While lying on a lounger on the beach in Hurghada, I sipped ice beer from a wine glass brought by an agile black with a bag of salted nuts and purred this song. In general, I always - when I feel good, warm and satisfying - I purr songs, and most often my favorite ones, like, for example, this one. "The sea stretched wide ...." But as soon as I reached the verse:
"I can not hear on the deck of songs,
And the Red Sea rumbles in waves,
And the shore is stern and cramped, -
As you recall, it hurts so much"
I suddenly realized - damn, it was exactly here that was happening! And instantly everything fell into place, because this folk song was born somewhere at the very beginning of the 20th century, and it happened in the Russian navy on the Red Sea! And when did the Russian squadron enter the Red Sea? Yes, in 1904, when she was sent to help Port Arthur to Tsushima, where she bravely accepted the last battle. It went from Kronstadt through Gibraltar, the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, through the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean ... It was here that the Russian armadillos passed by me a hundred years ago (by the way, among them was the Aurora First-class armored cruiser). And here is one of the many verses of this song: