During the Russian-Turkish war, the Russian fleet defeated the Turkish fleet in the Chesme bay. The Chesme naval battle took place on June 24-26 (July 5-7), 1770. It went down in history as one of the best naval battles of the 18th century.
How it all began
There was a Russian-Turkish war. 1768 - Russia sent several squadrons from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, to divert the attention of the Turks from the Azov flotilla (which then consisted of only 6 ships of the line) - the so-called First Archipelago Expedition.
Two squadrons of Russians (under the command of Admiral Grigory Spiridov and British adviser Rear Admiral John Elphinston, united under the general command of Count Alexei Orlov, discovered the enemy fleet in the roadstead of the Chesme Bay (western coast of Turkey).
Forces of the parties. Placement
The Turkish fleet, under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, had a double numerical advantage over the Russian fleet.
Promotional video:
Russian fleet: 9 battleships; 3 frigates; 1 bombardment ship; 17-19 auxiliary vessels; 6500 people. The general armament is 740 guns.
Turkish fleet: 16 ships of the line; 6 frigates; 6 shebeks; 13 galleys; 32 small craft; 15,000 people. The total number of guns is over 1400.
The Turks lined up their ships in two arched lines. The first line had 10 battleships, the second - 6 battleships and 6 frigates. Small vessels were located behind the second line. The deployment of the fleet was extremely cramped; only ships of the first line could fully use their artillery. Although there are different opinions about whether the ships of the second line could shoot through the gaps between the ships of the first line or not.
Battle of Chesme. (Jacob Philip Hackert).
Battle plan
Admiral G. Spiridov proposed the following plan of attack. The battleships, lined up in the wake formation, taking advantage of the windward position, were supposed to approach the Turkish ships at a right angle and strike at the vanguard and part of the center of the first line. After the destruction of the ships of the first line, the attack was aimed at the ships of the second line. Thus, the plan proposed by the admiral was based on principles that had nothing to do with the linear tactics of the Western European fleets.
Instead of evenly distributing forces along the entire line, Spiridov proposed to concentrate all the ships of the Russian squadron against part of the enemy forces. This made it possible for the Russians to equalize their forces with the numerically superior fleet of the Turks in the direction of the main attack. At the same time, the implementation of this plan was associated with a certain risk, the whole point is that when approaching the enemy at a right angle, the lead ship of the Russians, before reaching the range of an artillery salvo, came under longitudinal fire from the entire line of the Turkish fleet. But Spiridov, given the high training of the Russians and the poor training of the Turks, believed that the Turkish fleet would not be able to cause serious harm to the Russian squadron at the time of its rapprochement.
The course of the battle
Battle of the Chios Strait
June 24, morning - the Russian fleet entered the Chios Strait. The lead ship was "Europe", followed by "Eustathius", on which was the flag of the commander of the vanguard, Admiral Spiridov. At about 11 o'clock, the Russian squadron, in accordance with the previously planned attack plan, under full sail approached the southern edge of the Turkish line, and then, turning around, began to take positions against the Turkish ships.
For the fastest exit to the range of an artillery salvo and the deployment of forces for the attack, the Russian fleet went in close formation.
Turkish ships opened fire at about 11:30, from a distance of 3 cables (560 m), the Russian fleet did not respond until they approached the Turks for close combat at a distance of 80 fathoms (170 m) at 12:00 and, turning to the left, fired a powerful salvo from all guns at predetermined targets.
Several Turkish ships were seriously damaged. Damage to the mast and sails was also received by the Russian ships "Europe", "St. Eustathius "," Three Hierarchs ", that is, the ships that were part of the vanguard and the first to start the battle. After the vanguard, the ships of the center entered the battle. The battle began to take on an extremely tense character. In particular, the enemy flagships were subjected to strong blows. With one of them, the flagship of the Ottoman fleet “Burj-u-Zafer”, “St. Eustathius ". The Russian ship caused a number of serious injuries to the Turkish, and then went on boarding.
In hand-to-hand combat on the deck of a Turkish ship, the Russian sailors showed courage and heroism. A fierce boarding battle on the deck of the Burj-u-Zafera ended in a Russian victory. Soon after the capture of the Turkish flagship, a fire broke out on it. After the burning mainmast of Burj-u-Zafera fell to the deck of St. Eustathius,”he exploded. After 10-15 minutes. the Turkish flagship also exploded.
