Dardanelles operation

The Dardanelles operation was a failed assault in 1807 by the Royal Navy against the coastal fortifications of Constantinople. The operation was part of the Anglo-Turkish War. In 1806, the French envoy Sebastiani had been dispatched to Constantinople with orders to bring about Ottoman Turkey's re-entry into the Napoleonic Wars. Sultan Selim III set about preparations for war with Russia after positively receiving Sebastiani. The Russian emperor, Alexander I, was alarmed by these developments as he had already deployed a significant force to Poland and East Prussia to fight the advancing French forces under Emperor Napoleon I. Alexander requested British assistance in keeping the Ottomans out of the war.

The British Army was far too small and inadequate for the request, so it fell to the Royal Navy to meet the demands of Alexander. The ships immediately available for the task were HMS Canopus, HMS Standard, HMS Thunderer, HMS Glatton, and the two bomb ships HMS Lucifer and HMS Meteor, under the command of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, sailed for the Dardanelles and made preparations for the upcoming assault.

In the meantime, the British ambassador to Constantinople, Arbuthnot, demanded that the Ottoman government evict Sebastiani, and added that should the Ottomans rejects the ultimatum, the Mediterranean fleet would attack. The actual force that had been chosen by Collingwood to carry out the operation was small, only eight ships-of-the-line and four frigates. In addition, four Russian ships-of-the-line under Admiral Dmitry Senyavin were sent to support the British, but did not join them until after the exit from Dardanelles was made. John Duckworth, who commanded the British, was under orders to bombard Constantinople and capture the Ottoman fleet.