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1Beta flag for the 0ldA&S TH E SPRIN G of 1783 unshackled Russia's rivers and easedthe salt ice collars off the pilings of the wharfs at Kronstadt andRiga, the war in America was drawing to a close. Yankeeships could now sail the Atlantic without fear of the omnipotentand omnivorous British navy. Francis Dana, at this timestill in St. Petersburg, confidently awaited thefirstarrival fromthe United States. 1During the later years of our Revolution a few Americanvessels, hagridden by the fear that every sail on the horizonmight be a British frigate, slipped across the Atlantic to Swe ­den, took on board hemp , iron, and linens, and returned hom eby the same scary route. The Scandinavians were, of course,happy to replace the British as middlemen between Americaand Russia. Dana, writing in 1781, mentioned that the Swedeswere making considerable profits by selling us Russian products.2 Surprisingly, no American captain thought it worth hiswhile to venture to Russia itself.O n the twelfth of June in 1783, a ship of 500 tons sailed into40