Night fell. Under the command of Lieutenant General Stepan Osipovich Makarov, Russia's famed naval commander, the Russian Navy moved out: six armored ships—pocket battleships, or rather, battleships from before the advent of the pre-dreadnought—eight cruisers, three destroyers, and a great many auxiliary vessels surged toward the Bosporus Strait.
This was practically the entire strength of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Every modern warship the Black Sea Fleet had received since 1881 was now deployed in force!
This fleet also represented one-third of the naval assets of the world's third-ranked naval power. In terms of tonnage alone, it held no particular advantage over the Ottoman Empire Navy of the time.
Of course, naval warfare was not simply a contest of tonnage. In terms of warship performance, the Russians still held an obvious edge! One side fielded products of the sixties and seventies, the other products of the eighties and nineties—there was simply no comparison!
The Ottoman Empire Navy had grown too old. This once-mighty fleet no longer possessed its former glory!
As the saying went, no one understood you better than your enemy!
The Russians knew the state of the Ottoman Empire Navy like the back of their hands. Otherwise, the Russian Navy would not have been so eager to make a move against it!
An opponent as weak as could be was undoubtedly the finest target for earning military merit. Everyone in the Black Sea Fleet was already itching for a fight!
The Russians had long since mapped out the situation in the Bosporus Strait! This included the precise locations of the Ottoman coastal artillery batteries. The markings on Russian maps might even have been more accurate than those on the Ottomans' own maps!
The Bosporus had a Mediterranean climate. For most of the year, its waters were calm, its currents