The Scene: Navarino Bay, south-western Peloponnese
The Cast and their Roles:
Ivan Ivanov: To expand his Russian empire at the expense of Mehmet Turkman.
Stavros Kleftiko: To gain freedom from Mehmet.
Mehmet Turkman: To keep Stavros under control and maintain his Ottoman empire.
Mustafa Ali: To take Stavros’ Peloponnese, as promised to him by Mehmet.
Emmanuel LePenseur: To aid Stavros’ romantic, revolutionary freedom fight (having previously trained Mustafa’s Egyptian armed forces in Egypt.)
King George IV (playing himself): To help Stavros, whilst not hurting Mehmet too much, lest it gives Ivan an advantage and upsets the ‘Balance of Power’ in the eastern Med and Black Sea.
Admiral Edward Codrington (playing himself): To enforce the 1827 Treaty of London, namely to ensure that “Stavros will be autonomous, but under Mehmet’s control”.
Stavros is OK with this treaty (after all, he has fought for six years and not really achieved much). But, Mehmet is not happy!
Act One
Mehmet and Mustafa are anchored up in Navarino Bay in a crescent formation facing the opening of the bay at the south-west corner. They have a whopping 82 ships and 2,438 guns! Codrington is lead-Admiral with his new chums Ivan and Emmanuel. Their 26 ships are anchored outside the bay and carry 1,270 guns.
Codrington: “It's a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say.”
Codrington decides that Mehmet’s damned insolent refusal to agree to the treaty means that he should be taught a jolly good lesson. He sails his combined fleet into the bay and anchors right in the centre of the opponents’ crescent.
<Sound of a gun fired>
Codrington: “Right chaps, Mustafa’s just taken a pop at us. Let them have it!”
Four hours later…
Codrington and his superior crews and guns sink 53 of Mehmet’s and Mustafa’s ships, and kill 6,000 of their men. Codrington's lot lose 145 dead, but all their ships are intact.
Act Two
At the after-victory-dinner dance.
Ivan: “I was brilliant, and my famous win has helped me advance into Mehmet’s land around the Black Sea!”
Emmanuel: “Mais Oui, I too was brilliant, and my famous revolutionary win will help poor Stavros be free from tyranny!”
Stavros “Parakalo, but my mountain-dwelling guerrillas were winning anyway!”
King George IV to an invited journalist: [Tell Mehmet that] This event was untoward.”
And then, quietly aside, to Codrington: “You were only supposed to blow the b***** doors off!!”
The End and with apologies to anyone who was offended by this blog
Postscript: In fact, Navarino Bay (named after the Slavic Avars), is no stranger to maritime conflict. King Nestor ruled for three generation close by on a hill during the Bronze Age. After Agamemnon, he provided the next greatest number of ships for the expedition to Troy. The bay was also the setting for a famous battle in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Athens won that one.
Missy Bear has had a lovely sail today down the western coast, running before a northerly breeze, perhaps like Codrington did nearly 200 years before? And we are now anchored in that same bay.
I hope that natives are friendly, and that we won’t need to load the canon.
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