Battle of Cesme, 1770.

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
john sefton
Posts: 1816
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:59 pm

Battle of Cesme, 1770.

Post by john sefton » Tue Oct 26, 2010 6:44 pm

The naval Battle of Chesma took place on 5 -7 July 1770 near and in Çeşme (Chesme or Chesma) Bay, in the area between the western tip of Anatolia and the island of Chios, which was the site of a number of past naval battles between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice. It was a part of the Orlov Revolt of 1769, a precursor to the later Greek War of Independence (1821-29), and the first of a number of disastrous fleet battles for the Ottomans against Russia.
The Russo-Turkish War had begun in 1768, and Russia sent several squadrons from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to draw Turkish attention away from their Black Sea fleet, then only 6 battleships (ships of the line) strong. Two Russian squadrons, commanded by Admiral Grigory Spiridov and Rear Admiral John Elphinstone, a British advisor, combined under the overall command of Count Alexei Orlov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Fleet and went to look for the Turkish fleet.
On 5 July 1770 they came across it anchored in line just north of Çeşme Bay, western Turkey. Details of the Turkish fleet are uncertain but it included 14-16 ships of the line including Real Mustafa of 84 guns, Rodos of 60 guns and a 100-gun flagship. In addition there were perhaps 6 frigates, 6 xebecs, 13 galleys and 32 small craft, with about 1,300 guns in total. About 10 of the ships of the line, of 70-100 guns, were in the Turkish main line with a further 6 or so ships of the line in the 2nd, arranged so that they could fire through the gaps in the first line. Behind that were the frigates, xebecs etc. The fleet was commanded by Kaptan Pasha Mandalzade Hüsameddin, in the fourth ship from the front (north end) of the line, with Hasan Pasha in the first ship, Real Mustafa, and Cafer Bey in the seventh. Two further ships of the line, probably small, had left this fleet for Mytilene the previous evening.
After organizing a plan of attack, the Russian battle line sailed towards the south end of the Turkish line and then turned north, coming alongside the Turks, with the tail end coming into action last (Elphinston had wanted to approach the northern end first, then follow the wind along the Turkish line, attacking their ships one by one - the method used by Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798).
The Turks opened fire at about 11.45am, followed by the Russians slightly later.
At about 2pm the fighting ended, as the Turks cut their cables and moved south into the bay, forming themselves into a defensive line of 8 ships of the line, a 2nd line, and the rest beyond.
On 6 July the Russians bombarded the Turkish ships and land positions, and at about 12:30 a.m. on the morning of 7 July Orlov sent Samuel Greig, (who transferred to Rostislav) to attack with Evropa, Rostislav and Ne tron menya forming a south-north line facing the Turks, and with Saratov in reserve, Nadezhda attacking the batteries at the eastern side of the bay entrance, Afrika attacking the batteries on the western side, and Grom near Afrika. At about 1:30 a.m. or earlier (times were about 90 minutes earlier, according to Elphinston), fire from Grom and/or Ne tron menya caused a Turkish ship of the line to blow up after her main topsail caught fire, and the fire quickly spread to other ships of the line. By 2 a.m. two Turkish ships of the line had blown up and more were on fire, and Greig sent in three fireships (the fourth, seeing the danger, stayed out), which contributed in a small way to the burning of almost the entire Turkish fleet. At about 4 a.m., boats were sent in to save two ships of the line which were not burning, but one of these caught fire while it was being towed. The other, Rodos 60, survived and was captured along with five galleys. Fighting ended at about 8 a.m. Russian casualties on 5 July were 14 killed, plus 636 killed in Sv. Evstafii, and about 30 wounded, and on 7 July 11 killed. Turkish casualties were much higher. Hüsameddin, Hasan Pasha and Cafer Bey survived. Hüsameddin was removed from his position, which was given to Cafer Bey. This was the only significant fleet battle during the Russo-Turkish War.

Extracts from Wikipedia.
Russia SG6560
Attachments
SG6560a.jpg

Anatol
Posts: 1037
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

Re: Battle of Cesme, 1770.

Post by Anatol » Tue Dec 22, 2015 9:22 pm

Chesma Battle 1770. The battle of Chesma had a great military and strategic impact. Owing to this victory the Russian Navy had seriously damaged Turkish communications in archipelago and established an efficient blockage of Dardanelles.
Niger 2015;950f;SG? Namibia2015;
Attachments
img0101.jpg
img0132.jpg
img0133.jpg

aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

Re: Battle of Chesma 1770.

Post by aukepalmhof » Fri Apr 21, 2017 7:37 pm

Djibouti 2017 280FD sg?, scott?
Sierra Leone 2017 Le6000 sgMS?, scott?
Soviet Union 1974 4k sg 4264, scott? (painting by Aivazovsky.)

More is given on: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17341&p=20606&hilit=chesma#p20606
Attachments
2017 cesme.jpg
2017 cesma.jpg
1974 battle of chesme 1770.jpg

Post Reply