Pen & Sword Maritime | Barcode: 9781036150488

The Crimean War at Sea

The Naval Campaigns Against Russia 1854-56

Author:	Peter Duckers
Edition:	2025
Format:	Paperback
Size:	234 x 156 mm

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We expect this title will be available on:

April 30, 2025

£14⁹⁹

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The Forgotten Naval Victory

An original study revealing how allied navies achieved remarkable success during the Crimean War, ranging across Russian waters and striking decisive blows largely overlooked by history.

Too often historical writing on the Russian War of 1854-56 focuses narrowly on the land campaign fought in the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea. The wider war waged at sea by the British and French navies against the Russians is ignored. The allied navies aimed to strike at Russian interests anywhere in the world where naval force could be brought to bear and as a result campaigns were waged in the Baltic, the Black Sea, the White Sea, on the Russian Pacific coast and in the Sea of Azoff. Yet it is the land campaign in the Crimea that shapes our understanding of events.

In this graphic and original study, Peter Duckers seeks to set the record straight. He shows how these neglected naval campaigns were remarkably successful, in contrast to the wretched failures that beset the British army on land. Allied warships ranged across Russian waters sinking shipping, disrupting trade, raiding ports, bombarding fortresses, destroying vast quantities of stores and shelling coastal towns. The scale and intensity of the naval operations embarked upon during the war are astonishing, and little appreciated, and this new book offers the first overall survey of them.

About the Author

Peter Duckers is one of the leading authorities on British medals, decorations and orders writing today. He is currently curator of the Shropshire Regimental Museum in Shrewsbury Castle. As well as producing over 120 articles for a wide range of publications, he is a prolific author of books on medals and military history.

Praise for The Crimean War at Sea

"The excellent text is enhanced by a large number of very good engravings and maps. The failings of the British Army in the Crimean War – remember the charge of the Light Brigade – are well known. The successes of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines are hardly known at all. This excellent book puts the record straight."
- Work Boat World

"A useful contribution to the literature on Crimea, and on the development of naval warfare during the nineteenth century."
- historyofwar.org

"Quite an eye opener, an important bit of history for anybody trying to understand this period and naval developments more generally."
- Shropshire Star

"A most useful summary of the Royal Nay's part in the Crimean War. It is well produced, profusely illustrated and excellent value."
- The War Correspondent - Journal of the Crimean War Research Society