2 : INTRODUCTION. 
and then, being relieved by another, to return 
to Kronstadt. The course to be followed, both 
in going and returning, was left entirely to my 
own discretion. | 
On the first of May, the ship, whose Russian 
name, Predpriatie, I shall for the future omit, 
was declared complete. She was the first vessel 
built in Russia under a roof, (a very excellent 
plan,) was the size of a frigate of a middling 
rank, and, that she might not be unnecessarily 
burdened, was provided with only twenty-four 
slx-pounders. 
My crew consisted of Lieutenants Kordin- 
koff, Korsakoff, Bordoschewitsch, and Pfeifer ; 
the Midshipmen Gekimoff, Alexander von Mol- 
ler, Golowin, Count Heiden, Tschekin, Mura- 
wielf, Wukotitsch, and Paul von Moller; the 
Mates, Grigorieff, Gekimoff, and Simokoff, eight 
petty officers, and one hundred and fifteen 
sailors. We were accompanied by Professors 
Eschsenolz and Lenz as Naturalists; Messrs. 
Preus and Hoffman as Astronomer and Miner- 
alogist; and Messrs. Victor and von Siegwald 
as Chaplain and Physician; so that, in all, we 
reckoned one hundred and forty-five persons. 
