Sea Battle of Cesme
| date | July 5. bis 7. July 1770 |
|---|---|
| place | Bay of Cesme , western Turkey |
| output | Destruction of the Ottoman fleet |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 9 ships of the line,
3 frigates, 4 lightships, 4 supply ships |
16 ships of the line,
6 frigates, 6 sliding basins, 13 galleys, 32 smaller ships; about 1300 cannons |
| losses | |
|
about 500 dead |
about 11,000 dead |
The sea battle of Çeşme (also Battle of Tschesme ) took place between July 5 and July 7, 1770 near the Ottoman port city of Çeşme . It was part of the Orlov Revolt in Greece , a precursor to the later Greek Revolution , and the first in a series of victorious Russian naval battles against the Ottoman Empire.
prehistory
The 5th Russo-Turkish War began in 1768, and Russia dispatched several Baltic squadrons to the Mediterranean to divert Ottoman attention from the new Black Sea Fleet , which was only six warships, still under construction . Two Russian squadrons, led by Admiral Grigory Spiridov and British adviser Admiral John Elphinstone, united under the command of Count Alexei Orlov and began to search for the Turkish fleet .
course
On July 5, 1770, the Russians found the Ottoman fleet at anchor north of Çeşme Bay in western Turkey. Even if not all details about the Turkish fleet are known, it included 14 to 16 ships of the line , including the Real Mustafa with 84 cannons, Rhodes with 60 cannons and a 100-cannon flagship. In addition, it consisted of 6 frigates , 6 Schebecken , 13 galleys and 32 smaller ships with a total firepower of 1,300 cannons. Ten ships of the line with 70 to 100 cannons each formed the Turkish main row, six more the second row, with the ships of the two rows anchored in gaps so that the rear ships could fire through the gaps between the front row. Behind it were the smaller ships. The fleet was commanded by Kapudan Pasha Hosameddin.
According to the attack plan drawn up beforehand, the Russian line sailed towards the southern side of the Turkish main line, then turned north and opened fire as it passed the Turkish ships. Initially, the Russians had problems holding their formation, but the longer the battle went on, it got better and better. Spiridov's flagship St. Eustaphius fought a duel with the Real Mustafa until the Turkish ship caught fire. Its burning mast fell on St. Eustaphius , which also caught fire. Shortly thereafter, Real Mustafa exploded . Georgi Spiridow and the brother of Supreme Commander Alexei Orlow, Count Fyodor Orlow, were able to leave St. Eustaphius in time before it sank.
The following day, July 6, the Russians shot at Turkish ships and targets on land all day. On July 7, Orlow sent Samuel Greigh with seven ships in a line formation against the Turks. Soon after, three Turkish ships burned, the fire of which quickly spread to the entire Turkish fleet until it burned down completely and sank. The fight ended on the night of July 8th. The Russian losses were minimal , apart from the crew of the sunk St. Eustaphius . The Turkish losses were significantly higher. Hosameddin Pascha, Hassan Pascha and Dschaffer Bey survived. The former was dismissed as a consequence of his defeat.
meaning
The naval battle of Çeşme became the greatest Ottoman defeat at sea since the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The battle boosted Russian confidence in the navy and secured the Russians control of the Aegean Sea . In the Ottoman Empire, the destruction of the fleet inspired many minorities to revolt.
Catherine the Great ordered the construction of four monuments to honor the victory: the Chesma Palace and Chesmensk Church in Saint Petersburg (1774–1777), the Obelisk in Gatchina (1775) and the Chesma Column in Tsarskoye Selo (today Pushkin, 1778).
In the middle of the 19th century, a Cossack settlement east of the Urals , today's district administrative center of Tschesma in Chelyabinsk Oblast , was named in honor of the battle. The name Tschesma (according to the then common in the Russian form of the name Çeşme) contributed from 1770 also seven different ships of the Imperial Russian Navy , most recently the former battleship Poltava from 1916th
Contemporary response
The German artist Jakob Philipp Hackert , who lives in Naples , was commissioned in 1771 to produce a series of six paintings about the battle for the Tsarina. Johann Wolfgang Goethe described the history of their creation in Hackert's biography. Alexei Orlov, who at the time was in Livorno with a Russian fleet squadron , was not satisfied with the draft of the picture on which a Turkish ship exploded in flames. Since Hackert had never seen an exploding ship, Orlov had a disused frigate specially loaded with powder and set on fire so that Hackert could watch the explosion. Goethe commented on this with the words: "... reliably the most expensive and precious model that has ever served an artist, by estimating the value of the still usable materials of this old frigate at 2,000 collars ." The works are still in Peterhof Palace today .
In the lower large pond Bärnsdorf north of Dresden , Elector Friedrich August III. of Saxony repeatedly re-enact the naval battle. He had received Orlow in his residence in Dresden in 1775 and was fascinated by his descriptions of the events near Çeşme. As a result, the elector had an entire coastal landscape built, including miniature Dardanelles and a harbor with the Moritzburg lighthouse .
literature
- Helmut Pemsel : Seeherrschaft - A maritime world history from the beginnings to 1850 , vol. 1, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Augsburg 1996, p. 302
Web links
- Illustrations of the sea battle in the digitization project Wilhelmshöher war maps
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Philipp Hackert . In: Goethe's works. Weimar edition. 1st Division, Volume 46. Böhlau, Weimar 1891, pp. 103-388; Chapter Battle of Tschesme , pp. 130-138; Digitized in the Internet Archive.
- ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Philipp Hackert . In: Goethe's works. Weimar edition. 1st Division, Volume 46. Böhlau, Weimar 1891, p. 136, digitized in the Internet Archive.