Everything about Battle Of Reval totally explained
The naval
Battle of Reval took place on
13 May 1790 (
2 May OS) during the
Russo-Swedish War (1788-1790), off the port of Reval (now
Tallinn,
Estonia).
Origins
Undaunted by the Swedish defeats and failures during
1789, the Swedish king,
Gustav III sent the battlefleet under his brother
Prince Karl, Duke of Södermanland, to eliminate
Admiral Chichagov's Russian squadron, which had wintered in the harbour at Reval.
General-Admiral Duke Karl approached Reval with 26
ships of the line and large
frigates mounting a combined 1,680 cannon. Chichagov, preparing to meet the enemy in the harbour, formed a battle line made up of 9
ships of the line and the
frigate Venus.
Battle
The Russian fleet (9 ships of the line, 5 frigates) was anchored in a line going from Reval
harbour towards the
Viimsi (Wims) peninsula. The first line consisted of nine ships of the line and frigates (the 100-gun battleships
Rostislav and
Saratov, 74-gun
Kir Ioann,
Mstislav,
Sv. Yelena and
Yaroslav, 66-gun
Pobedonosets,
Boleslav and
Izyaslav and the 40-gun frigate
Venus). In the second line, four frigates -
Podrazhislav (32 guns),
Slava (32),
Nadezhda Blagopoluchiya (32) and
Pryamislav (36). Two bomb-vessels were deployed on the flanks. The third line was composed of seven launches.
The Swedish fleet under the command of
General-Admiral Duke Karl of
Södermanland consisted of 22
ships of the line, four
frigates and four smaller vessels. It entered the harbour and started passing by the anchored Russian ships.
Due to the strong winds and inaccurate aiming most of the Swedish
projectiles ricocheted past their targets. The Russian ships that were anchored within the protected area of the harbour were able to use their guns much more effectively. The ship of the Swedish General-Admiral, which couldn't be brought into the wind due to a rigging problem, was forced to drift towards
Rostislav and received major damage from
grapeshot. The 64-gun battleship
Prins Karl, fifteenth the Swedish line, lost her
rudder to Russian fire and had to
strike her colours.
The Duke of Södermanland directed the battle from the frigate
Ulla Fersen, beyond the range of Russian fire. After a two hour
artillery duel he ordered his ships to break off the engagement; hence the last ten ships of Swedish line veered off without firing a shot. The Swedish ship
Riksens Ständer hit the
reef north of
Aegna (Wolf) island. Swedish attempts to dislodge it failed, and they were forced to burn her so that she wouldn't be taken by the Russians.
Aftermath
The Battle of Reval was a resounding Russian victory. The Swedes lost two ships of the line, and were forced to retreat despite their almost two-fold numerical superiority. Swedish losses were 51 killed, 81 wounded, and 250 captured. Russian losses were 8 killed and 27 injured.
After the battle the Swedish fleet partially repaired at the sea, and then sailed away east of
Hogland Island.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Battle Of Reval'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://battle_of_reval.totallyexplained.com">Battle of Reval Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
