ablished as soon as the necessary buildings to house
the garrison were completed. It occupied a part of the present parade
ground near the Russian Barracks and included a portion of the present
street. Many vessels were built in the yard during the Russian
occupation, the first, being the tender "Avoss," launched in 1806,
followed by the brig "Sitka," built by an American shipbuilder named
Lincoln, and for which he was paid 2,000 rubles as a royalty upon the
completion of the ship. A frigate of 320 tons was the largest vessel
built before 1819, and at that time construction was discontinued until
1834, when work was resumed and continued until the close of the Russian
regime.

The "Politofsky" was one of the last vessels to be built at Sitka, and
it was sold by Prince Maksoutoff to H. M. Hutchinson and Abraham Hirsch
for $4,000 in 1867. The next year it was sold to Hutchinson, Kohl & Co.,
and later was sold to a firm that ran it to Puget Sound, and from Alaska
to San Francisco. It was built of Alaska cedar timber, the _dushnoi
dereva_ or scented wood of the Russians, and was spiked with
hand-made copper spikes. It was taken to Alaska in the gold rush of
1898, and found its last resting place, very appropriately, in the land
where it was built, in the harbor of St. Michael, the old Russian port
on Bering Sea.

The fear of shipwreck, and of death at sea hung over every soul of the
community. The long voyages in uncharted and unlighted waters with
sailing ships--more than six months at the shortest from
Kronstadt--often three months or more against baffling winds from
Okhotsk--the voyages to the redoubts and _odinoshkas_ (detached
posts with one man only) of the Bering Sea and of the Gulf of Alaska, to
collect the fur catch of the year and bring it to Sitka; the long
journey via Canton on the return to Russia--all held many dangers for
the sailing ships of those days. The "Phoenix," the first ship built on
the Alaskan shores, foundered with all on board, including the Bishop
and his retinue, in 1799, on the return voyage from Okhotsk; the "St.
Nicholas" went ashore on the coast of Washington in 1808, and those who
survived the waves were held in bondage for years by the savages of that
coast.

During the latter part of August, 1812, the ship "Neva" left
Okhotsk--contrary winds delayed her in the Sea of Okhotsk--storms beat
her back along the Aleutian Islands till it was November before land was
sighted in Alaska. The s