Nautical
Canot, Pierre-Charles
Engraver
To Her Majesty the Empress of all the Russia, This View of a Squadron of the Imperial Russian Fleet
Description
A dramatic depiction of the Russian fleet defeating and burning the Ottoman Turkish fleet at the harbor of Cesme on the Aegean Sea. Behind the three frigates in the center, are at least eight ships almost entire engulfed in flames and one in the center right that is exploding. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74, a Russian fleet under Count Aleksey (Alexei) Orlov entered the Mediterranean in 1770 to destroy the Ottoman fleet and incite rebellion among the Greeks in Peloponnesus against the Ottomans. The Russians were unable to coordinate their operations with the rebel Greeks on land, but they won a decisive victory at Cesme.