The Destruction of Kola 1854 – HMS Miranda in the White Sea.

On 23rd August 1854, having cautiously brought his ship HMS Miranda down river and setting it “within point blank range of the city’s batteries”, Lyons sent Lieut. C. W. Buckley [later Azoff VC] under flag of truce with an astonishing request – nothing less than the surrender of the town and all its government property, its shipping, fort and armaments.

HMS Miranda

A truce was arranged for the Governor to consider the offer but when no answer came by next day – the men on board Miranda being kept “at quarters” all night – Miranda hauled down her flag of truce and opened fire with no further warning.

Thus began a day-long bombardment of the town which literally reduced the whole place to rubble without the warship suffering a single casualty. In less than an hour the small docks, the river defences and the gun emplacements were destroyed by red-hot shot, grapeshot and canister.

Landing parties of sailors and marines under 1^st Lieut. J.F.C. Mackenzie and the Mate, Charles Manthorpe, came ashore under cover of Miranda’s continuing overhead fire and seized the enemy’s guns.

HMS Miranda coming into action

They and the Governor’s house might have been deemed to be fair game, but Miranda’s  fire destroyed everything else, since most of the town was made of wood and fires quickly spread. The Cathedral and monastery, private houses, warehouses and shops were all burned down. By 7.30 pm, according to a chilling contemporary account, “Kola was expunged off the list of capitals [and] one tower of the fortified cathedral alone now stands to mark the spot where Kola once stood”.

Miranda shelling Kola – a rather inaccurate and sketchy contemporary depiction. The town was much bigger than this implies

Lyons maintained that he was receiving fire from Russian defenders and was thus compelled to fire on them but it seems hard on the townspeople and the effect on the region must have been felt for years. In the event, Kola never recovered from the attack and although slowly rebuilt was gradually superseded as a regional centre with the expansion of the nearby city of Murmansk.

Miranda was actually in a perilous situation itself; the ship had frequently grounded during the attack – on one such occasion she was only 250 yards from the town and was in real danger from flying fragments of burning debris, so much so that “her sails, rigging and deck had to be constantly wetted”. After the action, she only made it back up the narrow Kola river with great difficulty – if the river banks had been defended, Miranda would have been in serious trouble – but there was no Russian force to oppose her passage.

Local people had, however, removed the navigational buoys set up by the ship’s Master, Williams, who had to re-sound the passage.

After Kola, Miranda and the other ships continued their patrols, capturing and destroying another half a dozen enemy vessels in the Litscha Inlet and Gulf of Motow. But except for the destruction of Kola the year ended with no signal achievement for the allied squadron. The flotilla withdrew with the advancing ice of the winter of 1854 and by late September had returned to home waters. The campaign was renewed, with a slightly different squadron, in 1855, to much the same effect.

But no medals for all this – it is notable that no general medal was awarded for the Russian War of 1854-56. Separate medals were given for the Baltic campaigns of 1854/1855 and, of course for the land campaign in the Crimea and associated naval operations in the Black sea and Sea of Azoff. But those crews who only served in the White Sea in 1854 and/or 1855 received no medal at all for their service in the war. The same is true for those who served only in the Pacific campaigns of 1854 and 1855. Seems unfair…

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References/ Further Reading

1. The Destruction of Kola 1854 – HMS Miranda in the White Sea. by Peter Duckers - DCM Medals