Ösel Island demonstrates lethal force concentration

At Ösel Island, Sweden tried to defend strategically important territory with one ship of the line, a frigate, and a brigantine against six Russian ships of the line and a smaller supporting vessel. The Russians were escorting galleys and transports, so the Swedish commander faced political pressure to defend rather than withdraw. Their force brought roughly three and a half times the Swedish broadside. Russian ships appear to have surrounded the Swedes and fired into both broadsides, a method compared with Nelson's concentration at the Battle of the Nile. Swedish casualties and captures dwarfed Russian losses. The episode shows the cost of assigning an inadequate force to a position from which its mission made withdrawal difficult.