ABSTRACT
By 1787 the Russian naval fleet in the Black Sea was distributed to defend the southern shore line of the expanding empire. In January of that year, to the east of the Sea of Azov at Taganrog, there were four 40-gun frigates with four transports for the prompt despatch of troops along the coast. At Sevastopol in the Crimea, facing Constantinople, there were three ships of 66 guns, two 50-gun frigates, nine of 40 guns, six armed ships and eight transports. At Kherson on the Dnieper there were two 50-gun frigates, with one 80-gun ship and another 66-gun ship almost completed.1 In July 1787, as the governor general and commander-in-chief of the southern provinces of Russia, Prince Potemkin placed himself at Kherson to supervise naval preparations for war. Later he would establish his military headquarters at Ekaterinoslav, Catherine’s new southern administrative capital.
