The British-French naval division of one hundred ships and boats was, by the standards at the time, quite modern with its steam-powered vessels, and it succeeded in bottling up the Russian fleet.

[4] In June, the threat of the British-French navy had already been identified as necessitating the re-establishment of a standing army based on the allotment system similar to one that existed when Finland was still part of Sweden.

[5] At the beginning of the war, the army in the Grand Duchy of Finland consisted only of a Guards Regiment, a naval captain and a battalion of grenadiers.

Due to the antiquity of its fleet, Russia was not able to resist effectively, but considered its ships as a platform for their cannons as additional protection for war ports such as Viapori (now Suomenlinna) and Kronstadt.

A British-French naval division besieged and captured the unfinished Bomarsund fortress on Åland in the late summer of 1854.

In the Gulf of Bothnia, warfare extended to all coastal towns between 1854 and 1855, with the most significant skirmishes being seen in Rauma, Oulu, Raahe, Tornio and Kokkola.

[6] The actions of the enemy, who sailed in the Gulf of Bothnia, extended to Nystad (Swedish name is used instead of the Finnish in modern use Uusikaupunki) in June 1855, when the British corvette Harrier entered its waters.

Gardner's chief Commodore Warden, on the other hand, stated in a report to Vice Admiral Richard Dundas that the skirmish that caused the casualties was due to a misunderstanding and a lack of common language among the negotiators.

Mayor Pettersson was also outraged by the incident and made his own complaint to Russian War Minister Vasily Dolgorukov, who in turn forwarded it as a French translation to Admiral Dundas and the British Admiralty.

[8] The town of Björneborg (Pori in Finnish) was the target of hostilities for the first time in the late summer of 1854, when an enemy struck the city's outer port on Reposaari and destroyed the mast of an optical telegraph erected there.

The British warship Tartar, commanded by Commodore Hugh Dunlop, had sailed from Säppi Island to Reposaari two days earlier.

The reason was that almost the whole of Pori had been destroyed by a major fire three years earlier, and there was no desire to endanger the partially rebuilt city.

On 27 June the British paddle steamers Firefly and Driver sailed in front of Kristinestad, destroying empty artillery emplacements and threatening to shell the town, the port's large timber depot and shipyard.

The Vaasa residents offered drinks to the gunners who had come to the rescue, with the exception of the drunken captain, who was left without at the orders the governor.

The captains of the ships seized by the British provided incorrect information about the artillery batteries placed at the mouth of the Lapua River flowing through the city and the number of military units stationed in the locality, which apparently led the enemy not to attack.

[12] The enemy ships had been moving on Jakobstad for the first time already in July 1854, but due to the removed channel buoys they could not reach the port.

Tartar, commanded by Hugh Dunlop, arrived off Jakobstad in November, seizing one merchant ship and also attempting to land on Tukkisaari.

In what is known as Skirmish of Halkokari, a detachment sent ashore from the ships was repulsed by citizens of Kokkola armed by trade councillor Anders Donner.

They burned thirteen ships under construction, a tar court and a pitch burner under the control of the Oulu Trade Association.

The Oulu local government estimated that the burning and seizure of goods caused the city and its citizens damages in the amount of 380,969 rubles and 98 kopecks.

In the Gulf of Finland, the naval squadron bombarded Suomenlinna, (Sveaborg in Swedish), for two days, and the people of Helsinki watched the events from the shore.

[19] The Ruotsinsalmi sea fortress, built in Kymi (now Kotka) and left without defenders, was almost completely destroyed in the war.

[20] For the third summer, the British planned to assemble a larger fleet in the Baltic Sea, with more than 250 ships, but the Crimean War ended before there was time to do so.

For the British and French, the Bomarsund Fortress was a symbol of Russian expansionism threatening the security of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, during the Crimean War.

Offering the fortress to Sweden and then destroying it was evidence of Britain's ability to buffer Russia's supposed enlargement efforts.

The fortification of Åland came to the fore in later negotiations in 1938–1939, in which the Soviet Union sought to protect its own Baltic Sea areas from possible German attacks.

On the basis of the Åland War, the Finnish song "Oolannin sota" was born in the 1850s, the lyricist or composer of which is unknown.

[21] The song is very popular, but its origin was unknown for a long time, until researchers Jerker Örjans and Pirjo-Liisa Niinimäki found out in the 21st century.

The original wording depicted a rather realistically defeated struggle and was apparently transformed into its now known form in the early 20th century, which does not mention Bomarsund's surrender.

[25] The 2024 Finnish drama film Stormskerry Maja, directed by Tiina Lymi, is set during the Åland War.