Battle of Reval

This article is about the 1790 battle. For the 1602 battle, see Battle of Reval (1602).

Battle of Reval
Part of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90)
The Battle of Reval, Ivan Aivazovsky
Date 13 May 1790 Location Off Reval; Revel Roadstead, Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea 59°30′N 24°45′E Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Russia Imperial Russian Navy	Sweden Swedish Navy
Commanders and leaders
Vasily Chichagov	Prince Charles
Strength
10 ships of the line, 5 frigates, 2 bomb vessels, 7 cutters	22 ships of the line, 4 frigates, 4 smaller ships
Casualties and losses
8 killed & 27 wounded	~150–200 dead, wounded or missing  • 130 to 150 killed or: 51 dead and ~80 wounded. 1 ship of the line captured:  • ~400 to 600 captured seamen and army personnel on it;  • or incl. as few as 250 men captured. 1 ship of the line destroyed 5 ships heavily damaged 40 to 42 cannons lost

The naval Battle of Reval took place on 13 May [O.S. 2 May] 1790 during the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790), off the port of Reval in the roadstead (now Tallinn, Estonia). This battle ended in an imposing Imperial Russian Navy's victory; it has been compared to the practice of running the gauntlet.

Origins

Undaunted by the Swedish defeats and failures during 1789, the Swedish king, Gustav III sent the battle fleet under his brother Prince Karl, Duke of Södermanland, to eliminate Admiral Chichagov's Russian squadron, which had wintered in the harbor at Reval.

General-Admiral Duke Karl of Södermanland 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 (10 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, i.e. the 100-gun battleships Rostislav (flagship of admiral Vasili Chichagov, captained by his son Pavel Chichagov) and Saratov (flagship of vice admiral Alexey Vasilyevich Musin-Pushkin, captained by Nikolai Barsch), the 74-gun ships of the line Kir Ioann, Mstislav, Sv. Elena (flagship of contre-admiral Pyotr Khanykov, captained by Carl Magnus von Breyer) and Yaroslav, the 66-gun ships of the line Pobedonosets, Boleslav and Izyaslav and the 40-gun frigate Venus (captained by Robert Crown). 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 cutters.

The Swedish fleet under the command of General-Admiral Duke Karl 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 strong winds and inaccurate aiming, most Swedish projectiles ricocheted past their targets, while 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 could not 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 her failed, and the Swedes were forced to burn her so that the Russians would be unable to take her.

• 
  Battle plan. Drawing by Johann Christoph Brotze.
• 
  Battle plan No. 2. By Johann Christoph Brotze.
• 
  Battle of Reval, as depicted by Jacob Hägg. Maritime Museum (Stockholm).
• 
  The battle, as depicted in Nordischer Kriegsschauplaz
• 
  The battle, as depicted by Alexey Bogolyubov after Ivan Aivazovsky's painting
• 
  The battle on the postage stamp with Bogolyubov's painting

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 more than twofold numerical superiority in line ships. Russian losses were 8 killed and 27 injured. Contemporary sources reported Russian casualties of 4 killed, 7 seriously and 18 lightly wounded, with almost 400 Swedish sailors, soldiers and officers captured and presumably 130 killed.

After the battle the Swedish fleet partially repaired at the sea, and then sailed away east of Hogland Island.

See also

• Reval order of battle

Bibliography

• Tredrea, John; Sozaev, Eduard (2010). Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696–1860 – Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-058-1.
• Novikov, Nikolay Vasilyevich (1948). Боевая летопись русского флота [Battle chronicle of the Russian navy] (in Russian). Moscow: Military publishing house of the Ministry of Armed Forces of the Union of SSRs. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
• Stenzel, Alfred; Kirchhoff, Hermann (2002) [1907–1911]. "Шведско-русская война 1788–1790 гг." [Swedish-Russian war of 1788–1790]. Written at Hanover, Province of Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire. История войн на море с древнейших времен до конца XIX века [History of wars at sea from ancient times to the end of the nineteenth century]. Central Naval Library (in Russian). Vol. 2. Translated by various (revised ed.). Moscow: Eksmo. pp. 444–457. ISBN 5-94661-036-8.
  • Original: Seekriegsgeschichte in ihren wichtingsten Abschnitten mit Berucksichtigung der Seetaktik (in German).
• Veselago, Feodosy Fyodorovich (1939). Краткая история русского флота [A Brief History of Russian Navy] (in Russian) (2nd ed.). Moscow, Leningrad: Военмориздат. pp. 139–140. ISBN 978-5519440530. Retrieved 25 February 2024.