Azov

"A ruler that has but an army has one hand, but he who has a navy has both" ―Peter I Azov was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Imperial Russian Navy. Azov was built in 1826 to compensate for the losses of the disastrous 1824 Saint Petersburg flood. In the same year Azov, commanded by Mikhail Lazarev, became the flagship of Admiral Login Geiden's First Mediterranean Squadron and sailed to the Aegean on a joint English-French-Russian peacekeeping mission. On October 20, 1827, Azov spearheaded the Russian squadron in the Battle of Navarino. She engaged numerous enemy ships and sustained heavy damage. After refit at Malta Azov continued her service as Geiden's flagship and enforced a naval blo...View all