The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between the Russian Empire and an ultimately victorious alliance of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and Sardinian-Piedmont. War began with Russia’s invasion of the Turkish Danubian principalities, which became Romania. Britain and France both wanted to prop up the ailing Ottoman Empire and resist Russian expansionism in the Near East.
This was the war of Balaklava, Sevastopol, the Alma, Inkerman, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Mary Seacole, and Florence Nightingale.
But the Crimean War was not only fought in Crimea. It also had a key theatre in the Baltic Sea.
Near the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg, an Anglo-French fleet instituted a naval blockade and bottled up the outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet.
One of those ships taking part in the blockade from 1854 to 1856, and successful in destroying Russian shipping at Nystad, was HMS Harrier. The ship was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class screw sloop launched in 1854 from Pembroke Dockyard.
HMS Harrier’s commander was Henry Alexander Storey (1813-1879). Henry was, only two years before the blockade, the inspecting officer of coastguard of the Torquay district. Henry lived, supported by 6 servants, at ‘Ettenheim’ on Warren Road. The much-altered house can be seen at the top of the steps of Rock Walk.
Despatches from Admiral Dundas in the Baltic recorded “a gallant act performed by Commander Storey of HMS Harrier whereby he destroyed forty-seven ships belonging to the enemy”.
For his efforts Henry was subsequently promoted to be post captain.
The economic blockade on the Russian wartime economy caused damage to Russia by restricting trade while also forcing the Russians to keep a large army guarding St. Petersburg from a potential allied attack. “Five-eighths of the entire Russian naval strength” and almost half of Russia’s land forces were tied up in the Baltic, despite being needed in the Crimea.
The 1854-55 naval campaign played a key role in making the Russian Empire conclude the bloody Crimean War with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856.
Torquay: A Social History’ by local author Kevin Dixon is available for £10 from Artizan Gallery, Lucius Street, Torquay, or:
https://www.art-hub.co.uk/product-page/torquay-a-social-history-by-kevin-dixon
