Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1903 — “THE LITTLE FATHER OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET.” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

“THE LITTLE FATHER OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET.”

One of the most interesting objects that figured in the recent bicentenary celebration of the founding of St. Petersburg was the boat, shown in the accompanying illustration, presented to Czar Ivan the Terrible by Queen Elizabeth. When Peter the Great was a boy In Moscow he used to play with this boat and had It repaired so that

he could sail in it on a small lake. This aroused in him an Interest in naval matters that lasted throughout his life, culminating in the founding of the Russian navy, Peter’s first' 1 war ships being virtual replicas of this boat. It was Peter who christened her “The Little Father .of the Russian Fleet,” a name by which she lias been known ever since.

HISTORIC BOAT.