Admiral Ushakov: Nelson’s Russian Ally
Between 1798 and 1800, writes Geoffrey Bennett, a Russian fleet co-operated with the British in the Mediterranean.
‘Big Soviet Fleet in Eastern Mediterranean.’ ‘Soviet Warships off Malta.’
Such headlines are today’s news because it is only in recent years that the Soviet Black Sea Fleet has sallied so far afield.
Before that, for more than four decades after the Bolshevik Revolution, no Russian warship passed through the Bosphorus.
But a Russian fleet in the Mediterranean is no new phenomenon. It has happened before.
Despite the many books that have been written about Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, one aspect of his victorious career has received scant attention.
To cite two major biographies, neither Captain A.T. Mahan’s classic Life (1897), nor Miss Carola Oman’s (1947), contains more than passing references to the Russian fleet which worked with the British in the eastern Mediterranean during the years 1798 to 1800.
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