Battle of Vyborg Bay (1790) - Background

Background

In 1790, King Gustav III of Sweden revived his plan for a landing close to St. Petersburg, this time near Viborg. But the plan foundered in a disastrous attack on the Russian fleet at the Battle of Reval on May 13. A further attack on the Russian fleet off Kronstadt at the beginning of June also failed and the Swedish high seas fleet and the "archipelago fleet" (skärgårdsflottan) both retired to Viborg Bay.

The stage for the battle was set in the first week of June 1790. Northern white nights were nearly as light as the day and, to King Gustav's consternation, unfavourable southwesterly winds prevented the combined Swedish fleets of some 400 vessels from sailing southeast to Swedish-controlled Finnish waters. This allowed the Russian sailing battlefleet and coastal galley fleet to join forces.

King Gustav ordered a two-part Swedish naval force of 400 ships (with 3,000 guns and 30,000 sailor and soldiers) to anchor temporarily between the islands of Krysserort (Ristiniemi in Finnish), and Biskopsö (Severny Berezovy in Russian, Piisaari in Finnish) just inside the mouth of Bay of Viborg, Russia, in the Gulf of Finland. This strategic position placed the Swedish navy within striking distance of the Russian imperial capital, Saint Petersburg.

The sailing battlefleet of 21 ships of the line, 13 frigates, various smaller ships, and 16,000 men, was led by flag-captain Admiral Nordenskiöld, under command of Grand Admiral Duke Carl, younger brother of King Gustav III of Sweden. The coastal galley flotilla (Skärgårdsflottan) of 14,000 sailors and army soldiers was led by flag-captain Colonel George de Frese, under personal charge of Gustav III of Sweden.

On June 8, 1790, the Russian Baltic Fleet under Admiral Vasili Chichagov blockaded the only two navigable channels in and out of Viborg Bay and locked the Swedish fleet in the bay while he waited for Prince Charles Henry of Nassau-Siegen to arrive from Kronstadt with the Russian galley fleet. This blockade consisted of a primary force of 50 ships (with 2,718 guns and 21,000 men), and a secondary force of 20 galleys (led by Captain Shlissov), 8 rowed archipelago frigates (led by Vice-Admiral Kozlyaninov) and 52 other rowed galleys.

On Chichagov's orders, four sets of ships (each with a trailing bomb ship) were positioned east to west, broadsides to the Swedish force. The first set, led by Major General Pyotr Lezhnev consisted of four ships of the line in the narrow eastern channel. In the dangerously shallow western channel between Krysserort and Repiegrund sat a set of five chain-linked ships of the line; a group of five frigates (three led by Rear Admiral Pyotr Khanykov and two led by British-born Russian admiral Robert Crown) further south between Lilla Fiskarna island, the Pensar Islets (Pensarholmarna) and the shoreline, and another group of five ships (including two frigates) further west at Pitkäpaasi.

Meanwhile, on June 18, 1790, an assault on the Russian galley fleet at Trångsund (Vysotsk, Uuuras in Finnish), ordered by Gustav III of Sweden and started two days earlier, failed due to lack of support of its center force and returned. Shortages of food and water prompted Gustav III of Sweden to act. On June 19, 1790, he instructed admiral Nordenskiöld to formulate a plan for the breakout for when the winds changed, one which would include a distraction with gun sloops at Kanonslupar with an actual breakout at Krysserort, and one which the king would lead personally.

Then on July 2, 1790, the wind shifted to the north, favorably for the Swedish supreme command at Vyborg Bay, which met in session, and a Swedish reconnaissance force apprehended a Russian unit at Björkö Sound in the Battle of Björkö sound.