NAVARINO, 1827.
Illustrated capital I
In the summer of 1827, an English squadron, under Vice Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, acting in concert with a division of French ships, under Rear-Admiral De Rigny, and a Russian squadron, under Rear-Admiral Count Heiden, assembled in the Mediterranean.
The object this allied fleet had in view was the enforcement of a protocol, signed at St. Petersburg, on April 4th, 1826, for the protection of the inhabitants of the Morea from the cruelties practiced upon them by the Turks, under Ibrahim Pacha. Russia would probably have interfered alone, and England and France were, no doubt, fearful of the possible consequences of allowing Russia to do so, in the war then being carried on between the Greeks and their Turkish oppressors.
A further agreement between the three powers was come to in London, July 6th, 1827, and they insisted, in the first place, upon an armistice between Turkey and Greece. This was agreed to by the belligerents, but was violated by Turkey almost as soon as her assent was given. This conduct on the part of the Porte led directly to the short but very terrible naval battle of Navarino, on the 20th of October, in the same year.
On the 3d of September an Egyptian fleet, with troops, entered the harbor of Navarino, where they were closelywatched by the combined squadrons. On the 19th, finding that the British squadron alone remained off the port, Ibrahim Pacha, wishing to send relief to Patras, ordered out a division of his fleet, but finding their movements watched, they returned to Navarino.
Rear-Admiral De Rigny having rejoined the blockading squadron, a conference took place on the 25th, in the tent of Ibrahim, who then agreed to suspend hostilities against the Greeks until an answer could be obtained from Constantinople, and that, in the meantime, his fleet should not quit the harbor. Upon the faith of this assurance, nearly all the Allied ships were withdrawn from before Navarino. Part of the squadron was sent to Malta, to refit; the British Admiral went to Zante, and the French to Milo, for provisions. The Dartmouth and Armide, frigates, alone remained off the port.
Scarcely had the English Admiral anchored at Zante when the Dartmouth hove in sight, with the signal flying that the Turks had put to sea; and the Armide, proceeding towards Milo, overtook the French Admiral before he reached that place. Sir Edward Codrington, having with him a frigate and two corvettes only, intercepted the Turkish squadron, consisting of seven frigates, nine corvettes, two brigs, and nineteen transports; which, on his firm remonstrance, all put back. A second division, of six Egyptian frigates and eight brigs, had likewise put to sea, but they also returned, and the whole re-entered Navarino on the 4th of October. By the 15th the different Allied squadrons were again assembled off Navarino; and Ibrahim, thus blocked up, continued his tyrannical proceedings inland. Various attempts were made to communicate with him, but without success; and a final conference was called, on the 18th of October, on board Codrington’s flag-ship, the Asia; at which it wasdecided to enter the harbor of Navarino, and from thence renew the negotiations. On the evening of the 19th Vice Admiral Codrington issued full instructions to the whole force, pointing out the position for anchoring each division, but concluding with the well known advice of Lord Nelson, “If a general action should take place, no Captain can be better placed than when his vessel is alongside one of the enemy.”
The harbor of Navarino was the scene, four hundred and twenty-five years before Christ, of a great naval battle between Athens and Sparta, in which the latter suffered an overwhelming defeat.
The harbor is about six miles in circumference. The mainland bends round three sides of it, almost in a horseshoe, and the island of Sphacteria, two miles in length, and a quarter of a mile in breadth, stretches across from one headland to the other. The only available passage into Navarino is at the southern end of the island, and is about six hundred yards in width. On entering the passage there appears at the right a bold promontory dominated by a fort, originally built by the Venetians, and under the fort the small walled town of Navarino, near which Ibrahim’s army was encamped.
On the southern extremity of the island, almost opposite to the fortress on the promontory, another fort was placed. The first fortress was very formidable, mounting 125 guns, and, with that on the island, was well placed to defend the entrance of the harbor, as well as to command the anchorage within. At the northern end of the island was a third battery, which also commanded the harbor.
At about half-past oneP. M., on the 20th of October, the signal was made by the Asia to prepare for action, and the combined fleet weighed anchor, and stood intothe harbor. The British and French formed the weather or starboard column, and the Russians the lee line.
The following were the vessels composing the allied fleet; The Asia, of 80 guns, Vice-Admiral Codrington’s flag-ship; two 74s, the Genoa and Albion; four frigates of various force, from 50 to 28 guns; and one corvette, three brigs, and a cutter.
The French had two 80-gun ships, the Trident and Breslau; one 78, the Scipion; one 60, the Sirène, flag-ship; the Armide frigate, 46 guns, and two corvettes.
The Russian squadron consisted of the Azoff, 80; the Gargoute, Ezekiel, and Newsky, 76; three 46-gun frigates, and one 48.
