Battles of Nahil Burnu (Kerch Strait) and Tenderof (Tendra):

The Black Sea Fleet of 32 sail, comprising 5 SoL, 16 frigates and the rest being small craft, cleared Avlita on May 6, 1790; under command of Admiral Ushakov. It first bombarded Abkhazian shores, then descended to the North Anatolian coast for a raid, eventually capturing and sending 5 grain ships back to Avlita. Ottoman navy of 50 sail was already aware that Russians were at sea and had cleared Istanbul on May 10, under command of Giritli Hüseyin Pasha, with the aim of catching the Russians and bringing them to battle. Ottomans first swept mouths of Danube and after leaving the light ships belonging to the coastal flotilla (ince donanma) here, they checked the Crimean shores and arrived to Anapa. At Anapa, the presence of a Russian fleet of 32 ships, mostly big sized ones, was reported to be near Kerch so Kapudan Pasha Giritli Ömer started operations on that direction.

On 19 June, Giritli Hüseyin Pasha arrived to Nahil Burnu, where he encountered the Russian Fleet of 32 sail including 5 SoL and 16 frigates, the rest being small craft. In heavy weather, the Ottoman fleet comprising 14 SoL, 8 frigates and 5 brigantines engaged the enemy in a battle which lasted 7 hours. Both sides suffered heavily and Ottomans claimed to have heavily damaged or destroyed 7 enemy frigates. With the sunset the battle petered out and the Russian fleet fled to Kaffa under cover of darkness. They claimed victory in the aftermath of the battle.

Due to heavy damage to many of the ships (the Kapudane ship's rigging was razed and she had more than 100 cannon ball holes in her hull), drinking water stores running low and a great many men being wounded, Giritli Hüseyin Pasha decided to return to Sünne (Sulina) for refit and repair. After spending almost a month there, Ottoman fleet weighed anchor in August and arrived to Hocabey (Odessa). On 8 September 1790, one of the scouting  brigantines reported the presence of a 37 ship Russian fleet near Kılburun (Kinburn). The wind blowing from southeast was much in favour of Russians but being determined to engage the enemy, Kapudan Pasha immediately ordered to set sail. The two fleets met early in the afternoon. Once in the gun range, each Ottoman ship chose a target and engaged. In the running fight, Ottomans claimed to destroy 1 SoL. Meanwhile, Russians concentrated fire on the Kapudane ship, which was heavily damaged and set on fire. By the sunset, both fleets disengaged, having suffered greatly. While the sunrise was waited to continue the battle, a storm suddenly broke. Russians menaged to find a shelter near Ochakov but Ottomans stayed in open sea. Only the Kapudane ship which shadowed the Russians came near Ochakov, the rest of the fleet struggled in the storm all the night and many ships collided, causing further heavy damage. The SoL Melik-i Bahri sank that night.

In the morning, Kapudane ship, the "Mansuriye," found herself alone in the middle of the whole Russian fleet. Instead of retiring she chose to enagage. but because of the adverse wind other Ottoman ships could not give help. In the ensuing 6 hour fight, whole the stern of the ship get destroyed and fires started on multiple points. The survivors understood that they could not come alive out of this ordeal and to prevent the capture of their ship, they grappled a Russian SoL and set the magazine afire, destroying both ships.

In the aftermath, Giritli Hüseyin Pasha reformed his dispersed fleet and anchored at Kiligrat (Cape Caliacra) near Varna, where he reported the result of the battle and requested permission to return back to Istanbul, stating that most of ships are in urgent need of substantial repairs.

The great Ottoman historian Cevdet Pasha concluded that "the Black Sea ultimately remained under Russian control" while Professor Ismail Hakki Uzunçarşılı wrote: "The defeated Ottoman Navy did not menage to stay in Black Sea and returned to Istanbul totally disorganized; and thereafter Russian command of the Black Sea was established" about the results of the 1790 campaigns.

Tarih Boyu Denizde Anadolu Türkleri: 18. Yüzyıl, pg. 113-114

I continue with my translation of the Kiligrat (Cape Caliacria) Campaign.