Admiral Spiridov, before the explosion, managed to leave the burning ship and go to another. The sinking of the flagship Burj-u-Zafera finally disrupted control of the Turkish fleet. At 13 o'clock the Turks, unable to withstand the attack of the Russians and fearing the spread of the fire to other ships, hastily began to cut the anchor ropes and retreat to the Chesme Bay under the protection of coastal batteries, where they were blocked by the Russian squadron.
As a result of the first stage of the battle, which lasted about 2 hours, one ship was lost on each side; the initiative completely passed to the Russians.
Battle in the Chesme Bay
June 25 - at the military council of Count Orlov, Spiridov's plan was adopted, which consisted in the destruction of enemy ships in his own base. Taking into account the crowding of Turkish ships, which excluded the possibility of maneuver for them, Spiridov proposed to destroy the enemy fleet with a combined strike of naval artillery and fire-ships, while the main blow was to be delivered by artillery.
To attack the enemy on June 25, 4 fire-ships were equipped and a special detachment was created under the command of the junior flagship SK Greig, consisting of 4 battleships, 2 frigates and a bombarding ship "Thunder". The plan of attack, developed by Spiridov, was as follows: the ships allocated for the attack, taking advantage of the darkness, had to secretly approach the enemy at a distance of 2-3 cabs on the night of June 26. and, anchored, open sudden fire: battleships and the bombarding ship "Thunder" - on ships, frigates - on the coastal battery of the Turks.
Having completed all preparations for battle, at midnight, at the signal of the flagship, the ships assigned for the attack weighed anchor and headed to the places indicated for them. Approaching the distance of two cables, the ships of the Russian squadron took their places according to the disposition established for them and opened fire on the Turkish fleet and coastal batteries. The Thunder and some of the battleships fired mainly with brandskugels. Four fire-ships were deployed behind the battleships and frigates in anticipation of an attack.
At the beginning of the second hour, a fire broke out on one of the Turkish ships from the trapped Brandskugel, which quickly engulfed the entire ship and began to be transferred to neighboring enemy ships. The Turks were confused and weakened their fire. This created favorable conditions for the attack of the fire-ships. At 1:15 a.m., four fire-ships, covered by the fire of battleships, began to move towards the enemy. Each of the fire-ships was assigned a certain ship, with which he was to engage in battle.
Three fire-ships, for various reasons, could not achieve their goal, and only one, under the command of Lieutenant Ilyin, completed the task. Under enemy fire, he approached the 84-gun Turkish ship and set it on fire. The crew of the fire-ship together with Lieutenant Ilyin got into the boats and left the burning fire-ship. Soon the Turkish ship exploded. Thousands of burning debris scattered across the entire Chesme Bay, spreading the fire to almost all Turkish ships.
At this time, the bay was a huge blazing torch. One after another, the enemy ships exploded and took off into the air. At four o'clock, the Russian ships ceased fire. By that time, almost the entire enemy fleet had been destroyed.
Chesme Column.
Effects
After this battle, the Russian fleet was able to seriously disrupt the communication of the Turks in the Aegean Sea and establish a blockade of the Dardanelles. As a result, it played an important role during the signing of the peaceful Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi agreement.
By decree of Catherine II, a memorial Chesme Hall (1774-1777) was created to glorify the victory in the Great Peterhof Palace, 2 monuments were erected in honor of this event: the Chesme pilaster in Tsarskoe Selo (1778) and the Chesme monument in Gatchina (1775 city), and also built the Chesme Palace (1774-1777) and the Chesme Church of St. John the Baptist (1777-1780) in St. Petersburg. The battle of Chesme in 1770 was immortalized in cast gold and silver medals made at the behest of the Empress. Count Orlov was awarded the Order of St. George, 1st degree and received an honorary addition to his surname Chesmensky; Admiral Spiridov received the highest order of the Russian Empire - St. Andrew the First-Called; Rear Admiral Greig was awarded the Order of St. George, 2nd degree, which gave him the right to hereditary Russian nobility.
The battle of Chesme is the clearest example of the destruction of the enemy fleet in the location of its base. The victory of the Russian fleet over twice the superior forces of the enemy was achieved thanks to the correct timing for delivering a decisive blow, a sudden night attack and unexpected for the enemy use of fire-ships and incendiary shells, well-organized interaction of forces, as well as the high morale and combat qualities of the personnel and the naval skill of the admiral Spiridov, who boldly abandoned the stereotyped linear tactics that dominated the Western European fleets at that time. On the initiative of Spiridov, such methods of battle were applied as concentration of all the forces of the fleet against part of the forces of the enemy and the conduct of battle at extremely short distances.