“I am sure he fully believed in the successful future of this type. He stated that he was confident that it would revolutionize merchant-ship as well as war-ship construction, and his enthusiasm was unbounded in the contemplation of it.
“When he had exhausted the subject, which took some time, in elegant English and with fascinating fluency of speech, he changed the subject, and I was subjected to one of the most severe examinations in naval construction, equipment, and technical practice that I ever encountered. Of course, there was a change from my attitude of listener to that of a sort of principal in the conversation that followed.
“In referring in a complimentary way to the new fleet that we had turned out,—the outcome of the ‘Cimbria’ expedition,—the Grand Duke stated that one quality in them that impressed him more than any other was the large coal carrying capabilities of the vessels, and he asked me how I explained it. I stated that the models of the ships were of the best American type with certain improvements of our own.
“Expressing himself in a complimentary manner as to what we had done and as to what I said, he then put the question to me with much ‘empressement’ and sympathetic interest of manner: ‘Mr. Cramp, from what school of naval architecture did you graduate?’
“Fully appreciating all that was involved in the question from his stand-point and what he considered of paramount importance,—the necessity of the Technical School for Naval Officials—I was prepared for the question, and determined that my answer should be apropos; and that I would not permit myself and my profession to be disparaged, knowing that in Russia and on the Continent generally there were no great private shipyards, and that if a naval architect or ship-builder there did not graduate from a technical school, he was practically nowhere at that time. Trained as I was in Philadelphia in a first-class shipyard, surrounded by others of the same kind and in close contact with New York, which city occupied the head and front of the ship-building profession in the world, I felt myself doubly armed and more than confident when my answer came promptly after the question.
“I said: ‘Your Imperial Highness! when I graduated from my father’s shipyard as a naval architect and ship-builder, there were no schools of naval architecture. I belong to that race which created them!’