Battle of Svensksund (1790)

Second Battle of Svensksund / Rochensalm / Ruotsinsalmi
Part of the Russo-Swedish War (1788–90)
The battle as depicted by Swedish painter Johan Tietrich Schoultz
Date 9–10 July 1790 (28–29 June OS) Location Svensksund, (now Kotka south-eastern Finland) Result Decisive Swedish victory
Belligerents
Sweden	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Gustav III of Sweden Carl Olof Cronstedt	Charles of Nassau-Siegen
Strength
14,000 men, 275 ships, 450 cannons	18,500 men, 200–274 ships, 900 cannons
Casualties and losses
600–700 killed and wounded, 6 ships	c. 10,000 killed, wounded and captured, 50–80 ships
Notes   ^[a] The Swedish Archipelago fleet consisted of roughly 275 ships of various sizes with a total of over 14,000 men present, of these close to 13,000 were combat personal with 206 ships while 1,200 men and 69 ships were on transport, hospital and other various civilian duties. There were a total of about 1,300 Swedish artillery pieces present, of which around 860 were swivel guns and 450 heavy cannons. ^[b] The Russian fleet had roughly the same numbers as the Swedish, 274 ships or 200 although with heavier tonnage. There were about 18,500 men in total present with between 850 and 1,000 heavy cannons and almost as many swivel guns, resulting in around 1,600 or more artillery pieces in total. ^[c] The Swedes suffered 171 dead and 122 seriously wounded in the action or 600–700 men in total applying the lightly wounded to the number. One Udema, two gun sloops and one gun yawl sank and one bomb ketch and one gun slope exploded, totalling six ships. ^[d] The Russian losses are unknown but were significant. A lower estimation was made by Russian naval historian V. F. Golovachev who put the casualties to 7,369 men while another writer (Poselt) puts them as high as 14,648 men. Swedish historian Arnold Munthe estimates the Russian casualties to at least 9,000 men, but probably more considering the fact that captured Russian officers reportedly estimated 12,000 themselves.Kesar Ordin, another Russian historian finds the number of 10,000 Russian casualties, presented by some Swedish historians, as a realistic alternative of these a little over 6,000 were captured and 350 wounded, additionally 50–80 or more ships were lost.

The Battle of Svensksund (Finnish: Ruotsinsalmi, Russian: Rochensalm) was a naval battle fought in the Gulf of Finland outside the present day city of Kotka on 9 and 10 July 1790. The Swedish naval forces dealt the Russian fleet a devastating defeat that resulted in an end to the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90. The battle is the biggest Swedish naval victory and the largest naval battle ever in the Baltic Sea.

Circumstances in the 1780s, including the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and the moving of a portion of the Russian Baltic Fleet to the Black Sea, prompted the Swedish king, Gustav III, to attack the Russian Empire in 1788. The war was also initiated to distract domestic attention from political problems and for Gustav III to be able to fulfill his role as a successful and powerful monarch.

Gustav's main aim was to recapture some of the territory in Finland that had been lost to the Russians in the war of 1741–43. In 1788, he launched a surprise attack against the Russian fleet, intending to catch it by surprise. The plan was to attack Kronstadt and land a force to assault the capital of St Petersburg.

The war was intended to be short and to be won by the assault on St Petersburg, conducted by the navy and skärgårdsflottan (the "archipelago navy"). The latter, officially designated as arméns flotta ("navy of the army") was a separate branch of the armed forces designed for coastal operations and amphibious warfare in the Baltic. Since its formation in 1756, it had been something of an elite force within the Swedish armed forces. However, after the Battle of Hogland (1788) (a tactical tie but a strategic failure for the Swedes) Gustav lost the initiative and tensions in Sweden rose. The first battle of Svensksund on 24 August 1789 ended in a Swedish defeat.

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