Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/228

 at the finishing of which he worked with his own hands. He afterwards worked at every branch of ship-building, associating freely with his fellow artisans. Inscribed on the roll of ships' carpenters as Peter Michaeloff, he passed among the workmen by the name of Master Peter. After having visited Amsterdam and other towns of Holland, this extraordinary man proceeded to England, where he worked in the dockyard at Deptford in the same industrious, unostentatious manner as he had done in Holland. The Dutch had taught him the mere routine of their method of ship-building; in England he was instructed in the higher branches of the art, and was soon rendered capable of giving instructions to others. It is said that he assisted in building one of the best sailing vessels that had yet been launched. Soon after his return home Russia became a naval power, possessing for the first time a considerable fleet.

Although by the accession of James VI. of Scotland and I. of England these two countries were brought under the same sovereign, they, until the reign of Queen Anne, were for all purposes of trade and legislation foreign and antagonistic states. There was little or no commercial, much less social, intercourse between them; and the advantages enjoyed by either one, and acquired by foreign treaties, were rigorously withheld from the other. The whole