English: The Allied Fleets anchored in the Bosphorus

Presented by William Selkirk, July 1952.

This panorama of British warships lying at anchor in the Bosphorus can be dated more correctly to the final months of 1853, just prior to the period before the fleet entered the Black Sea on 3rd January (1854) and the subsequent formal declaration of War three months later. The animosity between Turkey and Russia had been worsening throughout 1853 to the extent that Britain and France, having agreed to support Turkey in the event of hostilities, had each sent fleets to the Eastern Mediterranean that summer. As the international situation deteriorated, the British fleet entered the Bosphorus on 30 October and remained there for two months awaiting developments. The fleet initially consisted of ten ships-of-the-line "Agamemnon", "Albion", "Bellerophon", "London", "Queen", "Rodney", "Sans Pareil", "Trafalgar", and, "Vengeance" accompanied by various small vessels, mostly frigates, and led by the huge 120-gun flagship "Britannia".