Battle of Osel

Notes on Action

On May 11th, 1719, the first Russian cruisers got to sea from Revel under van Hofft. He had three battleships, three frigates, and a pink,[Perl 50, Uriil 52, Varachail 52, Samson 32, Lansdou 32, Sv. Ilya 32, and Aleksandr 24.] and sailed for Oland. He detached two of his ships to cruise off Gothland, and one of them, the Lansdou 32, heard from a prize that three Swedish warships had left Pillau for Stockholm with a convoy. Yan Hofft at once sent the Aleksandr 24 to Revel with the news, but remained with his own ships off Oland looking for a place to land. On receipt of the news Apraksin ordered Captain Senyavin to take every possible ship from Revel and look for the Swedes, and on May 26th the following squadron got to sea: Portsmut 52, Devonshir 52, Yagudiil 52, Uriil 52, Rafail 52, Varakail 52, Natalia 18.

The Swedes were the Wachtmeister 48 (52), Karlskrona Vapen 30 (34), and Bernhardus 10 (12). [Figures in brackets are Russian. Others are from Swedish list for this year (Wrangel i. Ap. 3)] They had left Stockholm on May 19th with the Ruskenfelt 32 to protect commerce, but the last-named ship had been detached. At day-break on June 4th the two squadrons met in the open sea, between Osel and Gottska Sando. Wrangel, the Swedish Commodore, of course retreated, running for Sandhamn, in the Stockholm skargard, and the Russians pursued. At about 6 a.m. the action began. The two leading Russian battleships, the Portsmut and Devonshir, attacked the Wachtmeister, but the Swedish fire directed at their rigging soon brought down two of the Portsmut' s topsail yards. The Devonshir now turned on the Karlskrona Vapen, and damaged her enough to let the Portsmut overtake and capture her. At the same time the Bernhardus struck, in spite of Wrangel's efforts to relieve her. For the moment the Wachtmeister looked like getting away, but about 1 p.m. the Rafail came up on one side and the Yagudiil on the other. Wrangel was severely wounded, but his successor Trplle kept up the unequal fight. At last, dismasted and leaking, on the arrival of the Portsmut and other Russian ships, Trolle surrendered at about 3 p.m. The Swedes lost 50 killed and 13 wounded, while the Russian casualties were only 18.