The Russian cutter ''Opyt'' (also ''Apith''; – Experience) was launched in 1806. The British 44-gun
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
captured ''Opyt'' in 1808 in the Baltic during the
Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812) after her captain and crew put up heroic resistance. The Admiralty took her into service as HMS ''Baltic''. She served briefly with the British fleet under
Vice-Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
Australia
In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
Sir
James Saumarez in the Baltic before being sold in 1810.
Russian service
''Opyt'' was a purpose-built cutter that cruised the Baltic in 1807. On 1808, she arrived at
Sveaborg from
Kronshtadt to join the division under Captain of 2nd rank
Lodewijk van Heiden
Lodewijk Sigismund Vincent Gustaaf Reichsgraf van Heiden (; ; 6 September 1773 – 17 October 1850) was a Dutch naval officer and Orangism (Dutch Republic), Orangist who went into exile from the Batavian Republic and served in the Russian N ...
(who went on to become the Russian Admiral at the
Battle of Navarino in 1827), to help in the city's defense. On , ''Opyt'' put to sea in company with the
sloop-of-war
During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all u ...
''Charlotta'' to cruise between Sveaborg and
Hanko. During this cruise the two vessels became separated. ''Opyt'' returned to Sveaborg and was sent to find ''Charlotta'', but before she could meet up, she encountered ''Salsette''.
Capture
On 1808, Captain
Walter Bathurst and ''Salsette'' chased a Russian sloop-of-war to
Reval and captured a
galliot
A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas.
A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a fla ...
partly laden with spirits at anchor in the roads. As Bathurst was bringing out his prize he saw a Russian cutter off the north end of
Nargen island (now Naissaar),
[ which defends Reval from the sea.
''Salsette'' gave chase but in the evening, when the wind dropped, the cutter killed one of ''Salsette''s marines in an exchange of fire and used her sweeps to pull away. Then a sudden squall enabled ''Salsette'' to catch up with the cutter.][ The cutter surrendered after the frigate had fired two full broadsides into her.
The cutter was the ''Opyt'' (aka ''Apith''), with a crew of 61 men under the command of Lieutenant Gavriil Nevelskoy (also Novelski).
]After doing more to satisfy Russian honour than reason required, Lieutenant Nevelskoy surrendered his heavily damaged cutter to the British commander, Captain Bathurst, only to have his sword returned by the astounded and admiring British captain, who had him landed ashore along with his surviving crew members.
The British discovered that ''Opyt'' had left Sveaborg that day to join the Russian sloop ''Charlotta'', which ''Salsette'' had unsuccessfully chased. Bathurst landed the survivors near Libau (now Liepāja, Latvia).
Bathurst reported that the ''Opyt'' was approximately two years old, "exceedingly well fitted, and sound in everything."[''Naval Chronicle'', vol. 20, p.151] Saumarez ordered the purchase of the cutter for His Majesty's service and manned her with "men lately exchanged from Copenhagen."[
]
British service
The British took ''Opyt'' into service as HMS ''Baltic'' and commissioned her under Edward Sparshott.
On 26 July 1808, ''Baltic'', , and captured ''Falck'' and ''Kline Wiloelm''.
Sparshot later (28 April 1809) received promotion to lieutenant for his zeal in capturing 21 enemy merchant sail in the Baltic. One of these was ''Emanuel'', captured on 22 November 1808. Four days later, ''Baltic'' was in sight when captured ''Defence'', ''Anna Joanna Magdalena'', and a second ''Emanuel''. ''Baltic'' also was one of several vessels that participated in the capture of ''Falck'' and ''Kline Wilhelm'' on 31 August. Then on 7 March 1809, ''Baltic'' was in company with the sloop when they captured the Danish ships ''Magdalena'', ''Boletta'', ''Britannia'', ''Den Gode Hensight'', ''Walhala'', and ''Christina''.third rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker).
Rating
When the rating system was f ...
s and had destroyed the Russian 74-gun ship of the line . ''Baltic''s initial task was to land the prisoners that ''Implacable'' had taken from ''Vsevolod''.
Saumarez wanted to attack the fleet and ordered that ''Baltic'' and be prepared as fireships. However, when the British discovered that the Russians had stretched a chain across the entrance to the harbor, precluding an attack by fireships, Saumarez abandoned the plan; the two vessels returned to normal duties.
Fate
''Baltic'' was paid off in April 1809 and underwent repairs at Plymouth. The Admiralty sold ''Baltic'' in 1810.
Notes
Citations
References
*
*
*Voelcker, Tim (2008) ''Admiral Saumarez versus Napoleon: The Baltic 1807 – 1812''. (Boydell & Brewer).
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Opyt (1806), Russian cutter
1806 ships
Naval ships of the United Kingdom
Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy
Captured ships
Ships built in Saint Petersburg