History of the North Sea intense diplomatic crisis. The crisis was defused when Russia was defeated by the Japanese and agreed to pay compensation to the fishermen. During the First World War, Great Britain's Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow and Germany's Kaiserliche Marine faced each other across the North Sea. Due to its numerical advantage in dreadnoughts, the Grand Fleet obtained Naval superiority and was able to establish a sea blockade of Germany's coast. The goal of the blockade was to deny Germany access to maritime trade including war materials and to guarantee the undisturbed ferrying of British troops. Because of the strong defensive
Eyalet of the Archipelago Islands. Eyalet of the Archipelago The Eyalet of the Archipelago (, "Eyālet-i Cezāyir-i Baḥr-i Sefīd", "Eyalet of the Islands of the White Sea") was a first-level province (eyalet) of the Ottoman Empire. From its inception until the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-19th century, it was under the personal control of the Kapudan Pasha, the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Navy. During the early period of the Ottoman Empire, the commander of the Ottoman fleet (the "Derya Begi", "Bey of the Sea") also held the governorship of the "sanjak" of Gallipoli, which was the principal Ottoman naval base until the construction of