Rear Admiral John Elphinstone

Admiral John Elphinstone was born in 1722.

He was the son of John Elphinstone and Anne Williams.

He married Amelia Warburton, daughter of John Warburton, on 23 October 1750.

He died on 28 February 1785.

He gained the rank of Captain in the service of the Royal Navy.

He gained the rank of Admiral in 1770 in the service of the Russian service, commanding Catherine the Great's fleet at the Battle of Cheshme or Tchesme, when the Turkish fleet was destroyed.

He had three other sons.

Children of Admiral John Elphinstone and Amelia Warburton

• 1.Captain Samuel William Elphinstone +2 d. 1789
• 2.Captain Thomas Elphinstone d. 1821
• 3.Lt.-Gen. Sir Howard Elphinstone, 1st Bt.+2 b. 4 Mar 1773, d. 28 Apr 1846

Citations The Peerage

• 1.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1315. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 2.[S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.

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From his Russian Wikipedia page:

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BD%D...

John Elphinstone (John Elphinston) (1722 - 1785) - English and Russian naval officer. In Russia, he is known for his participation in the Russian fleet's expedition to the First Archipelago.

Biography

Service in the Royal Navy

His naval career began as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. In 1745 (or 1746), he achieved the rank of lieutenant. In 1757, he was promoted to Commander. In 1758, he became a Captain.

He participated in the Seven Years' War. In 1758, he took part in a landing of troops within France, and was taken prisoner.

He commanded the Sixth Rate ship Eurus in an attack on Quebec, and then captained the frigate HMS Richmond. While he was at the helm, his ship ran aground at Scheveningen French Félicitié. He was present in the capture of the ship La Havane in 1762. (English Wikipedia notes that there is no mention of his role in the capture of this vessel.)

From the end of the Seven Years' War to 1767, he commanded the 60-gun battleship HMS Firme.

In Russian service

Under the patronage of the British ambassador in St. Petersburg, Lieutenant-General Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart, Elphinstone was brought into the Russian service on 30 May 1769. By 29 June, he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral "Highest Order". Elphinstone was given the command of the warship "Ne Tron Menya" (which translates to "Don't Touch Me").

Mediterranean Sea

Elphinstone led the second squadron in the First Archipelago expedition, which consisted of 3 battleships ("Tver", "Saratov", "Ne Tron Menya"), two frigates ("Hope" and "Africa"), 3 transports, and 1 pinque . His squadron employed 2261 people. On 9 (20, N.S.) October 1769, the squadron sailed out of Kronstadt for the Mediterranean Sea. Elphinstone was instructed to bring reinforcements to the squadron under G.A. Spiridova, who was already in Turkish waters. Elphinstone, immmediately upon his arrival, was brought under the command of Count Alexei Orlov.

Battle of Napoli di Romagna

The journey from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean went smoothly, and on 9 (20, N.S.) May 1770, the squadron arrived at the shores of Morea in Kolofinksky Bay (eastern coast of the Peloponnese peninsula).

On 11 (22, N.S.) May, Elphinstone landed at the Ruppin landing on his way to Mezitre. Elphinstone had already decided on the day after his arrival that he would seek to confront the Turkish fleet in Kolokinfsky Bay, particularly after he learned from Greek sources that they would soon arrive there.

On 12 (23, N.S.) May, he weighed anchor and headed for the Gulf of Napoli di Romagna, where he found the entire Turkish fleet heading out to sea. Elphinstone boldly attacked the Turkish fleet immediately, even though he had at his command only three battleships and two frigates, while the Turks, under the supreme command of the fleet, the Kapudan Pasha, had 10 battleships, five frigates, and seven other ships, including rowed galleys. The Russians opened fire, but the Turks elected not to engage in a fight, and instead fled to Napoli di Romagna, seeking refuge under the cover of shore batteries. The battle lasted about an hour.

The Turkish fleet successfully escaped only because a calm stalled the pursuit of the Russian fleet, while the Turks used their rowed vessels to take the ships safely into the shelter of the bay along the protected shore. The Russians had no galleys that allowed them to pursue them.

