This is unusual among the Society’s volumes in not dealing with British naval history. It prints a history of the Russian Baltic fleet from its foundation, written in 1724 by an unidentified Englishman, evidently a sea officer in Russian service.

The author has recently been identified as Captain John Deane – see Richard H Warner, ‘Captain John Deane: Mercenary, Diplomat and Spy’, in People of the Northern Seas, ed. Lewis R Fischer and Walter Minchinton (St John’s, Newfoundland, 1992), pp 157-173.