(1) Survey
Thanks to Napoleon’s ill-fated march upon Moscow, the Russian Army has been duly publicized. However, in the train of events that led from the storming of the Bastille through the golden days of Empire to Leipzig and Waterloo, the activities of the Russian Navy have been in large part overlooked by historians. This, in our English tradition of history, is perhaps a natural consequence of our general disregard for the land of the Tsars, even if the Battle of Trafalgar did not dominate the period from 1793 to 1815.
The actions of the Glorious First of June, St. Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen, all these and others serve only as a background for Trafalgar, after which every other event upon the sea was anticlimactic. We know of the Spanish Navy because of St. Vincent, the Dutch because of Camperdown, the French because of constant warfare, but there was not even a Belle-Isle to call attention to the Russians. The nearest approach to battle was a brief skirmish between Sir James Saumarez and Hanikov in the Baltic during the autumn of 1808.
In the broad pattern of England’s war against the Republic and then Napoleon, the Russian fleet played a minor part. Within the scope of Russian policy, however, the Russian fleet was a strong factor. Its potency was directly related to the interest displayed by successive rulers. It lacked both the organization and traditions of England’s Royal Navy, and was hampered as well by deficient technical knowledge and experience.
From the beginnings of Peter the Great, the Russian Navy was very largely the product of foreign officers, summoned first by Peter, and later by Catherine. In particular, six Englishmen shaped the fleet. These were Admirals Crown, Hamilton, Elphinstone, Dugdale, Greig, and Catherine’s distinguished Sir Charles Knowles. Thus, Britain’s Navy was by and large the model for its Russian counterpart, some of whose officers were trained in British ships.
Catherine, in 1762, inherited the skeleton of a Navy and wisely called upon the assistance of foreigners to put meat on its bones. She quadrupled expenditure, and in return the fleet served her well in her imperialistic designs upon Turkish territory, the campaign in the Liman being of particular interest to Americans because of the presence of her Rear Admiral John Paul Jones. Upon her death in 1796, her son Paul gladly took over the task of building the fleet.
In the second year of Paul’s reign, the Navy secured a budget of 15,000,000 rubles, and some wholesale reforms. Aiming at a modest establishment of 33 ships of the line and 19 frigates, he re-established the office of Chief Inspector of Naval Construction, enticing the brothers Lebrun de Sainte- Catharine away from their engineering assistance to the Sultan. Establishing Boards of Control to hold much-needed ship inspections to discourage captains from private graft in supplies, he revised the Department of Justice at the College of the Admiralty, and transferred the Marine Cadet Corps from Kronstadt to St. Petersburg, where he could indulge himself in frequent visits which kept the cadets both alert and studious. On the negative side, he irritated the fleet when he was nominated Grand Master of Malta, for he then ordered all ships in the Baltic and Black Sea to fly the Maltese flag. This was not a popular order.
Paul was succeeded in 1801 by Alexander, who, badly advised and largely surrounded by people indifferent to the potentialities of sea power, followed an erratic road towards naval self-sufficiency. Count Voronzov, presiding over Alexander’s Comité de la Organisation de la Marine, conceded that Russia needed troops, but saw no reason to spend money on sailors. Thus, Admiral Mordvinov, Alexander’s first Minister of the Navy, who was energetic and capable, and his successor, Admiral Chichagof, were ultimately replaced by the Marquis de Traversé, who completely neglected the Navy. Nevertheless, in tempo with the times and under the impetus of Mordvinov and Chichagof, the fleet was expanded.
Mordvinov simplified the organization of the Admiralty, established a school for pilots, and had the best foreign naval treatises translated into Russian, in addition to ordering the compilation of instruction manuals. Against these improvements may be set the broadening of patronage so that the Minister of Marine could distribute awards according to merit. Chichagof’s reign of power lasted from 1804 to 1811, and his reforms were accordingly more extensive. He organized the administration of the Navy into seven bodies: the council of the Admiralty, composed of Admirals presided over by the Minister, and responsible for strategy; an economic section, charged with supply; an executive section, headed by the intendant of the engineers, workmen, and draftsmen; a finance section; a science section, charged with keeping abreast with world naval developments; a section of port control; a special section of foundries under the direct supervision of a Scotchman named Gascoigne. He created a school of Engineer-constructors, and introduced the British system of establishing one-sixth of a ship’s complement with boys of ten to twelve.
