John Elphinstone

Who was John Elphinstone?

John Elphinstone, also known as John Elphinston, was a senior British naval officer who worked closely with the Russian Navy after 1770, with approval from the Admiralty, during the period of naval reform under Russian Empress Catherine II. Together with the Scottish-born Samuel Greig, or Samuil Karlovich Greig, as he was known in Russia, and Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, Elphinstone was a member of the naval staff, headed by Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov, which though it lacked naval experience, was able to defeat the Turkish fleet in Chesma Bay, near Chios Island, in the far western coast of Izmir, Turkey on 6 July 1770, at the Battle of Chesma.

Catherine II of Russia drew on the experience of British naval personnel through the networking in London of the British Ambassador in St. Petersburg from 1769 to 1771, Lieutenant-General Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart. He was married to Jane Hamilton, but Jane's death in Saint Petersburg during an outbreak of the plague, prompted his return to Britain.

The vanity of Count Orlov, who having no experience at naval warfare, tried to minimise the importance of the support of the British admirals led him to resign his post, and he returned home at the end of the war against the Turks. Russian naval history, however, tells that he did not resign by his own choice but rather was put out of command after his ship-of-line, Svyatoslav, sat on the reef and was subsequently burned after six-days efforts to move her. The pilot for this unhappy and not approved by Orlov raid was British and Elphinstone's protegee, court-martialled and sentenced to death later, but somehow managed to escape and flee. Elphinstone himself never was sentenced, but was dismissed from the service and had to return home. His memoirs were understandably biased after that and met with harsh reprimand from Yekaterina The Great, who went even to calling him a madman.