Roman (Robert) Vasilievich Crown (russian: Роман Васильевич Кроун); (, near

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Scotland – 1841,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a navy officer in British and Russian service. In the later he eventually became an Admiral and served in the Russo-Swedish War and the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

Life

Early naval Career in British Service

Robert Crown came from a family of Scottish tenants said to have been related to the Gregor clan. He began his maritime service with the Merchant Navy, joined the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

(as a navigator, on the frigate ''Odeon'', in squadrons under Admiral Edward Vernon in India about 1778) and participated in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. In early 1788 he became an officer in the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

, keeping his rank of a

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

Career in the Russian-Swedish war

Already on 10 March 1788 Crown was promoted to Captain-Lieutenant and appointed commander of the 22-gun cutter ''Merkuriy'', which was part of the Baltic fleet squadron Copenhagen. On this ship, Captain Crown carried out patrol services during the Russian-Swedish war in the Baltic Sea. His most important success was the capture of the Swedish 44-gun frigate ''

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

'' in the fjord of Christiania on 21 May 1789. Crown was promoted to 2nd rank captain and awarded the Order of St. George 4th class. He received command over the ''Venus'' and led it in the

battle of Reval The naval Battle of Reval took place on 13 May 1790 (2 May OS) during the Russo-Swedish War (1788-1790), off the port of Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia). Origins Undaunted by the Swedish defeats and failures during 1789, the Swedish king, Gus ...

and in the battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790. In the course of the latter he captured the ship of the line "Rättvisan" (''Justice'', built 1783). In recognition of his merits, he was awarded the

Order of Saint Vladimir The Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir (russian: орден Святого Владимира) was an Imperial Russian order established on by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptize ...

3rd class and promoted to 1st rank captain ( Captain-Commodore). In 1791 Crown, together with many other naval officers of British origin, was transferred to the Black Sea in expectation of war with England.

Promoted to Vice-Admiral and later fate

During the war of the 2nd anti-French coalition, Crown took part in the attempted Anglo-Russian invasion of the Netherlands. He was appointed Rear Admiral in January 1799, while on the 66-gun ship Izyaslav serving in the Baltic, and Vice Admiral in February 1804. In the years 1802-1804 he was in the Baltic fleet on the 74-gun ship ''Yaroslav''. After resting ashore in 1805–1807, he went into a transient retirement on account of the state of war between Russia and England in the years 1808–1812. In 1812 he led a Russian squadron with six ships from Arkhangelsk to Great Britain and was involved in the blockade of France. In 1814 he was blockading the Dutch coast together with an English squadron, and after the Bourbon Restoration, he transported King

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

from London to France on board his flagship. After the Napoleonic Wars, he returned to the Baltic fleet. On 8 February 1824 he was promoted to full admiral. He retired in 1831 and took residence permanently in St. Petersburg, where he died 10 years later.

Family

Crown was married three times, first in 1775 to Sarah Primrose (1759-1780), second to Martha Knight (1754-1839). He had several children from the second, and one son from the third marriage. Two of his sons with Martha Knight became Russian Vice-admirals in the 1870s, i.e. Alexander Egorovich (Malclein Alexander Crown; 1823-1900) and Thomas Yegorovich (Thomas Frederick; 1826-1893).

Citations

References

*
А. Горшман: ''Кроун, Роман (Роберт) Васильевич, адмирал''. Фундаментальная электронная библиотека
(A. Gorszman: ''Kroun, Roman (Robert) Wasiliewicz, admirał''. Fundamientalnaja eliektronnaja bibliotieka) * М. А. Михайпов, М. А. Баскаков: ''Фрегаты, крейсера, пинейные корабли'' (M. A. Michajłow, M. A. Baskakow: ''Friegaty, kriejsiera, liniejnyje korabli''). Moskwa: 1986. *

with Crown's portrait in the

Royal Museums Greenwich Royal Museums Greenwich is an organisation comprising four museums in Greenwich, east London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just un ...

. Retrieved on 18 February 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Crown, Robert 1753 births 1841 deaths British emigrants British military personnel in colonial India People from the Russian Empire of Scottish descent Imperial Russian Navy admirals Russian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Fourth Degree Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War Royal Navy officers Russian military personnel of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) Military personnel from Perth, Scotland Immigrants to the Russian Empire