Alexander gratified the British Admiralty by gracefully declining to enter into a naval race: “he wisely proportioned the number of his ships to that of his neighbors.” Instead, he concerned himself with acquiring a fleet which could achieve Russia’s centuries-old dream—the conquest of Constantinople.
Three Russian Admirals of the period achieved a measure of distinction. Pavel Vassilievitch Chichagof, mentioned above, was partially trained in England. Promoted to Captain during the Swedish War of 1789, he commanded the Ratvizan, 74, in the Russian contingent of Duncan’s fleet off Holland in 1794-96. He returned in 1799, both to marry an Englishwoman and to command a Russian squadron in the seizure of the Dutch ships in the Texel. Promoted to Admiral in 1802, he soon assumed the administrative duties previously described. Giving place to de Traverse in 1811, he became the governor-general of the Danubian provinces. Drafted into the Army by the emergency of 1812, he unsuccessfully opposed Napoleon’s crossing of the Beresina. After the Peace of Vienna, he was naturalized as a British citizen, and died in Paris.
Admiral Ushakov, by successfully pursuing Paul’s policy in the Mediterranean, ran afoul of Nelson, and so has become known to readers of British naval history. Somber in character and educated by a country priest, he was not a favorite at court, not even in the times of Catherine. He was considered a remarkable commander by his colleagues, both as an officer and as an administrator and diplomat. He received testimonials from the Sultan of Turkey, and from Corfu, which he had liberated, as well as numerous gifts from the people of the Adriatic. For years he had operated in that area without a base, and was rewarded by Paul with the rank of full Admiral. Under Alexander, he had the misfortune to fall into disgrace and was banished from the capital. During the War of 1812, he offered his country everything he possessed, including his trophies of honor. The gesture touched Alexander, who restored him to favor, and enjoined upon Ushakov’s heirs the duty of preserving these marks of honor as a national heritage. Ushakov died in 1817.
The third Admiral, Dmitri Seniavin, was probably the best known to his British contemporaries, for he had served six years in the Royal Navy as well as surrendering his fleet into British custody. From 1783 to 1786, he was stationed at Halifax in the Leander, 50. Shifting to the Pearl frigate, he served in her in the Mediterranean until leaving her at Smyrna in 1789. With this experience added to his native talents as a leader, he was an excellent seaman and a respected officer. He commanded ships for Ushakov in the Mediterranean campaign, and was greatly appreciated by that rough old sailor. In this service, he acquired knowledge which he was later to put to good use.
Cronstadt was the principal Russian base. Here was the Academy for officers, which took lads of 5 and trained them until they were 17. Their education was not necessarily best adapted to shipboard duties. In his Memoirs, Chichagof criticized cadet education, telling of an incident in which a Marshal during one of the Turkish wars requested that Catherine send him a dozen army officers. Since naval education differed little from that of the military, Catherine shipped off a dozen naval cadets. The Marshal thanked his sovereign for sending him a bevy of Marshals instead of Lieutenants. Since that time, Chichagof complained, the naval schools did not even produce Lieutenants, but rather a multitude of corporals and drummers.
The Russian Admiralty stood on the south bank of the Neva, opposite the fortress of Petersburg. Ships were built of Kazan oak beneath the very windows of the Minister of Marine, as many as seven ships at a time. In general, Russian vessels were poorly constructed and had a life at best a fifth as long as that of a British or French man-of-war. This was due both to the rigors of the climate and poor workmanship.
Russia had four other dockyards aside from St. Petersburg. Cronstadt used Kazan oak, Archangel employed cheap larchwood, while Kherson and Sebastopol made shift with whatever timber came to hand in the region of the Black Sea. The Ukraine supplied hemp, and Finland supplied masts, pitch and tar. It is ironic that Russia, which supplied naval stores to the great maritime powers, was slow to learn how to profit from her tremendous natural resources.
The Navy was established on a battalion system, somewhat like an Army. One battalion, for example, would furnish the men for a ship of the line and a frigate, or for three frigates.