Only after 17 (28 N.S.) May, a light breeze again blew and Elphinstone decided to attack the enemy. At about 3 pm Russian ships opened fire. The battle lasted for about 3 hours, after which the Turks took refuge under the walls of Napoli de Romagna, believing they were fighting with the entire Russian fleet. The fight ended in a draw.

Elphinstone first tried to blockade the bay in which the Turkish fleet sheltered, but after five days, because of their overwhelming superiority, the Turks managed to depart. After withdrawing, he joined forces with Spiridova, and together, at Spiridova's insistence, they returned to Napoli di Romagna while evading the Turks. Hasan Bey sailed his fleet fled, instead, towards Chios. Spiridov resented that Elphinstone failed to capture the Turks and admirals in full scale war. In accordance with instructions given by Catherine II, Admiral G. Spiridov and Rear Admiral D. Elphinstone were put on an equal footing, and none of them was subject to another, which led to conflicts between them.

Arriving on 11 (22, N.S.) June, Count Orlov defused the situation by assuming command, taking Elphinstone and Spiridov as his deputies. The full Russian fleet began to pursue the Turkish.

Chesme battle

On June 24, Elphinstone led the Russian squadron that took part in the battle of Chios. He commanded his battalion of 3 ships (using as a flagship, his "Ne Tron Menya") during the Battle of Chesme and on the day that followed.

The blockade of the Dardanelles

After the Battle of Chesme, Elphinstone's squadron sailed to Tenedos Island in order to blockade the Dardanelles. Elphinstone's actions were decisive, but inconsistent. On the one hand, he supported a breakthrough of the Russian fleet into the Dardanelles, and wanted to carry out a decisive offensive. Orlov was not enthusiastic about this action, and gave orders not to follow through on this maneuver. Elphinstone had to limit himself only to a blockade of the strait.

However, despite his determination and courage, Elphinstone committed a very strange act, one that was illegal and without orders from Count Orlov, his superior. He sailed his squadron without notifying Spiridov away from the blockade of the Dardanelles and with the most powerful battleship "Sviatoslav," an 84-gun ship, sailed to Lemnos Island on 5 (16, N.S.) September 1770. While on approach to the island, the Sviatoslav, while under full sail, hit a reef off the north side of Lemnos and was grounded. The ship took on a large amount of water. Elphinstone ordered the masts cut and ballast thrown overboard, but it did not raise the Sviatoslav from the rocks. He had to call for help from the other ships still at the Dardanelles. For six days and nights, the crew tried to save the ship, but to no avail. In the end, it had to be disarmed and burned to keep it from being captured by the enemy.

The Turks took advantage of this turn of events and sent considerable reinforcements to Lemnos. As a result, because of Elphinstone's rash act, the Russian fleet had to give up the blockade and withdraw to Pelari. Direct responsibility for the accident was assigned to the pilot of the ship, Elphinstone's protege, named Gordon. The sailors of the ship were said to have been warned of the incompetence of the pilot, but Elphinstone did not heed these warnings. A court-martial found him responsible for the unauthorized withdrawal from the Dardanelles, for unreliable service, and found the pilot guilty for the destruction of the Sviatoslav. Gordon was sentenced to death, but managed to escape, and Elphinstone was delivered to the port of Mudros, where Orlov relieved him of command and sent him to Russia. (English Wikipedia says that, when faced with Orlov's vanity and lack of naval experience, Elphinstone resigned his commission, and that the Sviatoslav incident was blamed on him after he resigned.)

Resignation

Elphinstone was sent to Kronstadt with compromising material about him. The rear admiral was put on trial, accused of negligence that resulted in the destruction of the battleship "Sviatoslav." The Court elected not to formally accuse him, but he was dismissed from service with the Russian Navy on July 19, 1774, after which he left Russia. He wrote a memoir in his defense, which included notes about Empress Catherine II [4] :

"There is nothing easier than to refute this memoir, especially my conduct in the Battle of Chesme, and my alleged arrival on Lemnos, where I had never sailed. I was accused of leaving my post before the Dardanelles and finally forcing the captain of the Sviatoslav to sail to its doom. The thing is that E. (Ekaterina, or Catherine) belongs to that category of crazy people who are addicted to rash actions, who do not comply with any sense of consistency." (English Wikipedia says that it was Catherine who called him a madman.)

