But Mitchell was treacherously shot dead when descending the side of the Egyptian ship. Soon after the Egyptian opened fire, and as Admiral Codrington says, in his dispatch, “was consequently effectually destroyed by the Asia’s fire, sharing the same fate as his brother Admiral on the starboard side, and falling to leeward, a complete wreck.” The action then became general; and the ships were soon enveloped in dense clouds of powder smoke, only lighted by the rapid flashes of the guns; and very soon these lurid flashes became the only guides by which the gunners could sight their pieces. In this dreadful turmoil the drill, discipline and experience of the Europeans gave them the advantage. As their shot told more truly than those of the Turks, each broadside of the Allies tore through the hulls, swept the decks, and wrecked the masts and rigging of the Ottoman fleet.
The Turks, raging, furious and desperate, fought with blind and ill-directed courage. In working their guns they seemed only anxious to fire rapidly, without taking time to point their pieces. Less carried away by rage, and a little more skillful, they should have overwhelmed the Allies, for they had treble the number of guns. In the meantime the Allies kept up a close, cool and accurate fire, and the Turkish losses soon became frightful.
Two fire-ships were soon in flames, and a third blew up, while a fourth was sunk by shot. The forts opened upon the Allies, and that of Navarino, especially, committed much havoc; but almost as much among friends as foes.
The Russian ships did not reach their assigned positions until about three o’clock, when the fire was at its height. The Asia’s fire having disposed of her two opponents, that ship became exposed to a severe raking fire from the Turkish inner lines, by which her mizzen-mast was shot away, several guns disabled, and many of her crew killed and wounded. The Master of the Asia was killed in the early part of the action, while bringing both broadsides to bear upon the Turkish and Egyptian Admirals. Captain Bell, of the marines, was also killed, and Sir Edward Codrington was struck by a musket-ball, which knocked his watch out of his pocket, and battered it to pieces. The Genoa, next astern the English Admiral, suffered very severely, being engaged from first to last, and doing excellent service. As the Turks fired high, the carnage among the marines on the poops of the large vessels was so great that it was thought best to remove them to the quarter deck, and their loss was especially great in the Genoa. Commodore Bathurst, of that ship, was wounded three times; the last time mortally, by a grape-shot which passed through his body and lodged in the opposite bulwark. The French frigate Armide sustained for a long time, and without being disabled, the fire of five Egyptian frigates. The French line-of-battle ship Scipion was on fire no less than four times, from a fire-ship which lay in flames across her fore-foot. Each time the flames were extinguished; and that without any perceptible want of regularity in her fire. The English ship Albion, next astern of the Genoa, was exposed to the united fire of a cluster of ships, including one 74, and two 64-gun ships. About half an hour after the action commenced one of the Turkish ships fell foul of the Albion, and her crew made an attempt to board, but were repulsed with heavy loss. The Turkish ship was in turn boarded and taken. The English were in the act of releasing a number of Greek prisoners secured in the hold of this ship, when she was discovered to be on fire. The English, therefore, left her, having cut her cables, and the Turk, enveloped in flames, drifted clear of the Albion, and, shortly after, blew up, with a tremendous explosion.
The two remaining large Turkish ships again opened upon the Albion; but she returned the fire so vigorously that the largest of the two was soon in flames. The Albion was all the afternoon surrounded by blazing ships; but at dusk she got under way, and stood clear of them.
The ships of all three of the Allies seem to have behaved with equal gallantry; but the performance of the little cutter, the Hind, tender to the Asia, deserves especial mention. She was of one hundred and sixty tons, mounted eight light guns, and had a crew of thirty men. She had been to Zante, and only returned as the Allied squadrons were entering Navarino, and her gallant Commander determined, notwithstanding his trifling force, to have his share in the glories of the day. He accordingly entered with the rest, and, taking up a raking position astern of a large frigate, at only a few yards distance, opened upon her a sharp fire. The cutter was exposed to the fire of several small vessels, and in about three quarters of an hour they cut her cables, and she drifted away between a large corvette and a brig, which she engaged until the brig caught fire and blew up. The Hind then continued to fire into the corvette, until her remaining cable was cut, and she drifted clear of her adversary. Still drifting, in the hottest of the fire, the little Hind fouled a Turkish frigate; her main-boom entering one of the main-deck ports; and the Turks were about to board her. In this they were repeatedly repulsed; and at last the Turks manned a large boat, to try to carry her in that way. The Hind’s crew knocked this boat to pieces with her carronades, crammed to the muzzle with grape and canister; and the cutter soon after drifted clear of the frigate, just as a general cessation of fire took place.
Her loss, in all this fighting, only amounted to a Mate and three men killed, and a Midshipman and nine men wounded.
As we have said, the French ships behaved admirably, as did the Russians. In fact, the position of the contending ships was such that the mutual and perfect co-operation of each ship of the Allied squadron was absolutely necessary to bring about a favorable termination. Had the Russians or French not taken their full share in the day’s work, the British must have been annihilated.
The close and continued cannonade caused complete and dreadful destruction to the Turks. About forty of their vessels, of different rates, fell a prey to the flames, exploding their magazines in succession, as the fire reached them, and covering the waters of the bay with their fragments and the burned and mutilated bodies of their crews. By five P. M. the entire first line of the Turks was destroyed, and by seven there remained afloat, of all their formidable armament, only a few small vessels which had been furthest in shore. These were mostly abandoned by their crews, who had made their escape to the neighboring hills.
Sir Edward Codrington reported that, on the morning after the battle, “out of a fleet composed of eighty-one vessels, only one frigate and fifteen smaller vessels are in a state ever again to put to sea.”