(2) Alliance with Great Britain 1795-1800
(a) Co-operation in the North Sea.—As the other powers of Europe confronted Republicanism in France, Catherine the Great quietly pursued her imperial aggrandizement. In 1792, she settled matters with Turkey temporarily to her satisfaction, after a war characterized by gunboat and galley battles in the Liman. In 1795, she helped to obliterate Poland, and then was ready to devote her attention to Western Europe. Concluding a defensive alliance with England, she engaged to send a squadron to assist the British North Sea Fleet. This was an aberration from the classical policy of Russia, which aimed at domination of Constantinople, but exigencies warranted this gesture, inasmuch as at the same time she employed her Black Sea Fleet to establish Russian influence in the Slavic states of the Mediterranean, during the brief period of Russo-Turkish friendship.
On July 29, 1795, Vice Admiral Hanichof joined Admiral Duncan at the Downs. Subordinate to him were Rear Admirals Makarov and Tate, the latter an Englishman in Russian pay. He had twelve ships of the line and six frigates. Holland had recently concluded an alliance with France, and it was Duncan’s task to destroy Dutch sea power.
In mid-August, the combined fleets sailed on the first of the many sweeps which were to lead to Camperdown. Duncan did not find the Dutch, but he did report to the Admiralty that the Russians sailed well. Chichagof, one of the Captains, was more candid:
All the maneuvers of the English ships were executed better than ours, and required, at most, a quarter of the time we found necessary. Admiral Duncan with his whole fleet would be already under sail while we were just beginning to unfurl sail and hoist anchor.
The example of the English had a good effect upon the Russians, who eagerly strove to improve themselves. The English were tactful instructors:
The sailors of that nation were, like all men of a true merit, extremely indulgent, and did not neglect any occasion to compliment us on our progress nor on our successful maneuvers. They never spoke in front of us about our imperfections.
Duncan, for one, had a few remarks to make when the Russians weren’t present. He was nettled by the discovery that Russian ships were less able than their willing Captains. As fall and blustering weather approached, Hanikof returned with his frail ships to port for the winter, leaving only Chichagof with Duncan and the battering storms. Even Lord Spencer of the Admiralty was annoyed, particularly since unexpected sea damages to Duncan temporarily made the quiescent Russian squadron stronger than the old Scot’s, who began to protest bitterly about being the first British Admiral ordered to service with only foreigners under his flag.
Wintering comfortably at British expense, Hanikof spent another fruitless spring and summer with Duncan’s cruisers. Chichagof eagerly accepted these wearisome months as training.
Catherine died, and her son Paul maintained the British alliance, although he was far more interested in carrying out a vigorous Black Sea and Mediterranean policy, especially since Catherine’s rapprochement with Turkey developed by 1798 into an astounding military combination, permitting the Russian Black Sea Fleet not only to sail into the Mediterranean, but actually do so in co-operation with a Turkish squadron.
By the fall of 1796, Hanikof’s squadron virtually collapsed, despite constant repairs. Scarcely capable of keeping the sea, much less follow the English maneuvers, the Russian squadron was ordered by the British Admiralty to return to the Baltic. Hanikof directed Rear Admiral Makarov to assume command of the few ships which were seaworthy, and thus, after convoying the invalids as far as Copenhagen, Makarov put about in mid-October to return to Duncan. Naturally, Chichagof was one of his handful of Captains. The condition of Russian ships is reflected in the fact that Makarov’s detachment consisted of only three ships of the line and five frigates.
However, even such a small number of vessels was to prove important to England. Although England in 1797 had 108 ships of the line in commission, they were largely dispersed throughout the world in forces such as the 21 of Jervis off Lisbon and the 8 of Sir Hyde Parker in the West Indies. Scarcely two score were in English waters, and of these, the great bulk were involved in the great mutinies of Spithead and the Nore, which prostrated England’s naval power from April to mid-June. France, preparing for the invasion of Ireland, had an unrecognized opportunity to invade Great Britain itself. The people of England were stunned. “Any dreadful thing might happen now: the country was at war, and its chief, its only, safeguard had melted away overnight.”
