A Warning About Curious Wonder

“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.” - Pro. 8:12

In the late 1600’s, a privileged young boy named Peter Mikhailovich lived a carefree life in the Russian countryside largely free to explore, learn, and play as he chose. Of royal birth, his immediate family was sidelined by a reigning regent who pushed them and the young heir out of the affairs of court and away from the seat of power. A restless and inquisitive youth, Peter, by virtue of his royal rank did away with his formal tutors and threw himself into a world of his own making. He gathered other youths as his playmates who took to the field to play army like any pre-teen is prone to do. The only difference was that he had access to the royal armory and could order up real muskets, cannon, and a steady supply of gunpowder. His war games grew to involve hundreds of youth and also a few hundred soldiers on loan for temporary duty. It was a boy’s dream life that was to prove immensely practical in his later days when he inherited the reigns to the entire Russian army.

A war in the Crimea interrupted his play as he turned 16. His soldiers and equipment all left suddenly to fight in a real war. Ever curious, the young Czar apparent turned to other interests as he had an insatiable appetite to see how things worked and to watch craftsmen create and build. Even at the age of 12, he had ordered a carpenter’s bench and mastered the use of woodworking tools of every kind. He became a master at the lathe and the hobby followed him all his life. He became a stonemason and a blacksmith. He learned how type was set and books were bound. Then, in 1688, he became fascinated with the sextant and soon obtained one that came all the way from France. Marveling how the sextant could measure distance to far away objects, he finally found a use for math, geometry, and ballistics which was a challenge for someone who could barely subtract and divide. A study of geography soon followed in which he saw the outline of his native country measured against the global world.

In this constant thirst for knowledge, he soon realized that the best tutors were from outside Russia where the west had far outstripped Russia in the arts and sciences. He found in a graying Dutch merchant named Franz Timmerman a ready companion and teacher. So it was that Peter and Timmerman spent some summer days poking around a rural royal estate and discovered an old storehouse. Ordering it to be opened, Peter discovered an old decrepit boat stored upside down. It was unlike the typical Russian river barge, and Peter was completely fascinated at Timmerman’s claim that it could sail with the wind and even against the wind. Ordering up a craftsman, they found another Dutchman who was skilled in boat building. The small lifeboat-like craft was soon sailing up and down the river Yauza with the future Czar of all the Russias at its helm.

So began Peter the Great’s lifetime obsession with access to the sea for his landlocked nation and his thirst for Western science and technology to lift backward Russia into the 17th century. Peter eventually called that small boat “the grandfather of the Russian Navy” which today is the proud possession of the Russian Naval Museum in St. Petersburg. Peter was to move heaven and earth and fight a protracted war with Sweden to win access to the sea and build his namesake, St. Petersburg, on top of a swamp on the Baltic. He knew that no country could achieve greatness without foreign trade which meant access to the sea which meant a modern navy.

Never underestimate the curiosity of a child. Feed it and you might be soon amazed where it ends up. We trust that this next week will be filled with curious wonder for you and your student as you depart from your regular assigned studies to follow your heart. Good sailing; even into the wind!