moved away from the immediate vicinity of the coast. With Wattrang's fleet moved outwards in an attempt to block the Russian breakthrough, the Russians started their blockade run on early hours of 27 July along the now clear sea route just alongside the cape. Despite of frantic Swedish efforts to stop the Russians only few of the Swedish ships reached firing range and even then their artillery fire had very little effect. Only one galley was lost when it ran aground. Now only Ehrenskjöld's small coastal squadron stood between Russian coastal fleet and the maze like archipelago of Åland and southwestern Finland. The battle After the breakthrough Russian galleys were gradually pushing Ehrenskjöld's detachment back who in turn ordered his vessels to form a defensive line between two islands. One of the skerry-boats was scuttled in order to narrow down the area where the fight would take place with obstacles. The largest Swedish ship, the pram Elefanten, was positioned broadside-on to the approaching Russian vessels. Three galleys were stationed end-on on each side, with the boats behind the line. After Ehrenskiöld refused to surrender, the Russian fleet attacked on 27 July 1714 at 14:00. According to Swedish sources, the Russian galleys, commanded by the Tsar, attacked twice (first with 35, second with 80 galleys) but were thrown back. The third time, when attacking with reinforcements and a combined force of about 95 galleys, the Russians managed to reach the Swedish ships and engage in close quarters combat where superior Russian numbers could be used to their advantage. Russians managed to board the Swedish galley far left in the line, the Tranan, which capsized and sank creating a hole into the Swedish line. Russian galleys made use of the opening and were quickly able to start boarding the rest of the Swedish ships. Fighting lasted for three hours as Swedes defended all of their ships with fighting ending to the capture of Elefanten where Admiral Ehrenskiöld himself was taken prisoner of war on the deck of his own flagship. The Swedish description of the battle, however, is not supported by Russian documents of the time and was proven incorrect in many aspects by the Russian historian Prof. Paul A. Krotov in 1996. In his research based on a large number of Russian and foreign archive documents related to the battle and dating back to the 18th century, Krotov demonstrates that the