In such times, the puny strength of Makarov’s division had a strength far greater than the weight of its guns. They were a visible expression of the Russian alliance, and they were the best of Hanikof’s squadron. While Duncan stood alone with his flagship for six weeks in the channel of the Texel, the Russians were the only ships certain to oppose a French or Dutch attack upon England. Had such a contingency arisen, doubtless the disaffected British Fleet would in all or in part have returned promptly to duty. It would be easy to overestimate the worth of Makarov’s services to England in such a dark hour; it is likewise easy either to underestimate or overlook the assistance. The truth lies somewhere between Paul’s fond belief that he had saved the British Navy and thus saved England, and the casual British habit of even neglecting to mention the existence of either Hanikof or Makarov in their naval histories. Certainly, although Makarov received orders in May, 1797, at the height of the mutinies, to return home, the Russian Ambassador, Vorontzof, correctly took it upon himself to order Makarov to remain until the successful termination of the disturbances at the Nore. Thus, Makarov cooperated at sea with Duncan until the end of June, when the North Sea Fleet joined their commander and freed Makarov of his moral obligations.
It is unfortunate that Makarov’s faithfulness to his British ally was not rewarded by Fate. By a few months, the Russian contingent missed the glory of Camperdown and the crushing of the Dutch fleet. Had Makarov been present, we would necessarily have more about the Russian Navy in our English literature. But Makarov wasn’t at Camperdown. When the battle occurred in October, he was immured at Cronstadt.
Early in the summer of 1798, Makarov rejoined Duncan, who was patiently waiting for the remnants of Dutch sea power to come out and fight. Damaged by August gales, Makarov made for the Nore with two ships. In October, he was reinforced by the arrival of five ships under Rear Admiral Kartsov, who had lost a seventy-four, the Prince Gustzve, en route.
Wintering again at British expense, the Russians readied their ships for another campaign. The British government had been forced to the conclusion that it was necessary to go in and seize the Dutch ships in order to relieve the tension of waiting. Accordingly, in June, England compacted with Russia for a joint invasion of Holland. Paul agreed to furnish 17,000 men under his German General Hermann and a division of ships to match England’s 30,000 men under General Sir Ralph Abercrombie and a division of Duncan’s fleet.
An English squadron under Commodore Terrers joined with the newly created Rear Admiral Chichagof at Revel to assist in carrying the Russians to England. Makarov was at Yarmouth, when Chichagof reported. On August 12, 1799, the expedition sailed for the Helder. Chichagof with two ships and several frigates was junior to Vice Admiral Mitchell.
On the 27th, troops were landed near the Helder under a covering fire from small craft. After a sharp conflict, the allies seized the whole neck of land between Kirk Down and the road leading to Alkmar. The following day, they were in possession of the Helder, and the Texel was thereby opened to the fleet. The Dutch Admiral Storey, lying at anchor near the Vlieter, received a summons from Mitchell to surrender his ten ships and fourteen frigates. As Mitchell’s fleet stood in, Storey reluctantly struck his flag in the Washington, and yielded up the remaining naval strength of the Batavian Republic.
In a manner less spectacular than Nelson at Copenhagen, Mitchell had achieved the true objective of the expedition. The chief event in the Russian co-operation was the luckless manner in which the Ratvizan, 74, ran aground. She was quickly floated off. This is the principal recognition of the Russian naval participation in English accounts of the campaign.
Ashore, the Duke of York was unable to cope with the attacks of the French General Brune. On October 20, the French compelled the allies to evacuate Holland. This chanced to be one of the incidents which turned Tsar Paul away from the British alliance, for not only did General Hermann lose some 3,200 troops in killed, wounded, and prisoners, but General Hermann himself was captured. Nothing was said about Hermann at the negotiations for evacuation, and Paul felt that his general and troops had been shamelessly abandoned.
Triumphantly, Mitchell brought Storey’s fleet to England, where he was soon rewarded with a K.B. and other honors. The Russian troops were quartered on Jersey and Guernsey, but Paul soon ordered them home.
So ended Russia’s first co-operation with a British Home Fleet.
