KRONSTADT THE IMPREGNABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 49

KRONSTADT THE IMPREGNABLE.

Before arriving at Revel a small bay is passed, the scene of one of the most brilliant exploits in the annals of the British navy. In 1810 a Russian squadron of nino sail of the line was sighted off Hango Head, the western end of the northern shore of the Galf of Finland, by the combined force of 10 Swedish and two English line of battleships. The two latter, the Implacable (Sir Bjam Martin) and the Cantaur (Sir Samuel Hood), outsailed their colleagues, and the Implacable attacked the sternmost Russian vessel, the Sewolod, and made her haul down her pendants after an action of half an hour's duration. The enemy now bearing down to the rescue, the two English ships made for the Swedish fleet, then 10 miles to leeward, when the Implacable's prize was taken in tow by a Russian frigate. On tbia the Osntaur and Implacable made & fresh attempt to secure the Sewolod, and drove c££ the frigate, but had again to retreat in consequence of the Russians bearing down a second time upon them. The enemy now stood into the harbour of Port Baltic (R"gerewick), and the Sewolod running aground at the entrance, our two ships for the third time returned to the attack-, and after a sharp contest took possession of and burnt the Russian, making the whole of her crew prisoners. This (with the exception of two gunboat actions in 1809) is almost the solitary occasion on which Eoglish and Russian vessels have come into hostile contact. In the succeeding year the presence of two of our liners, with a frigate and sloop, was sufficient to clear the Galf of Finland and to strike such terror into the enemy that he never ventured to leave his harbours I

Leaving Port Baltic acd keeping along the Estbonian shore, four hours' steaming brirga you to Revel Roads. A vessel approaching from the north-west wonld first pass Kari Island, and then, at the distance of a mile and a-half, be commanded by a semicircular fort, mounting 96 guns in casemates in three tiers. This work is followed at a distance of 150 yds by a battery of 24 guns, and half a xniie farther on commences the Mole, on which are placed 62 pieces. These three batteries are intended to protect the front of the town, and are built in deep water 500 yds from the shoie, but as not one is properly supported by either of the others, and as three-deckers can anchor within point-blank range of any part of the whole line, thoy can hardly be considered aa offering any *' material guarantee" against a bombardment. At the same time is may be observed that Revel has no special attractions for our screws ; it has no docks and no men-of-war — nothing but an unimportant fortified town with a good port, where four or five sail of the line usually pass the winter in a state of congelation. There is a little entry in the annals of this place which can hardly fail to fill our sailors with a lively desire to criticise the Czar's military architecture here. The date is 1801, the year of the great "battle' of the Baltic." On the murder of the Emperor Paul (that harshly judged and much libelled monarch, whose little eccentricities and impetuosities were imitated such success by an esteemed son) Nelson's intended visit to the Galf of Finland was so long delayed that a Russian squadron which had been lying at Ravel during the winter escaped to Kronstadt before his arrival.

