The wreck of Russian Emperor Peter the Great's favourite yacht was found in the Baltic Sea. The Transport Royal boat, which sank 300 years ago, was found by a group of divers from Russia and Sweden. The yacht was wrecked because of a strong storm during the voyage from Arkhangelsk to the Baltic to take part in the Great Northern War. There were 21 survivors of the wreck - Russians, Brits and Danes.
«This is the frigate, on the model of which Peter ordered to build warships of the Russian fleet. If the famous boat of Peter the Great is the great-grandfather of the Russian fleet, the frigate Transport Royal is its father», - said the head of the expedition Alexei Mikhailov in an interview to «Izvestia».
The Transport Royal frigate was designed by British Admiral Peter Carmarthen and built in 1695 at Chatham dock by shipbuilder Robert E. Lee. The 30-metre, three-masted vessel was considered one of the fastest ships of her time. It carried from 26 to 28 cannons.
In 1698 King William III presented the ship to Peter I in exchange for the monopoly right of English merchants to trade tobacco in Russia. The Transport Royal arrived to Arkhangelsk, from where, by order of the Emperor, it was to be delivered by river and dragged to the Sea of Azov.
However the weather conditions prevented the execution of the plan and the yacht was stuck in the port of Arkhangelsk for 17 years. In 1715 she was rearmed and sent to the Baltic Sea to take part in the Great Northern War. However, the schooner never reached the theatre of war, crashed not far from the Swedish island of Marstrand. The surviving crew members of The Transport Royal were taken prisoner by the Swedes and sent to Marstrand Fortress for imprisonment.
