Part 13 - "Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them." Psalm 89:9
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Sidney Smith and Pellew's fleet sailing the Black Sea
The second Black Sea campaign was one of the strangest in the annals of the Royal Navy's history. For all Sidney Smith and Pellew's lofty ambitions, there would be no major battle and little damage done to either side by cannon fire. As far as the Russians were concerned, with the peace talks progressing at an acceptable pace, the war in this theatre was effectively done. With no significant supply lines to defend, since Russia's logistics were running primarily inland, no battles to support and not even really anything that the British could hope to capture either, Ushakov could fall back on the same trick as his compatriots in the north. He could simply not come to fight. Having previously based himself at Sevastapol for repairs, the news of the new British fleet prompted Ushakov to sail out of the half-built fortifications there to the safer haven of Azov. Having actual completed fortifications was an obvious improvement and Azov also benefitted from lying on the edge of waters that were both entirely Russian and entirely unknown to the British. Ushakov had no way of knowing that for sure but good reason to guess so, after Rainier's previous performance in the Black Sea. And he was right, Sidney Smith and Pellew had neither the knowledge or when they found where Ushakov had gone, the inclination to attack Azov.
Despite the 2nd Earl of Chatham's best efforts to revitalise the naval war then, the Royal Navy had been checkmated by the, on paper, vastly inferior fleet of a nation that was supposed to have quailed before them. They had not lost the fight, though the performance at the Battle of Ochakov had left much to be desired, they had simply been prevented from fighting and could therefore do nothing. Despite the futility of doing so, Sidney Smith and Pellew had not yet given up hope of achieving something and so remained determined to sail into the Black Sea and bring the fight to the Russians, for honour, for glory, for their orders, etc. The dashing Sidney Smith even attempted to persuade Pellew to attack Azov, perhaps believing his in shore combat experience in the Baltic would hold him in good stead. The more level-headed older officer would not be moved, however, and so a campaign of sailing around the Black Sea coast, attacking what they could until repair or resupply was needed, was agreed. It was little more than institutionalising piracy and raiding but it was the best that could be managed and maybe, just maybe, it would draw Ushakov out of his hiding place to give battle in a fair fight.
This slightly farcical campaign plan led Sidney Smith and Pellew around the west coast of the Black Sea, attacking Russian holdings where they found them Some of the less well-defended coastal towns and villages were subjected to cannon fire and and successfully raids around the mouth of the Danube and near Ochakov. This at least demonstrated that the British sailors had learnt the lessons of the previous venture into the Black Sea. The ignominy of the whole experience was eventually ended by that great bane of sailors, a storm. Catching the British fleet off Crimea in early November (?), it scattered the ships across the northern Black Sea, leaving Sidney Smith aboard the HMS ? and two other ships of the line drifting in the Sea of Azov. Pellew, meanwhile, had been blown eastwards towards the coast of Circassia with 5 more ships whilst the rest lay battered and windswept south of the Crimean peninsula. As the latter groups tried their best to limp back to Constantinople, some also starting to suffer the effects of disease, Sidney Smith and his two fellow captains were forced to raise the flag of surrender as they were captured by Ushakov, who had sailed out personally the three ships that had been blown into his den.
Having been inundated, or indoctrinated, with stories of Russian savagery, the British feared the worst but found Ushakov and his men to be men of honour. Sidney Smith would later describe Ushakov as "one of the finest gentlemen I have ever encountered, all the finer for being unexpected from one of his heritage." As this suggests, Sidney Smith's encounter with the Russian admiral might have warmed his spirits but did little to mend the popular perception of Russians as a whole. After a week in quite hospitable custody, in which the British officers were entertained by Ushakov and the Russian and British sailors worked together to repair the ships, Sidney Smith and his companions were released. The gunpowder, though not the cannons, had been removed from their ships as was typically done in the case of released prisoners of war and they had, as honour demanded, promised to fight the Russians no further. The farewell dinner was as splendid an occasion as circumstance allowed and was hoped by many to be the first sign of peace. Within months, sensationalised versions of the week's stay at Azov would fill British newspapers and at least one officer published a memoir of the experience. Sidney Smith himself would include his own in his much later career memoirs. Most of these accounts tended, like Sidney Smith himself, to emphasise Ushakov's personal honour and that of his men but held them up above the common folk of their country, especially the local peasants around Azov.
In the meantime Sidney Smith returned to Constantinople, joining the similarly beleaguered Pellew there for the remainder of the war. After the dramatic diplomatic failures of the Rainier, Sidney Smith in particularly now set about working to remedy Britain's reputation in the Sublime Porte. In combination with his brother, he managed to establish himself as a popular figure in the Ottoman court and, though the Russo-Ottoman peace would still be signed in December 1791, went a long way to repairing Britain's standing as a friend to the Ottomans. The storm blown end to the second Black Sea expedition thus drew to a close another chapter of the Ochakov War. It, like the war as a whole, was not done officially yet but the British would have no further military involvement in the conflict. Only one active power, Russia aside, remained in Prussia but that chapter too was on the verge of closing with the rest of the book.
