Battles of the Crimean War

17 November 1853 · Off the Anatolian coast near Ereğli

Russian victory; Pervaz-i Bahri captured

The first battle fought between steamships. Vice Admiral Vladimir Kornilov, out in the paddle frigate Vladimir looking for the Ottoman fleet, met the small Ottoman steamer Pervaz-i Bahri. Captain Grigory Butakov kept Vladimir off her stern, where her guns could not bear, and raked her for three hours until she surrendered with her captain dead. She was taken into Sevastopol and renamed Kornilov.

30 November 1853 · Sinop harbour, Black Sea coast of Anatolia

Decisive Russian victory

Admiral Nakhimov's squadron caught an Ottoman squadron of frigates and corvettes at anchor in Sinop and destroyed it with explosive shells, the first major use of shell guns at sea. Wooden ships burned or blew up, about 2,700 of 4,200 Ottoman sailors were killed, and Russian guns then set the town on fire. The shock helped bring Britain and France into the war, and showed that unarmoured wooden ships could not survive shellfire.

22 April 1854 · Odessa harbour

Allied success; harbour batteries and shipping damaged

After a boat from Furious was fired on under a flag of truce, the allied admirals sent a squadron of steam frigates against Odessa. Steaming in a circle so as to keep moving under fire, they bombarded the batteries guarding the imperial harbour, blew up a magazine and burned ships in the port, while sparing the commercial harbour and the town. Vauban was set on fire by hot shot and had to pull out. The sailing frigate Arethusa joined in under sail alone, the last time a Royal Navy ship went into action that way.

12 May 1854 · Near Odessa

Russian success; Tiger destroyed and her crew captured

Tiger ran aground in thick fog a few miles from Odessa, separated from her consorts. Russian field guns came down to the cliffs and shelled her; her captain, Henry Giffard, lost a leg and later died, and with the ship on fire and helpless the crew of more than 200 surrendered. The two steamers sent back for her could not get her off and drew away, and the Russians burned the wreck after taking off her guns.

21 June 1854 · Bomarsund, Åland Islands

Inconclusive

Captain William Hall took three paddle steamers in to shell the new Russian fortress at Bomarsund in the Åland Islands, without orders. The forts were barely damaged, but during the action a live shell landed on Hecla's deck with its fuse burning and her mate, Charles Lucas, picked it up and threw it overboard. He was the first man to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

18–19 July 1854 · Solovetsky Islands, White Sea

Russian success; the monastery refused to surrender

Two British warships sent to blockade the White Sea arrived off the fortified Solovetsky Monastery and demanded its surrender. The monks and a few invalid soldiers refused, and Brisk and Miranda bombarded the walls for nine hours with little effect before sailing away. In Russia the defence of the monastery became a celebrated patriotic legend. Miranda went on to burn the town of Kola in August.

8–16 August 1854 · Bomarsund, Åland Islands

Allied victory; Bomarsund taken and destroyed

Napier's fleet could not risk attacking Kronstadt or Sveaborg, so the allies struck at Bomarsund. About 10,000 French troops were landed and laid siege to the fortress from the land, while the fleet bombarded its towers from the sea; the old blockships Edinburgh, Ajax and Hogue tried out long-range fire with their heaviest guns, and Penelope ran aground under the guns and had to throw her own guns overboard to get free. The Russian garrison of about 2,000 surrendered on 16 August, and the fortress was blown up.

30 August – 7 September 1854 · Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka

Russian victory; allied landing repulsed

A small Anglo-French squadron crossed the Pacific to attack the Russian port on Kamchatka. On the first day of the attack the British admiral, David Price, shot himself in his cabin, apparently in despair at the responsibility. The squadron silenced several batteries over the following days, but the frigate Aurora and the transport Dvina, moored across the harbour with their guns, held firm under the governor, Vasily Zavoyko. On 4 September a landing party of some 700 British and French sailors and marines was ambushed in the hills behind the town and driven back to the boats with heavy losses, and the squadron sailed away. When the allies came back in 1855 the Russians had gone.

17 October 1854 · The sea forts of Sevastopol

Russian defensive success; the fleets driven off

The Russians had sunk ships across the harbour mouth, so the allied fleets could not get in. To support the armies' first bombardment of Sevastopol, 27 allied ships of the line, most of the sailing ships lashed to steamers, anchored off the sea forts and fired more than 50,000 rounds. They did the forts little harm. Red-hot shot and shells set several British ships on fire and Rodney ran aground; Albion and Arethusa had to be towed out of action. The British lost 44 killed and 266 wounded and the French about 200 killed and wounded. It was the last great action of the wooden battle fleets, and it showed that they could not fight stone forts on equal terms.

24 May – June 1855 · Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov

Allied victory; Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov destroyed

An allied expedition landed at Kerch on 24 May; the Russians blew up their batteries and scuttled or burned their ships, and the allies took the strait without a fight. A flotilla of shallow-draught steamers and gunboats under Captain Edmund Lyons of Miranda then went into the Sea of Azov, which fed the army in the Crimea. In four days they destroyed four warships and hundreds of supply ships, and through June they burned grain stores at Berdyansk, Genichesk and Taganrog. The Russian army at Sevastopol lost one of its main supply routes.

9–11 August 1855 · Sveaborg (Suomenlinna), off Helsingfors

Allied tactical success; the fortress not taken

With no army to land, the Baltic fleet attacked the fortress of Sveaborg guarding Helsingfors with the new weapons of the war: mortar vessels and steam gunboats. For two days they bombarded the islands at long range, setting fire to the dockyard, stores and powder magazines, while the ships of the line kept out of range. The allies lost no one killed. The fortress walls were hardly touched, and many of the mortars wore out under the strain; but the bombardment showed what the British planned to do to Kronstadt in 1856, and helped persuade Russia to make peace.

17 October 1855 · Kinburn Spit, mouth of the Dnieper

Anglo-French victory

The first time ironclads went into action. Three French armoured floating batteries anchored close to the Russian forts on Kinburn Spit and pounded them at short range, while the allied fleet joined in. The batteries were hit more than 60 times each but suffered only dents in their armour; all the allied casualties, 2 killed and 25 wounded, were aboard them. The garrison surrendered.