The book by the well-known Russian writer-mariner Captain 1st Rank Vladimir Shigin is devoted to dramatic events that took place on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the 1820s–1830s and are connected with the activities of Admiral A. S. Greig and his wife, who seized all foreign trade on the south of Russia and tried to turn the Black Sea Fleet into a special “appanage principality.” For almost two hundred years, these events have been hidden behind an impenetrable veil of secrecy. By collecting and summarizing rare archival materials and testimonies of contemporaries, the author managed—for the first time—to recreate a complete and truthful picture of those long-ago events, reveal the mystery of the death of the legendary commander of the brig “Mercury,” A. I. Kazarsky, and answer many other riddles of Russian naval history.