Mr. Cramp continued his active correspondence with the Russian authorities with constantly increasing prospects of success. So promising had the situation become in the summer of 1897, that Mr. Cramp, who had gone to Europe to attend the Jubilee Session of the British Institution of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, concluded to make a flying visit to St. Petersburg before the meeting. His stay there was not long, only about a week. His object was to survey the ground and to ascertain definitely what prospect there was for the then rumored intention of the Russian government to put forth a large and formidable naval programme during the ensuing winter.
Mr. Cramp returned to England from St. Petersburg, and took part in the many meetings of the Jubilee Session referred to. One of the events of that occasion was a visit to the great Elswick Shipyards and Ordnance Works of Armstrong & Company, which Mr. Cramp himself describes in a private letter as follows:
“The officers of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of the United States with certain officers of the American navy were invited to meet the representative Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of foreign nations and participate in the meetings of the International Congress of these bodies in London during the month of July, 1897.
“After various entertainments under the auspices of the Institute and a visit to and reception by the Queen at Windsor Castle, the party went to Scotland; after visiting Glasgow and stopping at Edinburgh, where Sir Andrew Noble and Philip Watt, of the Armstrong Works, met them; they were to be escorted to the Works in the afternoon. Feeling sure that a visit of that kind to such a shipyard with a great crowd and in such limited time would be very unsatisfactory, and its results necessarily incomplete, I concluded to go on to Newcastle the night before and make an exhaustive visit to the works there before the arrival of the large crowd. This being the greatest shipyard in the world, I desired to examine its new constructions in progress, with regard to their novelties in device and design, in my own way and my own time, without being carried along by a great crowd as in a ‘personally conducted’ tour. I therefore went on to Newcastle the night previous to the projected visit. When I arrived at the hotel in Newcastle, I found a Russian Naval Architect, Mr. Tchernigovsky, in the act of registering, and had gone there for the same reasons that I had, and we concluded to go to the works together. When we arrived at the Armstrong Works and had registered our names and had asked to be conducted through the works, we found that all the principals had gone to Edinburgh, to return with visitors, and, after some hesitation on the part of the official in charge, we were escorted through the works by one of the clerks.