Bombardment Of Sweaborg

Description

This engraving depicts the Bombardment of Sveaborg, a lesser-known but strategically important operation during the Crimean War known as the Baltic Front. Sveaborg (now Suomenlinna) is a naval fortress off the coast of Helsinki, Finland. The fortress was built by the Swedes in the 18th century but fell to Russia in 1808. On 9 August 1855, the British and French navies bombarded Sveaborg in an attempt to disrupt the Russian Baltic Fleet and damage coastal defences. The bombardment is recorded as one of the first "major seaborne rocket attacks" in British history. The Russians suffered heavy losses, but the fortress did not surrender. The operation remained a show of force. The engraving is taken from the deck of a British warship. The engraving depicts large and small cannons firing at the Sveaborg castle and city seen in the distance, huge columns of water rising into the sky reflecting the explosion and impact of the cannonballs hitting it, smoke rings in the sky created by mortar shells (a rare depiction technique in engraving art of the time), and small boats ready for extraction or rescue.