(b) Venture into the Mediterranean, 1798- 1800.—While Makarov and his Captains were fruitlessly trailing the British about the North Sea, and Chichagof was having his share of excitement in the Dutch expedition, the Russian Navy was active in the Mediterranean. Defeated by Napoleon’s lightning strokes in Italy, the Austrians had been compelled to assent to the treaty of Camp Formio in October, 1797. This treaty acknowledged the French Republic. Among other things, France gained Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, and the other Austrian islands which, controlling the Adriatic, also secured Napoleon’s flank for his assault upon Egypt. Nelson, however, at the Battle of the Nile, brought into being a great anti-French alliance, heartening Austria, Turkey, and Naples to combine with England and Russia in war against the Republic. Thus occurred the brief period of actual military friendship between the traditionally hostile Turks and Russians.
As the redoubtable Marshal Suvorof marched with 40,000 men across Germany to unite with 60,000 Austrians in the north of Italy in the spring of 1799, Admiral Usakof had already sailed from Kherson in the Black Sea with six ships of the line and seven frigates, and a landing force of 1,700 men. In September, 1798, the Turks placed four ships and six frigates under his orders. With this respectable squadron, so strong in the frigates which Nelson sadly lacked, Usakof passed through the Dardanelles and undertook the capture of the Ionian Islands. He was further reinforced by a detachment of three ships and one frigate sent him from England by Makarov.
The unnatural allies were eminently successful. By November, 1798, they had forestalled French occupation of Cerigo, Zante, and Saint Maure. Usakof sent four ships to assist the English at Rhodes, and proceeded today siege to the island of Corfu, which fell, February 19, 1799, with 600 cannon and a goodly supply of stores. Nelson was highly suspicious of these triumphs. “The Russians,” he wrote to Lord Spencer, “seem to me to be more bent on taking ports in the Mediterranean than destroying Bonaparte in Egypt.” He did his best to disrupt the strange fellowhood, writing to the Turkish commander, “I was in hopes a part of the united Turkish and Russian squadron would have gone to Egypt—the first object of the Ottoman arms. Corfu is a secondary consideration.” Nelson neither trusted nor liked the Russians, perhaps, as an Englishman, sensing in their ungainly fleet a rising rival to the Royal Navy.
The fall of Corfu freed all of the Ionian islands, and Usakof thereupon created a republic under Turkish suzerainty, to be governed by Ionians. While consolidating the embryonic republic, Usakof in April sent Commodore Sorokin with a small force of two Russian frigates, two Neapolitan and Turkish corvettes, and a Tunisian brig, to assist insurgents in Apulia.
Sorokin’s appearance on the Italian Adriatic coast inspired widespread revolt, and Brindisi, Bari, Barletta, and Manfredonia fell into the hands of the Royalists. Cardinal Ruffo, the leader of the Neapolitan Royalists, was delighted, and dispatched a message to Sorokin pointing out the great effect which would be produced upon the Italian people by the presence of Russian troops. Sorokin thereupon landed 400 regulars and 6 guns at Manfredonia, ordering their commander to march to Naples. The Russian troops enjoyed a triumphal progress.
In the meantime, Usakof learned of the outbreak of war on the Rhine and northern Italy, when a Neapolitan emissary arrived at Corfu to secure the services of the Russian Army. This was the first news that Usakof had of the treaty of St. Petersburg of December 29, 1798, wherein Paul had agreed to send 12,000 troops to the assistance of Ferdinand, King of Naples. Usakof temporized until he heard that Suvorof had arrived at Verona in mid-April. Suvorof requested the co-operation of the fleet at Ancona, whose seizure would break communications between the northern and southern elements of the French Army. Accordingly, before sailing to Naples to implement the St. Petersburg treaty, Usakof sent Rear Admiral Pustoshkin into the Adriatic with seven ships and six frigates.
Suvorof’s brilliant leadership of overwhelming forces soon broke the tenuous French hold upon Italy. The Army of the South was in full retreat, fleeing to combine with the elements of French forces in the North. Ancona, commanded by General Monnier and supported by 3,000 men, defended the three Roman departments of Tranto, Musoni, and Metauro, wherein the French hoped to concentrate their strength. Monnier had three ships with sufficient crews to fight them as floating batteries, a welcome addition to the shore armament. Four French vessels in the inner harbor were of little use to him. May 18, Pustoshkin summoned Monnier to surrender, and on the 19th opened fire. The bombardment Was a failure largely because the Turks, outboard of the Russians, maladroitly fired into their Allies, and embarrassed Pustoshkin, who withdrew to repair his damages. On the 29th, Monnier received orders to evacuate. Much to his credit, he decided to remain. In the interim, Pustoshkin disembarked troops on the flanks of Ancona. Monnier boldly took his little army out into the countryside, and throughout the summer fought the allied landing force into stalemate. In October, a new, overpowering Austrian force commanded by General Froelich marched against Monnier, who, weakened by steady skirmishes with the landing force, was driven back into Ancona, and obliged, after formal investment, to surrender in November.
