Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) travelled to the Netherlands with a Russian legation in 1697. The Czar himself was particularly interested in Dutch shipbuilding, and the knowledge he gained would help towards the modernization of the Russian fleet. Serving as mayor at the time of his visit in 1697 was Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717). It was thanks to Witsen’s intervention that Peter the Great was allowed to learn the shipbuilding trade in the VOC shipyard on the Oostenburg. The Czar even received a diploma. The Czar never saw the ship he built in its finished state, as he was already on his way to England in 1698. He had given the ship the name ‘Petrus and Paulus’, after the patron saints of St Petersburg. Following its completion in 1698 the ship made two voyages to the East, after which it continued to sail in the region for some time before finally being scrapped in 1717.