He had access to the ocean only in a latitude in which navigation is, during a great part of every year, perilous and difficult.

On the ocean he had only a single port, Archangel; and the whole shipping of Archangel was foreign.

There did not exist a Russian vessel larger than a fishing-boat.

Yet, from some cause which cannot now be traced, he had a taste for maritime pursuits which amounted to a passion, indeed almost to a monomania.

His imagination was full of sails, yardarms, and rudders.