Qualla: Battle of Chesma https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Chesma https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma Battle of Chesma: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma/ Photo credit AlekH at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0. There is a stretch of water barely seven kilometers wide between the eastern shore of Chios and the Anatolian mainland, and on the night of 6–7 July 1770, that water turned to fire. The Ottoman fleet had crowded into the small bay at Çeşme, ships packed hull to hull for safety. By dawn almost nothing was left of it. Around ten thousand Ottoman sailors died there in a few dark hours, most of them trapped aboard wooden ships that the flames reached faster than any man could swim. It was the worst defeat the Ottoman navy had suffered in two centuries, and it began with a single spark carried by a single small boat.

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Image: AlekH at English Wikipedia | CC BY 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/swfd-battle-of-chesma-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Chesma: Two Fleets Find Each Other https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma/ Photo credit Gargarapalvin, CC BY-SA 4.0. The war had started in 1768, and Catherine the Great's strategy was audacious: sail Russian squadrons all the way from the Baltic, around Europe, into the Mediterranean, to threaten the Ottomans from a sea they thought was theirs. Two squadrons under Admiral Grigory Spiridov and ...

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Image: Gargarapalvin | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/swfd-battle-of-chesma-two-fleets-find-each-other.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Chesma: The Night the Bay Burned https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma/ Photo credit Jacob Philipp Hackert, Public domain. The Ottomans retreated into the bay itself, anchoring in tight defensive lines. It was meant to be protection. It became a trap. Through the day of 6 July the Russians bombarded the crowded ships. Then, after midnight, they pressed in close. Gunfire from the ships Grom and Ne Tro...

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Image: Jacob Philipp Hackert | Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/swfd-battle-of-chesma-the-night-the-bay-burned.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Chesma: Ten Thousand Names Unrecorded https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma/ Photo credit Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The numbers are stark and they belong to real people. Russian losses were counted in the hundreds. Ottoman losses ran to roughly ten thousand sailors dead — ordinary men, conscripts and crew, most of whom never had a chance to fight back. They were not statistics to the families ...

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Image: Greece_location_map.svg: Lencer / derivative work: Uwe Dedering (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/swfd-battle-of-chesma-ten-thousand-names-unrecorded.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Chesma: What the Fire Set in Motion https://qualla.com/battle-of-chesma/ Photo credit Kostisl, Public domain. Chesma was the greatest naval disaster the Ottomans had known since Lepanto in 1571, and its consequences spread far beyond the bay. Russia controlled the Aegean for the next five years and returned to bombard Çeşme twice more. The defeat emboldened Orthodox Christian populations...

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Image: Kostisl | Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/f/d/battle-of-chesma-wp/swfd-battle-of-chesma-what-the-fire-set-in-motion.mp3 0:06 5 full