First Battle of Svensksund

24 August 1789, Svensksund, near present-day Kotka

Russian victory; the Swedish archipelago fleet driven back

The Swedish archipelago fleet under Lieutenant-Colonel Carl August Ehrensvärd lay in the sound of Svensksund among the islands off the Kymi river, guarding the army's flank. Prince Charles of Nassau-Siegen brought the Russian galley fleet against it from two sides: a squadron of bigger ships under Ivan Balle attacked from the south, while Giulio Litta's galleys worked through a shallow passage to the east that the Swedes had not blocked in time. The Swedes beat off Balle's ships and even took some of them, but when Litta's galleys broke through in the evening the defence fell apart. Several of the Swedish archipelago frigates ran aground and were taken, and about thirty transports were burned to keep them from the Russians. Most of the fleet escaped to the fortress of Svartholm and was ready to fight again the next year.