About the book: 1958 / Three teenagers from Bolshaya Okhta - the working-class outskirts of St. Petersburg - end up in a school of naval architecture, after which they become naval engineers. The surnames of the teenagers are Popov, Osminin and Kolodkin. These are historically real people, later leaders of the Russian fleet. Life and study at school with all its dark sides, with the struggle of progressive forces against inertia and arbitrariness are shown in an entertaining, lively form. The historical basis of the story allowed the author to thoroughly reveal not only pictures of the life and everyday life of the “shipbuilder school”, but also the situation and events in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. The reader understands the reasons for the temporary decline in the state of the navy and the criminal role of the ruling elite of the tsarist autocracy. All this as a whole increases the educational value of the story. The “School of Naval Architecture” is the predecessor of the Naval Engineering School, now named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky.