Crimean War
1853–1856
Russia against the Ottoman Empire, joined in 1854 by Britain and France. At Sinop, Russian shell guns set an Ottoman squadron of wooden ships on fire and destroyed it in an afternoon, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet then sank itself to block Sevastopol harbour rather than face the allied fleets. The allies carried their armies to the Crimea and kept them supplied by sea, bombarded Odessa and Sevastopol, and cut the Russian supply lines across the Sea of Azov. The war at sea reached far beyond the Black Sea: allied fleets destroyed Bomarsund and bombarded Sveaborg in the Baltic, shelled a monastery in the White Sea, and were beaten off at Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka. Steam gunboats, mortar vessels, mines and, at Kinburn, French armoured floating batteries pointed the way to the ironclad.
How the fleets moved
Click a route to see which ships made it, or a battle for its summary. Routes are approximate.
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Russian movement
Ottoman movement
British movement
French movement
Battle (size: ships engaged)
Routes are approximate.
Major battles
The 4 biggest of the 12 battles covered here, by ships engaged.
30 November 1853
Battle of SinopSinop harbour, Black Sea coast of Anatolia
Decisive Russian victory
11
vs
12 (9 lost)
17 October 1854
Bombardment of SevastopolThe sea forts of Sevastopol
Russian defensive success; the fleets driven off
19
9–11 August 1855
Bombardment of SveaborgSveaborg (Suomenlinna), off Helsingfors
Allied tactical success; the fortress not taken
34
Fleets
Each navy's ships in the war, from its biggest down.