A Spanish Warship and an English Yacht in choppy Seas off Archangel, Novaya Zemlya.

The modern town of Archangel dates from the visit (in 1553) of the English trader Richard Chancellor who, with others of the Moscovy Company, passed through Archangel on their way to Moscow and hoped to open the trade route to Persia. For a long time the only seaport in Russia, Archangel continued to flourish as Russia's main port until, in 1722, Peter the Great (1672-1725) published a decree that all trade should pass through his new capital of St. Petersburg. The town subsequently went into decline and became better known as a refuge for political exiles.