The departure of the “Cimbria” from Russia was a great event there, and all the officers who left Russia on that expedition have continued ever since to meet yearly on March 28 (O. S.), that being the date of their departure from Russia. On March 29, 1898, twenty years afterward, Mr. Cramp happened to be in Russia arranging for the contract between his Company and the Russian government for the construction of the battleship “Retvizan” and the cruiser “Variag.” A committee of officers at the time called and invited him to be present at their annual banquet as a guest. This committee was composed of some of the younger officers who were on the “Cimbria” expedition. They stated that no guest had ever been invited to one of these banquets, but they considered Mr. Cramp’s connection with the fitting out of that fleet entitled him to the distinction of being the only guest they ever had on one of those occasions. He found there Vice-Admiral Avalan, the Assistant of the Minister of Marine and now Minister of Marine,—he had been captain of the “Asia;” Admiral Grippenburg, who had been captain of the “Europe;” and also about thirty of the sixty officers who left on the “Cimbria” on its first voyage. Of those absent, a great many had died, and some, of course, were away. Admiral Alexeieff was in China. Mr. Cramp had begun his overtures with a view to naval construction for Russia as early as the fall of 1893. During that period the Russian Atlantic fleet was present in our waters to take part in celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ discovery. The Grand Duke Alexander was an officer in that squadron, which during its stay in our waters was at anchor for some time in the Delaware, and its officers freely visited the shipyard, carefully inspecting and examining all the work then going on. The general result was that they became enthusiastic with regard to the development of the art in this country and with the character of work being done toward the rebuilding of our navy, and they were also profoundly impressed with the facilities of Cramps’ shipyard which might be utilized for increase of the Russian navy. They frankly said, however, that just at that moment it did not seem to be the policy of their government to have important work done for the Russian navy in foreign shipyards. This was, of course, true, for at that time Russia was not building any kind of naval construction more important than torpedo-boat destroyers outside of her own domain. During the following years (1894, 1895, 1896) certain correspondence passed between Mr. Cramp and high officials in the Russian Ministry of Marine; though little progress was made during those years except to call the attention of the Russians in a vivid and forceful manner to the capacities and facilities which he controlled, and to strengthen the _entente cordiale_ which had so long existed between the Russian naval authorities and himself.