Alexei Zubov. The Capture of Two Swedish Ships at the Mouth of the Neva

This engraving by Alexei Zubov shows the battle at the mouth of the Neva in May 1703, when Russian soldiers in boats captured two Swedish vessels. The fight is traditionally regarded as the first naval victory of the Russian fleet.

On 7 May 1703, about 30 boats carrying guardsmen of the Preobrazhensky and Semyonovsky regiments, led by Peter I, serving as a bombardier captain, and Alexander Menshikov, attacked the Swedish boat Gedan, armed with 10 guns, and the snow Astrild, armed with 8 guns. Both vessels were taken by boarding. Peter and Menshikov were made knights of the Order of St Andrew the First-Called, and the participants received medals inscribed “The unprecedented happens”. 18 May, the date of the battle in the New Style, is celebrated as Baltic Fleet Day.

From 1699 Alexei Zubov studied under the Dutch engraver Adriaan Schoonebeek, and from 1711 he worked at the St Petersburg printing house. He is considered one of the founders of the city view in Russian art; his best-known work is the 1716 panorama of St Petersburg printed from eight plates. This sheet, engraved with a burin on laid paper, was made in the 1710s–1720s, years after the event it depicts.