The Turco-Egyptian fleet consisted of three ships-of-the-line, one razee, sixteen frigates, twenty-seven corvettes, and twenty-seven brigs, with six fire-ships. To these must be added the guns in the forts, on shore, in number about 200, and some armed transports, which brought the number of Turkish guns up to about 2000.
About 2P. M.the Asia, leading, arrived at the mouth of the harbor, and passed unmolested within pistol-shot of the heavy battery on the starboard hand. The Turks and Egyptians were moored in the form of a crescent, the larger ones presenting their broadsides towards the centre, and the smaller ones inside, filling up the intervals. The Asia anchored close alongside a ship-of-the-line bearing the flag of the Capitan Bey, and on the port or inner quarter of a large double-banked frigate with the flag of Moharem Bey, Commander-in-chief of the Egyptian squadron. The Genoa followed within one hundred yards of her leader, and brought up abreast of a large frigate astern of the Admiral; the Albion, in turn, anchored astern of the Genoa. The Russian Admiral was to look out for four ships which were to windward,part of the Egyptian squadron, and those to leeward, in the bight of the crescent, were to mark the stations of the whole Russian squadron, the ships of their line closing with the English.
The French frigate Armide was to take her station alongside the outermost frigate on the left, in entering the harbor, and three English frigates next to her. The smaller English vessels were to watch the movements of the fire-ships.
Strict orders were given by Admiral Codrington that not a gun should be fired unless the Allied squadrons were first attacked by the Turks, and these orders were rigidly observed.
The entry of the Allied fleets was silently permitted by the Turks, who did not call to quarters, either with drum or trumpet, and an ominous silence was preserved throughout their line; so it was difficult to suppose that a most bloody battle was about to take place.
The Turkish fleet and batteries were prepared for action, however; and it so proved when the Dartmouth frigate, which had anchored close to the fire-ships, and whose Captain, perceiving certain movements on board of them which induced him to believe that the Turks were about to act on the offensive, sent a boat, under command of a lieutenant, to request that the fire-ships should quit the anchorage occupied by the Allies. Upon the boat’s proceeding alongside the fire-ship, a fire of musketry was opened upon her, and the lieutenant and several of the crew were killed. The fire was replied to from the boat, and the sharp report of small arms, echoing from the surrounding rocky eminences, seemed to awake the Turks from a torpor.
Just at this critical moment the French flag-ship, the Sirène, which was close alongside the Egyptian frigateEsnina, hailed, to say that she should not fire if the Esnina did not. The words had hardly passed the French Captain’s lips when the Egyptian fired her broadside slap into the Sirène. So quickly that it seemed an echo, the formidable broadside of the Sirène was heard in reply, delivered point blank into the Esnina. At the same moment the Turkish Admiral fired a shot, and upon this the whole Allied fleet in a position to do so opened fire upon the Turks.
The Asia, though abreast of the ship of the Capitan Bey, was nearer to that of Moharem Bey; and as the latter did not fire at the Asia, the English flag-ship did not fire at her. A messenger was sent to the Asia by Moharem Bey, to say that he did not intend to fire, and Admiral Codrington, still unwilling to believe a serious engagement possible, sent a boat with a Mr. Mitchell, who was acting as pilot and interpreter, to assure Moharem of his desire to avoid bloodshed.
But Mitchell was treacherously shot dead when descending the side of the Egyptian ship. Soon after the Egyptian opened fire, and as Admiral Codrington says, in his dispatch, “was consequently effectually destroyed by the Asia’s fire, sharing the same fate as his brother Admiral on the starboard side, and falling to leeward, a complete wreck.” The action then became general; and the ships were soon enveloped in dense clouds of powder smoke, only lighted by the rapid flashes of the guns; and very soon these lurid flashes became the only guides by which the gunners could sight their pieces. In this dreadful turmoil the drill, discipline and experience of the Europeans gave them the advantage. As their shot told more truly than those of the Turks, each broadside of the Allies tore through the hulls, swept the decks, and wrecked the masts and rigging of the Ottoman fleet.
The Turks, raging, furious and desperate, fought with blind and ill-directed courage. In working their guns they seemed only anxious to fire rapidly, without taking time to point their pieces. Less carried away by rage, and a little more skillful, they should have overwhelmed the Allies, for they had treble the number of guns. In the meantime the Allies kept up a close, cool and accurate fire, and the Turkish losses soon became frightful.
Two fire-ships were soon in flames, and a third blew up, while a fourth was sunk by shot. The forts opened upon the Allies, and that of Navarino, especially, committed much havoc; but almost as much among friends as foes.
