The Shtandart

On the banks of the Neva River’s northernmost curve, the wooden skeleton of a great frigate is slowly taking shape. And just as it was nearly 300 years ago, the construction of the Shtandart (‘standard’) warship is being led by a charismatic, driven man, one whose love for the sea is something of an anomaly in this nation of landlubbers.

The similarities end there, however. The builder of the first Shtandart was — the reader will not be surprised to learn — Peter the Great, who commenced building Russia’s first warship upon his return from studying shipbuilding in Holland and England. The tsar had at his disposal 40 carpenters, 20 blacksmiths, 150 workers and 300 peasants with horses; the ship was completed within five months.

Petersburger Vladimir Martus, on the other hand, is building a reconstruction of the famed ship mostly through volunteer labor, donated materials, and the strength of his own monomaniacal zeal for the project. Nearly two years after the keel of the ship was laid, the Shtandart is coming together slowly but surely, the pace of work ebbing and flowing according to irregular donations of money and materials to the project.

The original Shtandart occupies an honored place in Russia’s naval history. Launched in 1703 with the tsar himself as the first captain, the ship played an important role in defending the new city of St. Petersburg from the persistent Swedish threat. Peter is said to have remarked that the Shtandart should never die, and after his own death, his widow Catherine I declared that a new Shtandart should be built. Until now, that order has never been fulfilled.

In fact, there is precious little information left from the original Shtandart, which was taken out of service in 1719 and declared beyond repair 11 years later. The only known surviving illustration of the ship is a Dutch engraving showing the frigate above the words ‘The First Ship of the Baltic Fleet.’ Using that illustration as a guide, historian Viktor Krainyukov designed a scale model of the Shtandart, which was constructed between 1988-1991 and is now displayed at the Menshikov Museum. Martus, who holds a degree from the St. Petersburg Shipbuilding Institute, recalls a sudden, powerful reaction on first seeing the model in 1992: “When I saw how beautiful and well-made the Shtandart was, I decided I had to build it.”

Easier said than done, perhaps, but from the beginning Martus showed himself willing to sacrifice to achieve his dream. In 1994, he sold the first ship he had built, a schooner called the St. Peter, for $50,000 in seed money to begin the Shtandart project.

On the site of an old tarring wharf on the banks of the Neva, Martus and a small group of workers and volunteers laid the keel and began constructing the ship’s frame in November 1994. Since then, more than 50 people have worked at one time or another on the ship, including around 20 women, a number of local children and teenagers, and several volunteers from abroad.

American Perry Munson first read about plans for the Shtandart in Wooden Boat magazine. His interest in the project, combined with a long-time desire to visit Russia, resulted in his coming to St. Petersburg for two months in the summer of 1996 to work on the ship. Munson, a 50-year-old high school chemistry teacher from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, made his home in a tent pitched next to the Shtandart and spent the summer laboring alongside Russian volunteers.

“They’re really doing things here the old-fashioned way,” says Munson. “For shipbuilding in the US, you usually use pre-sawn lumber. Here, they’re taking the trees right out of the forest, matching them according to curve, and sawing everything themselves. They’re even making their own bolts by cutting threads into the end of long steel rods.

“It’s hard, tedious work,” concedes Munson, “but in the end you have a better boat for having matched the curve of the ribs.”

The lumber used for the ship was all donated by authorities in the Leningrad Region: Martus was allowed to cut down designated trees — those which for whatever reason were not 100% healthy — as long as he transported them off government land himself. “This system worked for everyone,” says Martus. “We got the lumber we needed, and the Leningrad Region got free removal of trees that weren’t in perfect shape.”

Free lumber is only one of the donations that have facilitated the project thus far. The plot of land where the ship sits is rent-free, courtesy of the St. Petersburg authorities, tools and paint for the ship have been donated, and a number of sponsors — mostly non-Russian — have provided financial help.

Donations are sporadic, however, and for a time the only income was a monthly gift of $1,000 from a German company called Dolphin Exhibitions. From this $1,000, Martus somehow had to pay the salaries of four full-time workers (including himself) and for whatever materials were needed for the month. According to the ever-sanguine Martus, that was enough money to make it through the first phase, that of building the ship’s frame. Now comes the more difficult task of finding funding to outfit the ships with navigation equipment, engines and fittings for the cabins, as well as to pay for the experts needed to install all these things on the ship.

“We will need about $300,000 to finish the ship,” says Martus. “This will not be a museum piece; it will be a real sailing vessel. We want to have the best quality equipment, and for the ship to be ecologically sound as well.

“If we can raise the money, we will be able to finish the ship in one year,” continues Martus. “But even if we can’t come up with the money, we’ll finish it sooner or later. We’ve come too far to turn back now.”

Once completed, the Shtandart will be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, according to Martus. “The ship will pay for itself through sailing tours that we will organize,” he says. “People looking to travel or to learn about sailing will be able to book the boat for trips.

“But we also want to provide free programs for local kids, to teach them about sailing. It’s important to show kids that they don’t need to fear the water; you have to teach them when they’re young.”

Those wishing to help the Shtandart project can contact Vladimir Martus at P.O. Box 100/ St. Petersburg, Russia 195112. Tel/fax 7-(812)-230-3736, or via Ann Palmer/ 2 Old Custom House/ West Street/ Harwich/ CO12 3DG England. Tel. (1255) 241-779, fax (1255) 552-944.