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April 2011 www.sname.org/sname/mt Inboard pro?le of Japanese , the Russian steam corvette built by William H. Webb. IMAGE COURTESY WEBB INSTITUTE, LIVINGSTON LIBRARY in the eet, Poltean (Polkan) . Webbs steam warship design therefore had an enthusi- astic reception by Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, general admiral of the Russian Navy. However, Konstantins father, Tsar Nicholas I, was opposed as he consid- ered it necessary to build Russias warships in Russias domestic shipyards and in addi- tion didnt want to deal with an agent. Webb personally traveled to St. Petersburg to make his case and, on August 31, 1853, signed a contract, approximately two years after the start of his warship marketing eorts, for a large screw frigate of 90 guns. Webb even- tually won contracts for three additional Russian steamships; the four Webb Russian vessels are summarized in Table 1. Ship construction and the Crimean War Webb promptly started work on design and material procurement for the large frigate (Webb Hull 90) upon his return to New York in the fall of 1853. Only two months later, the Crimean War broke out between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. The British empire, the French empire, and others sub- sequently joined in an alliance with the Ottomans in late March 1854. Because the United States was at peace with all com- batants, Webb suspended work on the Russian frigate. He subsequently sold the timber purchased for the Russian warship to another New York shipbuilder, George Steers, who used the material in the con- struction of the large Collins Line sidewheel steamer Adriatic .Suspension of warship construction did not stop Webb from continuing with construction of unarmed ships for Russia. Astoria , Webb hull 96, was delivered in 1855 under U.S. registry and ownership with San Francisco as her initial home port. is ves- sel represented several important rsts for Webb: She was his rst steamship tted with a screw propeller and the only one of his naval ships tted with a steam engine with the cyl- inders above the crankshaft. In November 1856, she was registered as the Russian ship Alexander II , in honor of the tsar. She was a commercial ship and not part of the Imperial Russian Navy. Alexander II was transferred back to U.S. registry at the time of Sewards purchase of Alaska, but subsequently trans- ferred yet again to Russian registry. Astoria/ Alexander II had an extraordinarily long ser- vice life of more than 40 years. Webbs second ship for the Russians was America (Amerika) , Webb hull 99. Similar to Astori a, America was initially registered in the United States in late 1855 then transferred to the Russian ag in 1857 at San Francisco. Newspaper accounts from the time describe her as a beautiful ship with graceful propor- tions. Drawings at Webb Institute and Mystic Seaport conrm the handsome design of this ship. America was originally built as a tow- boat for operations on the Amur River, but she served as a diplomatic transport, operat- ing throughout the world. America returned to the Russian Pacic eet and supported the founding of Vladivostok in June 1860. Similar to Astoria/Alexander II, America was also well built and had a long service life of 28 years. Resumption of warship construction Tsar Nicholas I died of pneumonia on March 2, 1855, and was succeeded by his son, Tsar William H. Webb