Deane and Eckoff approached Slite Hamn. They sailed within shooting range of the fortifications. A gale was blowing. Deane and Eckhoff measured the depth of the water and observed the fortress. The fort was situated on an island that was, according to Deane, ‘disunited from the mainland by the passage into the harbour’. Deane spotted batteries of guns camouflaged behind foliage. Deane and Eckhoff ordered their men to fire the cannons of the Samson and the Portsmouth at the batteries. The Swedes fired all their guns at once in retaliation. Deane and Eckhoff counted the guns. They had the information they needed. The Samson and the Portsmouth returned to the fleet.
At Ostergarn, cruisers were sent north and south to stand watch and send warning if the Swedish fleet were nearby. Two of the cruisers, the Poltava and the Elias, spotted a small privateer. They pursued her. The crew of the privateer could not outpace the cruisers so they took their vessel into shallow water where it would be difficult for the heavier cruisers to follow. The privateers ran their vessel aground. They stripped her of her guns and took them ashore. The Poltava and the Elias dispatched smaller boats to the privateers’ vessel. What they were supposed to have done was to attach ropes to the abandoned vessel, drag her into deeper water and take her back to Ostergard. Instead they tried to set her on fire. The Poltava sailed back to the fleet. The Elias stayed behind to prevent the privateers, who were currently stranded on shore with their guns, from facilitating their escape by returning to the boat and putting out the fire. When the Poltava came back, her captain gave his report to General Admiral Apraxin.
John Deane was present when Captain Van Gent told General Admiral Apraxin what had happened. Apraxin listened in complete disbelief. Deane had come to see Apraxin to present a report on his findings at Slite Hamn. Apraxin rebuked the Dutch officer and then turned to Deane. Apraxin ordered Deane back onto the Samson and gave him free reign to take any ship or boat he needed. Apraxin ordered Deane to find the privateers’ vessel and either retrieve or else utterly destroy her. Once either task had been accomplished, Deane was to go ashore with an armed contingent and take the guns from the Swedish privateers. Apraxin promised John Deane a generous reward if he could successfully carry out his new orders. Deane set sail with two longboats, a few pinnaces and enough armed men to retrieve the guns. It was John Deane’s first real opportunity to distinguish himself in combat, advance himself and make some money. Deane’s own allies let him down. When the Samson approached the Elias, the Elias was alone in the water. Somehow the captain and the crew of the Elias had allowed the privateers to reboard their vessel, put out the fire and escape, guns and all. John Deane, the Samson and the Elias sailed back to General-Admiral Apraxin empty-handed.
There was no censure for John Deane. He had done nothing wrong. But there would be charges to answer for the commanding officers of the Elias and the Poltava when the fleet docked at Revel.
The fleet engaged in a little light looting before they left for Revel. They took cattle from the surrounding countryside but refrained from destroying any property. When the fleet arrived in Revel a court martial was held for the officers of the Elias and the Poltava. Apraxin wanted to cashier the officers of both vessels. The members of the court martial were more lenient. The officers of the Poltava walked away without punishment. Captain Ducy of the Elias was dismissed from the service. His lieutenant was also disciplined. Apraxin went into the country for a short respite. He left the New Englander Rear Admiral George Paddon in charge with orders to engage the fleet in military exercises. Paddon made a pig’s ear of carrying out his orders. The exercises were conducted with much disorder and tensions among the fleet were allowed to fester. There was some consolation in the capture of an enemy snow but even that gave way to disagreements about whether the Dutch captain of the Pearl or the Hanoverian captain of the Alexander had taken her. In August, Paddon left with eleven of the fleet’s finest ships for the Russian port of Kronslot, where he intended to winter. The Russian fleet was strengthened by new ships from Copenhagen.
At some point during the campaigning season, John Deane pursued and captured two Swedish merchantmen in the Gulf of Danzig. Once a ship had been taken as a prize, the protocol was to man the captured vessel with capable members of your own crew, who would sail the vessel back to Revel. Deane was engaged in the process of selecting which of his men would crew the merchantmen when two warships were spotted. It was not a cause for immediate concern. One ship was a Dutch man-of-war and the other an English frigate. Both nations were allies to Russia. What happened next took John Deane completely by surprise. The frigate and the man-of-war demanded at gunpoint that Deane give up the merchantmen. It was a delicate moment that required a pragmatic response. The English and the Dutch were supposed to be compatriots. The Samson would be shot to pieces if Deane elected to fight them. Deane surrendered the merchantmen. The English and the Dutch let Deane go. Deane reported the incident to his superiors. Russian naval command, who would often be guilty of disregarding the context in which difficult decisions had to be made, seemed to understand why Deane had acted the way he did. There was no censure. Deane had done nothing wrong.
In September, Peter the Great returned to Revel where he inspected and approved of the building work that had been taking place there. He was approached by a delegation of English merchants. They had missed a convoy that would have provided them with the necessary protection through the volatile waters that constituted part of their trade route. The English appealed to the tsar for help. The tsar ordered the Samson and the Uriel to provide an escort. John Deane took the merchants to Danzig. When they tried to go further they were forced to turn back because of bad weather. Deane wintered at Revel. There was little else for him to do that year.
As 1717 drew to a close, three new ships from St Petersburg were added to the fleet, a new administrational naval rank of secretary was introduced and cabin boys made their first appearance in the Russian navy. There was extensive building work to link key ports with St Petersburg via a network of canals. There were expeditionary voyages to the Caspian Sea.
The next year began with the usual batch of promotions, including one for Captain Commodore Scheltinga who, despite being mortally ill and paralysed down one half of his body, was promoted to the rank of rear admiral of the red. The promotion was interpreted by Deane as a sop from Peter the Great to the stricken officer so that he would have ‘the honour of dying a rear admiral’.
The fleet were instructed to be ready to sail as soon as the ice broke. Deane was given sealed orders and told to open them when he was 20 leagues from Revel. He set sail and broke the seal as instructed. Along with the Uriel and the Randolph, John Deane was ordered to, ‘proceed and cruise at large on the enemy’s coast, to hinder all trade with Sweden, and make prizes of all nations, French and Hollanders excepted’. Captain John Deane had been given a hunting licence. He had clear but flexible instructions and a degree of autonomy to pursue and board most ships he encountered. But the chances for financial remuneration were not as glittering as they first appeared. The new rank of secretary was designed to ensure that everything taken from a boarded ship was properly logged and accounted for. Every ship had to have a secretary. But despite this new added layer of bureaucracy, Deane must have felt optimistic. This was his best chance so far to forge a reputation in war that might expunge his sense of shame for deeds done in the name of survival on a scrap of rock off the New England coast.