Battle of Navarino (1827): Last Great Battle of Sailing Ships

The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October 1827 in the Bay of Navarino, off the south-western Peloponnese, during the Greek War of Independence. A combined British, French and Russian fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington destroyed most of the Ottoman and Egyptian navy in about four hours. It was the last major battle fought entirely by wooden sailing ships and ensured the survival of an independent Greece.

Background

By 1827 the Greek War of Independence was going badly for the Greeks. Egyptian troops under Ibrahim Pasha, son of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, had landed in the Peloponnese in 1825 and were devastating the countryside. Missolonghi had fallen in 1826 and the Acropolis of Athens in 1827.

Public opinion in Western Europe strongly favoured the Greeks, and Russia had its own interests in weakening the Ottoman Empire. On 6 July 1827 Britain, France and Russia signed the Treaty of London, which called for an armistice and Greek self-government under Ottoman sovereignty. Sultan Mahmud II refused. The three powers sent their Mediterranean squadrons to enforce the armistice, if possible without war.

The fleets in the bay

The Ottoman and Egyptian fleet, which had recently brought reinforcements, lay at anchor in the great natural harbour of Navarino, which is protected by the long island of Sphacteria, the scene of a famous ancient battle. It numbered roughly 78 to 89 vessels, including three ships of the line, many frigates and corvettes, smaller craft and fireships, drawn up in a horseshoe.

The allied fleet was smaller in numbers but far stronger in heavy guns. It included ten ships of the line, among them Codrington’s flagship HMS Asia, the French Sirène carrying Rear-Admiral Henri de Rigny, and the Russian Azov under Rear-Admiral Lodewijk van Heiden, a Dutch-born officer in Russian service.

The battle

On the afternoon of 20 October Codrington led the allied ships into the bay and anchored them among the Ottoman vessels, a show of force intended to make Ibrahim respect the armistice. Ibrahim himself was not present.

Tension was extreme. When a boat from the British frigate HMS Dartmouth was sent to ask a Turkish fireship to move, its crew came under musket fire and an officer was killed. Firing spread from ship to ship, and within minutes a general battle began at very close range.

The battle lasted about four hours. The heavier allied ships pounded the Ottoman line, and many Ottoman vessels were set on fire, sometimes by their own crews to prevent capture. By evening the bay was filled with burning and sinking wrecks.

Smaller allied ships played an important part, engaging the fireships and frigates on the flanks of the horseshoe. The Russian squadron, entering last, came under heavy fire, while French and British ships fought the largest Ottoman and Egyptian frigates at close quarters.

Losses

Most estimates put Ottoman and Egyptian losses at around 60 ships destroyed and several thousand men killed, often given as 3,000 to 4,000, though figures vary widely. The allies lost no ships, but suffered roughly 180 dead and about 480 wounded. Several allied vessels, including HMS Asia and the Azov, were badly damaged.

Consequences

Navarino made it almost impossible for the Ottomans to supply their armies in Greece by sea. In Britain, however, the victory was an embarrassment to the new government of the Duke of Wellington, which had not wanted war with the Ottoman Empire. The King’s Speech of January 1828 called it an “untoward event”, and Codrington was recalled later that year.

Russia went to war with the Ottomans in 1828, and a French expeditionary force landed in the Peloponnese the same year to oversee the evacuation of Ibrahim’s army. The Treaty of Adrianople (1829) and the London Protocol (1830) then established Greece as an independent state.

Legacy

Navarino was one of the last naval battles in the tradition of Trafalgar, fought by wooden ships of the line under sail. Within a few decades steam power, shell guns and iron armour would make such fleets obsolete. In Greece the battle is commemorated every October in Pylos, where a monument honours the three allied admirals.

Timeline

• 1825, February: Ibrahim Pasha lands in the Peloponnese with an Egyptian army.
• 1827, 6 July: Britain, France and Russia sign the Treaty of London.
• 1827, September: The Ottoman-Egyptian fleet gathers at Navarino.
• 1827, 20 October: The allied fleet enters the bay; the battle is fought.
• 1828, January: The King’s Speech calls the battle an “untoward event”.
• 1828, August: A French expedition lands in the Peloponnese.
• 1829, September: The Treaty of Adrianople ends the Russo-Turkish War.

Why it matters

Navarino turned the Greek revolt from a likely defeat into a lasting success. It showed the great powers’ willingness to intervene in Ottoman affairs, a pattern that would shape the Eastern Question for the rest of the century.