The Russian ships did not reach their assigned positions until about three o’clock, when the fire was at its height. The Asia’s fire having disposed of her two opponents, that ship became exposed to a severe raking fire from the Turkish inner lines, by which her mizzen-mast was shot away, several guns disabled, and many of her crew killed and wounded. The Master of the Asia was killed in the early part of the action, while bringing both broadsides to bear upon the Turkish and Egyptian Admirals. Captain Bell, of the marines, was also killed, and Sir Edward Codrington was struck by a musket-ball, which knocked his watch out of his pocket, and battered it to pieces. The Genoa, next astern the English Admiral, suffered very severely, being engaged from first to last, and doing excellent service. As the Turks fired high, the carnage among the marines on the poops of the large vessels was so great that it was thought best to remove them to the quarter deck, and their loss was especially great in the Genoa. Commodore Bathurst, of that ship, was wounded three times; the last time mortally, by a grape-shot which passed through his bodyand lodged in the opposite bulwark. The French frigate Armide sustained for a long time, and without being disabled, the fire of five Egyptian frigates. The French line-of-battle ship Scipion was on fire no less than four times, from a fire-ship which lay in flames across her fore-foot. Each time the flames were extinguished; and that without any perceptible want of regularity in her fire. The English ship Albion, next astern of the Genoa, was exposed to the united fire of a cluster of ships, including one 74, and two 64-gun ships. About half an hour after the action commenced one of the Turkish ships fell foul of the Albion, and her crew made an attempt to board, but were repulsed with heavy loss. The Turkish ship was in turn boarded and taken. The English were in the act of releasing a number of Greek prisoners secured in the hold of this ship, when she was discovered to be on fire. The English, therefore, left her, having cut her cables, and the Turk, enveloped in flames, drifted clear of the Albion, and, shortly after, blew up, with a tremendous explosion.
The two remaining large Turkish ships again opened upon the Albion; but she returned the fire so vigorously that the largest of the two was soon in flames. The Albion was all the afternoon surrounded by blazing ships; but at dusk she got under way, and stood clear of them.
The ships of all three of the Allies seem to have behaved with equal gallantry; but the performance of the little cutter, the Hind, tender to the Asia, deserves especial mention. She was of one hundred and sixty tons, mounted eight light guns, and had a crew of thirty men. She had been to Zante, and only returned as the Allied squadrons were entering Navarino, and her gallant Commander determined, notwithstanding his trifling force,to have his share in the glories of the day. He accordingly entered with the rest, and, taking up a raking position astern of a large frigate, at only a few yards distance, opened upon her a sharp fire. The cutter was exposed to the fire of several small vessels, and in about three quarters of an hour they cut her cables, and she drifted away between a large corvette and a brig, which she engaged until the brig caught fire and blew up. The Hind then continued to fire into the corvette, until her remaining cable was cut, and she drifted clear of her adversary. Still drifting, in the hottest of the fire, the little Hind fouled a Turkish frigate; her main-boom entering one of the main-deck ports; and the Turks were about to board her. In this they were repeatedly repulsed; and at last the Turks manned a large boat, to try to carry her in that way. The Hind’s crew knocked this boat to pieces with her carronades, crammed to the muzzle with grape and canister; and the cutter soon after drifted clear of the frigate, just as a general cessation of fire took place.
Her loss, in all this fighting, only amounted to a Mate and three men killed, and a Midshipman and nine men wounded.
As we have said, the French ships behaved admirably, as did the Russians. In fact, the position of the contending ships was such that the mutual and perfect co-operation of each ship of the Allied squadron was absolutely necessary to bring about a favorable termination. Had the Russians or French not taken their full share in the day’s work, the British must have been annihilated.
The close and continued cannonade caused complete and dreadful destruction to the Turks. About forty of their vessels, of different rates, fell a prey to the flames,exploding their magazines in succession, as the fire reached them, and covering the waters of the bay with their fragments and the burned and mutilated bodies of their crews. By fiveP. M.the entire first line of the Turks was destroyed, and by seven there remained afloat, of all their formidable armament, only a few small vessels which had been furthest in shore. These were mostly abandoned by their crews, who had made their escape to the neighboring hills.
Sir Edward Codrington reported that, on the morning after the battle, “out of a fleet composed of eighty-one vessels, only one frigate and fifteen smaller vessels are in a state ever again to put to sea.”
The allied fleets lost 177 killed and 480 wounded. The Turks were estimated to have lost at least six thousand killed.
This action created a great sensation throughout Europe; not only because no great naval action had been fought for some years, but because the friends of Grecian independence saw in the battle the probable freedom of that oppressed State. But politicians were alarmed at what they feared would be the deplorable consequences of leaving Turkey disarmed, in the presence of ambitious and menacing Russia, as the battle had already, it was said, “turned the Black Sea into a Russian lake,” and that great opportunity for Greece was lost through the fears and vacillation of diplomatists.
Sailing ship
SINOPE, 1853.(The Russians under Admiral Nachimoff Annihilating the Turkish Fleet, in the harbor of Sinope.)
SINOPE, 1853.(The Russians under Admiral Nachimoff Annihilating the Turkish Fleet, in the harbor of Sinope.)