Battle of Navarino

On 20 October 1827, a combined fleet of Britain, France and Russia destroyed the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet in the Bay of Navarino, near modern Pylos in the southwestern Peloponnese. It was the last major naval battle fought entirely with sailing ships. The allied fleet, commanded by the British admiral Sir Edward Codrington, had been sent to enforce the armistice demanded by the Treaty of London and stop the Egyptian army of Ibrahim Pasha from devastating the Peloponnese. The Ottoman and Egyptian ships were anchored in a horseshoe formation inside the bay. Codrington sailed his fleet into the bay, officially to pressure Ibrahim. A shot was fired, apparently when an allied boat approached an Ottoman fireship, and a general battle broke out. After around four hours, most of the Ottoman and Egyptian fleet had been sunk, burned or wrecked, with thousands of sailors killed, while the allies lost no ships. The battle was unplanned, but it was a turning point. It destroyed Ottoman naval power in Greek waters and made the creation of an independent Greece almost certain.