[2] The court of Russia requested the government of Great Britain to send out some skilled British naval officers to improve the navy of that country; Lieutenant Greig was selected to be one of them.

When some time after the war broke out between the Russians and the Turks, Captain Greig was sent in 1770 under the command of Count Alexey Orlov and Admiral Grigory Spiridov, with a fleet to the Mediterranean.

After a severe and sanguinary but indecisive battle, the Turkish fleet retired during the night close into Chesma Bay, where they were protected by batteries on land.

Captain Greig, on this occasion assisted by another British officer, a Lieutenant Drysdale, who acted under him, set the match to the fire ships with his own hands.

He continued indefatigable in his exertions in improving the Russian fleet, remodeling its code of discipline, and by his example infusing a spirit into every department of its economy, which finally made it one of the most formidable marines in Europe.

These important services were fully appreciated by the empress, who rewarded them by promoting Greig to the high rank of admiral of the Russian Empire, and governor of Kronstadt.

He was however attacked by a violent fever, and having been carried to Reval, died on 26 October 1788, on board of his own ship, Rostislav, after a few days' illness, in the 53rd year of his life.

As soon as the empress heard of his illness, she, in the utmost anxiety about a life so valuable to herself and her empire, instantly sent for her first physician, Dr Rogerson, and ordered him to proceed immediately to Revel and to do every thing in his power for the admiral's recovery.

For some days before it took place the body was exposed in state in the hall of the admiralty, and was afterwards conveyed to the grave on a splendid funeral bier drawn by six horses, covered with black cloth, and attended in public procession by an immense concourse of nobility, clergy, and naval and military officers of all ranks; the whole escorted by large bodies of troops, in different divisions; with tolling of bells and firing of cannon from the ramparts and fleet: every thing in short was calculated to express the sorrow of an empire for the loss of one of its most useful men.