Admiral José de Ribas y Boyons (6 June 1749 – 14 December [O.S. 2 December] 1800), known in Spanish as José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons, in Italian as Giuseppe de Ribas and in Russian as Iosif (Osip) Mikhailovich Deribas (Russian: Ио́сиф (О́сип) Миха́йлович Дериба́с), was a Spanish military officer under the Spanish held Kingdom of Naples, in Russian service.
Contents
Life
Son of the Spanish consul in Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of Naples, and his Irish wife, he had been born in that city, then dynastically joined to the Kingdom of Spain, and served in the Neapolitan army in the late 1760s, but later joined the Russian Imperial Army as a "member of the Spanish nobility" in 1772, taking part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and afterwards remaining "on the margins of the Empress's court" as "one of the many young men hoping to gain [her] favour." When the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 broke out, he was made the liaison between Grigory Potemkin and the unit commanded by John Paul Jones:
He worked assiduously to smoothe relations between Jones and the European officers, especially Nassau-Siegen, as well as with Potemkin. He dealt with cases of insubordination and drunkenness by talking firmly with the offenders rather than exacting immediate punishment. His performance was noted and rewarded. Potemkin personally transferred him from the navy and placed him in charge of an army detachment under the operational command of Count Ivan Gudovich, one of the most decorated and accomplished generals in the southern theater.
In late 1789, de Ribas's grenadiers captured Khadjibey (the village upon which the city of Odessa would be founded) without a battle: "It was, in fact, one of the great non-battles of the war. The entire affair lasted no more than half an hour. The Ottoman garrison, a few-dozen startled soldiers and their senior officer, surrendered on the spot."