Notwithstanding the efforts made by the Russians and Turks, Froelich had the poor judgment to sign terms of capitulation without consulting either the dignity or the interests of the Tsar or the Sultan. Indeed, Froelich went so far as to refuse admittance to the fleet. Pustoshkin sought the French vessels as legitimate trophies of war, but Froelich ungraciously denied him such gratification. Irked, Pustoshkin withdrew after a series of incidents which convinced him that Froelich was adamant. Paul did not receive the news graciously.
During Pustoshkin’s unavailing activities upon the upper Adriatic coast, his senior, Usakof, was having his own difficulties. Sailing into Naples, just after the French abandoned it, Usakof was pleased to find that Baillie had given enormous prestige to Russian arms. Usakof co-operated with Captain Troubridge in cleaning up pockets of French resistance, until Nelson arrived with seventeen ships and the King of Naples.
With Nelson’s coming, Usakof occupied a minor role in Italian affairs, and wisely began to plan the capture of Malta, which would gratify Paul, who was devoted to the Order. Nelson, however, opposed this project, inasmuch as the British were themselves blockading the island, upholding the claims of the King of Naples, which had been so thoughtlessly disregarded by Napoleon en route to Egypt. Although Nelson considered Malta “a useless and enormous expense,” he deemed it too strategic a place to pass into the hands of a powerful rival. Politely, he made a report to Paul, who was Grand Master of the Order, but nonetheless he persisted in blockading Malta as an ally of Naples. Reluctantly, Usakof obeyed the letter of his instructions, and gave up his plans, loyally assisting the British in such matters as the storming of Rome. The Turks under his command mutinied and he had to send them home; this further undermined his influence. In all, Russia profited little from these enterprises, though Usakof, because of his loyalty, finally received an invitation from the English to assist in the attack on Valetta. Before he could move to accept, he was ordered on December 20, 1799, to return to the Black Sea. He obeyed, leaving a small body of troops at the disposal of the King of Naples.
So ended this phase of Russia’s naval war.
Interlude of Animosity, 1800-1801
Paul was angered by the supposed English abandonment of his General Hermann in the Texel expedition, the arrogance of the Austrian Froelich at Ancona, and Nelson’s veto of Usakof’s designs upon Malta. As the blockade of the unhappy French on Malta slowly made it clear that the island would fall, the English government, desirous of conciliating Paul, planned to surrender Malta to him, despite Nelson’s dire suspicions.
Unaware of this altruism, Paul ordered his ships and troops to return home, during the late months of 1799. He set about reviving the Armed Neutrality in the following summer. Malta was captured by the British, September, 1800, and the news reached Russia by November. Paul’s reaction was prompt. On the 5th, he placed an embargo on British commerce and seized 300 ships at Cronstadt as a hostage to support his claims on Malta. By mid-March, 1801, Paul signed the last of the conventions which revived the anti-British league of Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia. There were no declarations of war, despite England’s retaliatory embargo in January, 1805.
The British government took prompt steps to nullify the potential dangers of the league. As second in command to Sir Hyde Parker, Nelson added another leaf to his laurels by his capture of the Danish Fleet at Copenhagen in April, 1801. Nelson then moved to annihilate a detachment of twelve Russian ships ice-bound at Revel, before they could escape to Cronstadt. Unfortunately for Nelson’s glory, the distracted Paul was assassinated on March 24 by irritated conspirators, and his son Alexander quickly scuttled the Armed Neutrality.
Lieutenant Commander Daly entered the Coast Guard Reserve in 1941 as an instructor at the Coast Guard Academy. In 1943, after attending fire fighting and damage control schools he was assigned to duty on the U.S.S. Poughkeepsie as First Lieutenant. At present he is an instructor in the Department of English, History, and Government at the U. S. Naval Academy.