Apraksin held the chief command in the Black Sea during the campaign of the Pruth (1711). He commanded the Imperial Russian Navy in the taking of Helsinki (1713)—materially assisting the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea—and the great Battle of Gangut (1714). That same year he assisted the "tsar" in launching a new harbour in Revel. Earlier, in 1712, he held parley with Turkey, which ended in the destruction of Taganrog and the surrender of Azov to the Ottomans.