Battle of Chesma (1770): Russia Destroys the Ottoman Fleet

The Battle of Chesma was a naval battle fought on 5–7 July 1770 off the western coast of Anatolia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. A Russian squadron that had sailed all the way from the Baltic trapped the Ottoman fleet in Chesme Bay and destroyed it with gunfire and fireships. It was one of the most complete naval victories of the age and a striking sign of Russia’s rise as a power at sea.

Background: the Archipelago Expedition

War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire broke out in 1768. Empress Catherine II, who had come to power in the coup of 1762, approved a daring plan pressed by the Orlov brothers: to send ships from the Baltic into the Mediterranean, stir up a Greek revolt and strike the Ottomans from the south.

Several Russian squadrons left the Baltic from 1769 and sailed around western Europe, with help from British ports and officers. The voyage was long and costly in sick men and damaged ships. A rising in the Peloponnese in early 1770, often called the Orlov Revolt, failed, and Russian forces withdrew. The fleet then went in search of the Ottoman navy in the Aegean.

The battle in the Chios Strait

On 5 July 1770 the Russians found the Ottoman fleet anchored in the strait between the island of Chios and the Anatolian mainland. The Ottomans had more ships of the line, about 16 against 9 Russian ones. Count Alexei Orlov held overall command, with Admiral Grigory Spiridov leading the vanguard.

Spiridov’s flagship, the Sviatoi Evstafii, closed with the Ottoman flagship Real Mustafa. Both ships caught fire, and when the burning mainmast of the Ottoman vessel fell onto the Russian ship, the Evstafii blew up, followed soon after by the Real Mustafa. Spiridov and Orlov’s brother Fyodor escaped, but most of the Evstafii’s crew died. The Ottoman fleet then withdrew into the small bay of Chesme.

The fireship attack at Chesme Bay

The decision to withdraw proved fatal. The Ottoman ships were packed closely together in a narrow bay under the protection of shore batteries. On the night of 6–7 July a Russian division under Samuel Greig, a Scottish officer in Russian service, moved in to bombard the anchorage.

At about one or two in the morning four fireships were sent in. Most failed, but one, commanded by Lieutenant Dmitry Ilyin, grappled an Ottoman ship of the line and set it alight. The fire spread across the crowded fleet, and ship after ship exploded as the flames reached their gunpowder. By morning the Ottoman fleet had been almost entirely destroyed.

By the numbers

Consequences

Chesma gave Russia control of the Aegean for the rest of the war, but it did not lead to the hoped-for breakthrough. The Russians blockaded the Dardanelles but did not force the straits, and the Russian siege of Lemnos failed when Ottoman troops under Hasan Pasha of Algiers, a survivor of Chesma, relieved the island. Hasan later became grand admiral and rebuilt the Ottoman navy.

The real decision came on land, where Russian armies won major victories along the Danube. The war ended with the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774, which made Russia a Black Sea power. The destruction of the fleet also encouraged Ottoman reformers to found a naval engineering school in Istanbul in 1773.

Legacy

Catherine celebrated the victory lavishly. Alexei Orlov received the honorary name Chesmensky, and a commemorative column was raised at Tsarskoye Selo. The Chesme Palace and Chesme Church were built near St Petersburg, and Jacob Philipp Hackert painted a series of scenes of the battle for the Chesme Hall at Peterhof. The name Chesma was later given to several Russian warships.

Timeline

• 1768, autumn: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
• 1769: The first Russian squadrons leave the Baltic for the Mediterranean.
• 1770, February–April: The Orlov Revolt in the Peloponnese begins and fails.
• 1770, 5 July: Battle in the Chios Strait; the Evstafii and Real Mustafa explode.
• 1770, 6–7 July: Night attack with fireships destroys the Ottoman fleet in Chesme Bay.
• 1770, autumn: The Russian siege of Lemnos fails.
• 1774, 21 July: The Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca ends the war.

Why it matters

Chesma showed that Russia, a land power with no tradition in the Mediterranean, could project naval force far from home and annihilate an Ottoman fleet. Like Lepanto two centuries earlier and Navarino later, it became a landmark in the long struggle for control of the eastern Mediterranean.