| Background | John Hughes joined the Millwall Engineering and Shipbuilding Company in 1860 from Uskside Engineering in Newport. At Millwall he developed the ‘Hughes Stringer’, which improved naval guns, and in 1864 he and his firm won he Admiralty’s trials for armour-plating of 'iron-clad' (wooden warships armed with iron plates). By this time Hughes was a Director of the Company. The Russian government sought him out after his success with the Admiralty trials and the formation of the New Russia Company and the settlement at Hughesovka soon followed. |