Career in the British Navy

After leaving the Russian service, Elphinstone returned to the English fleet. During the War of Independence of the United States in the years 1779-80, he participated in military operations in the West Indies. In Grenada, he served in the squadron of Vice-Admiral Byron, and in Martinique he served in the squadron of Vice-Admiral Rodney, commanding the HMS Magnificent .

In 1783 commanded HMS Atlas .

He died in 1785 at age 63.

Notes

• 1. NMM PAH0127

References

http://dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/amburger/index.php?id=82882

John Elphinstone, also known as John Elphinston (1722 – 28 February 1785), was a senior British naval officer who worked closely with the Russian Navy after 1770, with approval from the Admiralty, during the period of naval reform under Russian Empress Catherine II. Together with the Scottish-born Samuel Greig, or Samuil Karlovich Greig (Самуил Карлович Грейг), as he was known in Russia, and Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, Elphinstone was a member of the naval staff, headed by Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov, which, though it lacked naval experience, was able to defeat the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Chesma Bay, near Chios Island, off the far western coast of Turkey.

He was born at Lopness, near Sanday in the Orkney Islands, the son of John Elphinstone and his wife Anne Williams and joined the Royal Navy.

He was promoted commander of the fireship HMS Salamander in 1757, serving under Commodore Hon. Richard Howe in his 1758 campaign against the French Channel ports. During one attack he was captured by the French.

After his release in 1759 he was made captain of the 20-gun HMS Eurus and took part in the capture of Quebec. In 1761 he was in command of HMS Richmond when she captured and destroyed the 32-gun French ship Félicité at Scheveningen. Later that year Elphinstone captured two other French privateers. In 1762 Richmond sailed out to the West Indies and Elphinstone was put in charge of transport services during the siege of Havana. He afterwards brought back the 70-gun prize ship Infanta.

At the end of 1763 he commissioned the guard ship HMS Firm at Plymouth, commanding her for three years.

Catherine II of Russia drew on the experience of British naval personnel through the networking in London of the British Ambassador in St. Petersburg from 1769 to 1771, Lieutenant-General Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart. He was married to Jane Hamilton, but Jane's death in Saint Petersburg during an outbreak of the plague, prompted his return to Britain.

Elphinstone was one of a small number of British officers who joined the Catherine's Russian service in the summer of 1769, and was given the rank of rear-admiral. In 1770 he led a squadron from the Baltic to the Mediterranean to take part in the war against the Turks and participated in the defeat of a Turkish fleet in Battle of Chesma Bay. He, however, was on such bad terms with his Russian superiors, particularly Count Aleksei Orlov, that he left the Russian service in July 1771.

John Elphinstone later held several further commands in the British Royal Navy, including that of the 74-gun HMS Magnificent during Admiral Sir George Rodney's West Indian Campaign of 1779–80.

He died in 1785 in Broad Street, Carnaby Market, London. He had married Amelia Warburton in 1750 and had six sons and four daughters. They included:

John, a post captain, who died in 1801

Samuel William, who died as a captain in the Russian service in 1788

Thomas, who reached the same rank in the navy before his death in 1821

Robert Phillip, who died as a post captain in 1822

Major-General Sir Howard Elphinstone

Anna-Charlotta-Maria, who married Captain Sir Francis John Hartwell

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%84%D0%B8%D0%BD%...

• 2. Тарле Евгений Викторович. Чесменский бой и первая русская экспедиция в Архипелаг (1769—1774)
• 3. Командование 1-ой Архипелагской экспедиции
• 4. Большая биографическая энциклопедия

Эльфинстон, Джон (моряк) // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона: В 86 томах (82 т. и 4 доп.). — СПб., 1890—1907.

Тарле Евгений Викторович. Чесменский бой и первая русская экспедиция в Архипелаг (1769—1774)

Командование 1-ой Архипелагской экспедиции

Бой при Наполи-ди-Романия