From the end of 1790 until April 1791, the Ottoman fleet was taken into a great refit and repair in the Imperial Arsenal at Constantinople, while the total numbers were increased to 18 SoL, 17 frigates and 43 small craft both by new construction and by the contribution of barbary states. That month, Ottoman fleet sailed to relieve Anapa but seeing that the area has fallen already to Russians, it immediately sailed to Avlita without losing further time. There Ottomans met the Russian Black Sea Fleet, composed of 42 sail of all sizes, which had just come out of port. Both sides started to prepare for battle but as there was dead calm, they waited for a breeze to sprang.

A short while later, the wind started to blow, and it blew much in favour of Russians. But as some newly fitted ships had not joined the Russian fleet, Ushakov declined from battle and returned to port. Kapudan Pasha Giritli Hüseyin realized that he could not do much further, and moved off to Kiligrat where he anchored. A short while later, the 6 new SoL awaited by Ushakov joined in and the reinforced Russian fleet sailed from Avlita on 6 August in the direction of Kiligrat. Learning Russian movement, Kapudan Pasha immediately weighed anchor on 10 August to meet the enemy.

The wind was unfavourable for Ottomans, so the Ottoman fleet was trying to take the North-Northeast wind from starboard side to gain the weather gage. At that moment the Kapudane of the barbary ships Cezayirli Seydi Ali made an ununderstandable dash with his Algerian and Tunisian ships, effectively causing the Ottoman fleet to split into two groups. Seydi Ali was probably behaving with his corsair impulses, causing him to make a frontal attack against the Russian fleet. Kapudan Pasha Giritli Hüseyin gave a signal to him to stop at once and engage the enemy as a united fleet but he disregarded the order and drove right into the middle of Russians. Although he menaged to give some damage with his broadsides, he was surrounded in short order and was taken under concentrated fire. Some of his bolder captains intervened and extracted their damaged Kapudane from her peril.

Because of Seydi Ali's undisciplined behavior, Ottoman fleet had lost its battle formation. Some SoL and frigates which lagged far behind could not engage at all while the ships which menaged to engage could not take a suitable place against adversaries of matching size. Wind also was always in favour of Russians. Anyhow, Ottoman ships which engaged despite all these odds persistently remained on battle stations. Both sides suffered heavily and Russians disengaged one hour after sunset. The adversaires retired to wait for the morning to resume battle, while busying themselves with immediate repairs, salvage and regrouping.

Seydi Ali himself was heavily wounded while his ship was put out of action, with the majority of the crew being either dead or wounded. After sunrise, the damaged Kapudane took the direction of Constantinople. Seeing her, 7-8 other ships started to follow and Giritli Hüseyin Pasha's signals to stop them were disregarded. Kapudan Pasha wanted to re-engage Russians with his remaining ships but the heavy North-Northeast wind, which was developing into a full blown storm, prevented him and started to distress his ships. Thus, he also took the return way to Bosphorus.

Russians had also suffered great many dead and wounded as well but they were the masters of the battlefield that day and they anchored at Cape Emine; where they started immediate repairs and set afire some of their ships which became unmenageable.

Sultan Selim III was furious over the results of the battle and he answered Hüseyin Pasha's request of permission to enter from the Bosphorus as such: "Both my Kapudan Pasha and my Captains offended me very much, I never expected such a conduct from them. Woe to the esteem I had for them."

Results of the Kiligrat campaign created panic in Constantinople. Expecting a Russian assault into the capital, repair and reinforcement of the Bosphorus fortifications started and orders are sent to the Black Sea regions to take necessary measures against possible Russian seaborne assaults.

Shortly afterwards, peace talks between Russians and Ottomans started at Jassy, which ended with a treaty finishing hostilities between two empires.


Denizde Tarih Boyu Anadolu Türkleri: 18. Yüzyıl, p. 116-117

Наткнулся случайно на Амазоне на второе издание вот такой работы, 2011 год: Zorlu T. Innovation and Empire in Turkey: Sultan Selim III and the Modernisation of the Ottoman Navy. (см. тут: http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Empire … p;sr=1-390). М.б. кто-нибудь с ней знаком, какое впечатление?