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The Drift to War Pt 2 - Sinope and After

© John Barham

When Britain's ambassador to the Porte (Turkish Sultan's court), Stratford de Redcliffe heard of the Sultan's declaration of war against Russia on 4th October 1853, he was mortified. The blow was probably doubly felt, because the Sultan had not consulted him first. But with stubborn arrogance he still believed that he had the influence to stop the War before the fighting got under way.

That same day he received the orders despatched on 23rd Sept from London to move the fleet to the Bosphorus, which he ignored. In fact this gesture was limited in effect as the French had been informed of the orders, and had already moved Admiral Hamelin's fleet forward. Stratford then started a round of frantic diplomatic activity, trying desperately to to obtain a cooling off period backed by the Great Powers. But his efforts came to nothing. The Austrian ambassador would not act without authority, and political initiatives suddenly became meaningless following reports of the first military engagements on the Danube.

The Turkish Army, well led by Omar Pasha, (more of him in later articles) enjoyed a series of initial successes, to the surprise of the Western Powers, with their ever-present tendency to underestimate the Turks. On 23rd October Omar crossed the Danube at Widdin in Western Bulgaria unopposed and moved East to reclaim South Wallachia. Operating from his main base at Turkatai, south east of Bucharest, his army fortified the island of Oltenitsa in mid Danube, and repulsed the Russian attack on it, subsequently crossing the river and advancing on a broad front.

The Russians would have preferred to deploy more troops, but they had too many units tied down in the Caucasus, where the Chechen leader Shamil had been waging a war of independence on behalf of his Moslem people. Shamil had signed a defence pact with the Sultan, and his presence prevented the exploitation of consecutive Russian victories over the Turks during November, under the shrewd command of Prince Bebatov and Prince Andronikov. Nonetheless these were solid successes which had the Turks reeling.

As a result, the Turks sent a flotilla into the Black Sea consisting of seven frigates, three corvettes, two steamers and various transports, carrying men and supplies to Batum to support their army on the Eastern Front. On 23rd November this force put in to the small northern Turkish port of Sinope. It was observed by Russian Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov, on routine patrol with a small squadron of frigates. As this force was inadequate to take on the Turks and their shore batteries, he quickly called forward six battleships from his base at Sevastapol in the Crimea.

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