Qualla: Battle of Kerch Strait (1790)

Battle of Kerch Strait (1790): Introduction

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год)., Public domain. The battle turned on the wind. For three hours on 19 July 1790, two fleets traded fire at long range across the mouth of the Kerch Strait, neither able to land a decisive blow, the Russian line and the Ottoman line running parallel and stubborn under a steady breeze from the east-northeast. Then the wind swung to the north, and everything changed. The Russian commander, Rear Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, seized the shift, luffing his ships up and driving them straight at the enemy. In the confusion of reversing course two Ottoman vessels collided, some turning one way and some the other, and the fleet that had come to carry an army to Crimea found itself fleeing southwest before the guns of Sevastopol's fleet.

Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год). | Public domain

Battle of Kerch Strait (1790): The Ottomans' Objective

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год)., Public domain. This was one clash in the long Russo-Turkish War of 1787 to 1792, a struggle over the northern shores of the Black Sea and the fate of newly Russian Crimea. The Ottoman Empire meant to reverse that loss, and the plan that summer was ambitious: land an army on the Crimean coast an...

Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год). | Public domain

Battle of Kerch Strait (1790): A Duel Decided by the Weather

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год)., Public domain. Ushakov formed his heavy ships into a line and, noticing that the Ottoman battle line held only their largest warships, detached six frigates to form a second line and thicken his formation. From roughly noon until three the two fleets fought at a distance without result, cannon ...

Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год). | Public domain

Battle of Kerch Strait (1790): The Cost and the Consequence

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год)., Public domain. For a battle that changed the course of a campaign, the human toll was mercifully light on the Russian side, twenty-nine men killed and sixty-eight wounded, with little damage to the ships themselves. The dead on both fleets were sailors of their age, drawn into a contest of empi...

Image: «ВЭС». (СПб; 1913 год). | Public domain