The news item of the battle between the Russian brig Mercurius and two Turkish ships of the line was now also published in the British newspapers. These newspapers however had difficulties with the story, the Courier spoke about a fairy tale. Remarkable was the reaction of the Dutch government paper which criticized the British attitude against the Russian as being tendentious! According to the British newspaper Courier the tidings were a fake as a reaction for the capture by the Turkish of the Russian frigate. It was impossible that an 18-gun brig could resist two ships of the line, some what even the British navy the best of the world hadn’t succeeded. If the Turkish ships were defeated why weren’t they brought in by the Russian brig? And was it possible if the Russian were such a brave sailors that the Russian frigate Raphael while supported by 3 other frigates was captured by the Turkish while they had together 144 guns and the Turkish 588 or 1 against 4 while the Mercurius with 79 men and 18 guns won a battle against 184 guns and 1.600 men? This tendentious attitude was according to the Dutch newspaper the same reason that the British newspapers just those tidings from Constantinople published which were full filling their wishes.
