• 1727 - June 3, died in St. Petersburg. Buried in Amsterdam.

• In Taganrog, the name of Admiral Kruys is street.
• In the admiral’s hometown, Stavanger , a sculptural monument by Per Ung has been erected.
• The name of the admiral is the underground passage under the Shuvalovsky passage of the State Hermitage . The passage was built on the site where the house of Cornelius Kruys was located until the middle of the 18th century.

Bibliography

• Kreis K.I. Extract from a magazine held by Mr. Vice Admiral Kreis on the way from Moscow to Voronezh, from Voronezh to Azov ... 1699 // Notes of the Hydrographic Department of the Ministry of the Sea. - 1830. - T. 8 . - S. 367–394 .
• Cruys C. Nieuw Pas-Kaart Boek, behelsende de groote Rivier Don of Tanais, na deselfs waaragtige gelegen heydt-strekking, en cours, vande Stadt Woronets, tot daar hy in Zee valdt met zyn invloeiende stroomen, eilandten, steden d etc ... = A new drawing book containing the great river Don, or Tanais, in its true position, expansion and course, and the city of Voronezh even to the point where it flows into the sea with its flowing rivers, islands, cities, villages, monasteries, etc. ... - Amsterdam: Hendrick Dunker Publishing House, 1703. - P. 16. (nid.)

Sources

• Letters and papers of Peter the Great / Bychkov A.F. - St. Petersburg. : State Printing House, 1887. - T. 1.
• Letters and papers of Peter the Great / Bychkov A.F. - St. Petersburg. : State Printing House, 1889. - T. 2.
• Letters and papers of Peter the Great / Bychkov A.F. - St. Petersburg. : State Printing House, 1893. - T. 3.
• Whitworth, Charles . An account of Russia as it was in the year 1710. - Strawberry-Hill, 1758. - P. 158.
• Yust Yul . Notes by Just Julius, Danish Envoy at the Russian Court (1709-1711) // Shcherbachev, Yu. N. Russian Archive, 1892. - Book 1. - Vol. 3. - S. 273-304; Book 2. - Vol. 5. - S. 35-74; Vol. 7. - S. 319-333; Book 3. - Vol. 9. - S. 5-48; Vol. 11. - S. 241—262. - 1899.

Articles

• Koningsbrugge H. van. The Secret Activities of Cornelius Kruys in the Netherlands // Titlestad T. Cornelius Kruys: Admiral Peter the Great: a collection of articles. - M .; SPb., 1998.
• Kruys, Cornelius Ivanovich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Kreis, Cornelius Ivanovich - an article in the Sytin Military Encyclopedia .
• Mazur T. P. Personality of Admiral K. Kruys (Niels Olsen) // Admiral Cornelius Kruys: Materials of seminars: St. Petersburg, December 9, 1994; Stavanger, February 16, 1995: a collection of articles. - St. Petersburg, 1995.
• Sheremetev B. The sword of Admiral Kruys // Marine collection: journal. - 1989. - No. 6 . - S. 83-88 .

Books

• Berkh, V.N. Biography of the Russian admiral K.I. Kruys. - SPb. , 1825.
• Den, John. The history of the Russian fleet in the reign of Peter the Great. - SPb. : Historical illustration, 1999. - 192 p. - ISBN 5-89566-006-1 .
• Lurie V. M. Marine Biographical Dictionary: Figures of the Russian Navy of the 18th Century / Scientific editors: S. S. Atapin, A. B. Morin. - SPb. : Information Center "Choice", 2005. - 352 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-93518-037-5 .
• Titlestad T. Royal Admiral Cornelius Kruys in the service of Peter the Great / Transl. from Norwegian Yu. N. Bespyatykh . - SPb. : Russian-Baltic Information Center "Blitz", 2003. - 168, [16] p. - (Multinational Petersburg). - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-86789-144-5 .
• Anderson RC Naval Wars in the Baltic. - London, 1969. (English)
• Svenska flottans historia / SA Svensson. - Stockholm, 1943. - T. 2. (Swedish.)
• Sjömaktens inflytande på Sveriges historia. - Stockholm, 1929. (Swedish)

• Project dedicated to Cornelius Kruys (English)
• Rostov-on-Don - In Public you can see the first atlas of the Don River
• Atlas of the Don C. I. Kruys River
• The first shooting of the river. Don C. Kruys in 1699 "Atlas of the Don River, the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea" (1703). The Azov campaign of Peter I (inaccessible link)