The granite wall which forms the northern shore of the Galf of Finland is broken up into countless groups of rocks and islets, "which form a natural outlying barrier against vessels trying to penetrate the bays and islets with which the coast is everywhere indented. The natural difficulties of a tortuous navigation through narrow winding channels are alone in the case of ships of heavy draught very great, and without the aid of buoys and beacons almost insurmountable. If, however, it be taken for granted that such difficulties can be overcome by torew steamer?, it must not be forgotten that there is a fresh element to be considered — namely, the fire of powerful batteries placed upon commanding points. It is this combination of natural and artificial fortifications which has given S^eaborg the character of impregnability and the name of the Gibraltar of the North. The town of Helsingtors is built upon a double-headed promontory stretching out into a fine bay, the entrance to which is secured by a chain of small islands. Eight of these are included in the line of defence which bears the general name of Sveaborg, and, what with shallow water in some places and dams in others, there is said to be but one passage by which large Bhips can penetrate into the Bay of Helsingfors. The complication of these fortifications makes it difficult to convey anything more than the most general idea of them. One stands aghast at the array — sometimes doubled and tripled — of ramps and rarr parts, cunettes and countergaards, tenailles and traverser, berms, cavalier?, hornwcrke, caponieres, ravelins, and counterscarps. Such a chaos of awful and mysterious import would remind the reader of one of Sir Archibald Alison's sieges. We shall ran quickly along these granite defences, beginning with the small island of Langern, the nearest to Helsingfors, and only about 200 yards from the southern extremity of the town. Here, as at the other points, the ramparts are scarped out of the rock, and there is no possibility of escalading them. The batteries are, from the comparative absence of casemates, of the most formidable and unassailable description, and they are armed with the heaviest description of ordnance. Each series of works is complete in itself, as regards stores of all kinds and bomb-.proof cover. The entrance into Helsingfors Bay lies between Langern and the next island, Yester Svert. It is about 200 yards in width, and a vessel attempting it must run the gauntlet of the fire of the two islands ; and, in addition to thip, she will be in danger of being raked by guns of Oster Lilya Svert, which lies behind the opening between Vester Svert and Langern. Next to and in connection with Vester Svert are Vargen and jGustav Sverfc, with Oster Stuor Svert in .the rear. This is the most remarkable part of the works, and the constructions of Crustav Svert especially are on a scale of unparalleled magnitude. The front presented £>y the successive works • ia aboui a mile in length, and. j-Jui more ROEtfa^mJ-orfcrfiSHes.-—

that is, those nearer to Helsingfors — viz., Langern, Vester, and Lilya Svert — not only defend the narrow channel above alluded to, but they also command points on the mainland where an enemy who had previously taken the town might attempt to establish his batteries. The second group would, it is hoped, be able to repel any attack which could be made from the water. Whether all this formidable and complicated apparatus would be likely to defeat an attempt from the land-side by a force of 25,000 men, or from the sea by screw line-of-bafctle ships, or by both combined, we shall nofc inquire. The capture of Sveaborg by the Kussian army in 1808 proves nothing either the one way or the other; it was undertaken, too, in winter, and the Russian commander, after a fruitless bombardment of 12 days, cajoled or bribed the Swedish admiral into a capitulation.

Sveaborg and Rovel are each about 200 miles west of the mouth of the Neva. As yoo sail up the gulf, the Finnish coasb on the north aad the Esthonian and Ingrian coasts on the south, gradually recede till they are separated by an interval of 80 miles — double the distance from Sveaborg to Revel. Beyond the Bay of Narva the opposite shores apprpach, and after two further contractions the gulf becomes a mere channel 80 miles broad, afc the east end of which are St. Petersburg and the eatuary of the Neva. It was to defend the entrance to the last of these contractions that Peter the Great built the fortress of Cronslott, and thus began the system of defences we are about to describe. The strength or the impregnability (as the case may be) of the position of the bulwark of St. Petersburg will be easily understood by attention to the following considerations :—: — The island of Kotlina is an irregularly shaped

ramparfc so formed gives room for heavy guns. The guns, of which there used to be 70 ia position, besides 10 or 12 mortars, are en larhetle, and to prevent the wood over which they work from catching fire, plates of sheet-iron are fixed on it at intervals. There is little or no available shelter for the gunners, and if a ship could safely pass all the other batteries and afford to pay no attention to the fire o£ Fort Menzikoff, soon to be described, she might anchor at the Mole-head and put its guDS hors de combat by a raking fire from her quarterdeGk. The first half of tbis battery, ib may be added, would co-operate with the forts before noticed in opposing vessels attempting to pass into the" Little Road ; the other half would protecb the shore and the back of Fort Peter from boat attacks. Fort Mecz;koff, built o£ cubes of granite on a bastion projecting from the Mole o£ the Merchants' Harbour, mounts 44 lOin and Bin guns ia four tiers of casemates. The flank turned towards Cronelott is pierced with loopholes for musketry, live on each of the three lower tiers. The back is not susceptible of defence against & covp de main, but this is of little consequence, as the necessary coup is not very likely to reach it before the fall of Kronstadt itself. — Windsor Magazine.