Dmitry Senyavin (17 August 1763-5 April 1831) was the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
Biography[]
Senyavin was born in Borovsk, south of Moscow in Kaluga Oblast. He took classes in the Naval Cadet Corps, and he graduated in 1780. In 1783, upon the foundation of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, he became a sailor in it and fought in the Battle of Fidonisi in 1788 during the Second Russo-Turkish War. He served under Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov and was irritated by his cautious and delaying command, and in the Battle of Caliacria he disobeyed orders and smashed the Ottoman Empire's navy. Ushakov threatened him with demotion and confined him to a blockhouse, but Prince Grigory Potemkin wrote to Ushakov that he would be the greatest admiral of the Russian Navy.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Senyavin was promoted to command of the newly-formed Baltic Fleet. He was responsible for the amphibious landing of General Sergei Kamensky in southern Sweden during the Finnish War in 1807, but did not get a chance to fight the Swedish Navy. Senyavin proceeded to lead his navy into the Bay of Biscay where he fought an engagement with Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, where he suffered heavy losses and narrowly survived. He was repatriated, where he recovered from wounds. After the Treaty of Tilsit, Russia became Napoleon's ally, and Senyavin was encircled at Lisbon harbor by British forces, and was forced to surrender. He was taken to London as a prisoner, but was released after Russia betrayed Napoleon.
He died in 1831 in Saint Petersburg, and the Senyavin Islands in Alaska are named after him.