I thought his had quite a few similarities to C.S. Forester's maritime adventure stories, although this is based on a real Russian sailor who helped expand the empire of Catherine the (not yet) Great. He has a position on her yacht when he encounters her favourite minister Potemkin (Boris Livanov) and asks him for a job. Not a desk job, but an actual job working on the construction of a new fleet. This impresses the count and so Ushakov (Ivan Pereverzev) finds himself drafted into more active service. He turns out to have quite a knack for strategy and as the Russian's face the internecine plot...