[4] Senyavin belonged to a notable noble family of sea captains from the Kaluga Governorate,[5] all of whom, starting with his great uncle, served in the Imperial Russian Navy.

[5] Family interests gained him rapid promotion, especially after his resolute actions had prevented a flagship from capsizing during the Varna expedition and Prince Potemkin had entrusted him with a vital task of transporting diplomatic mail to the Russian embassy in Constantinople.

[5] Although he distinguished himself[1] in command of the battleship Navarchia during the Battle of Kaliakria,[5] he had no patience with Ushakov's cautious and cunctatory approach and paid little attention to his authority, which resulted in his confinement to a guardhouse and the threat of his reduction in rank.

[citation needed] During Ushakov's Mediterranean Expedition of 1798-1800, in which he took part in the years of 1798-1799,[5] Senyavin assumed command of the flagship Saint Peter, equipped with 72 guns.

[5] Three years later, Alexander I of Russia, still entertaining grand designs aimed at stalling Napoleon's expansion in the Adriatic, mounted another Mediterranean expedition, with Vice-Admiral Senyavin as commander-in-chief.

Contrary to his expectations, Sir John Thomas Duckworth, a British admiral who had just lost 281 men to shore battery fire, refused to join his own fleet with Senyavin's and embarked upon the ill-fated expedition to Alexandria.

Within several days, John VI of Portugal fled to the Portuguese colony of Brazil and the Royal Navy blockaded Lisbon,[5] intercepting a Russian sloop as an enemy vessel: the Anglo-Russian War had been declared.

Napoleon's orders were politely ignored by the Russian admiral, who had no intention to risk the lives of his marines in pointless warfare against erstwhile friends and consequently professed his neutrality.

[citation needed] In July 1808, Senyavin's ships, still blockaded in Lisbon by the Royal Navy, were repeatedly visited by Junot and General Kellermann, who exhorted him to assist in their military operations against the Portuguese and the Spaniards.

Moreover, Senyavin was to assume supreme command of the joint Anglo-Russian fleet (as the senior officer of the two), while two Russian ships (Rafail and Yaroslav) were to be left in Lisbon for repairs.

[5] During Napoleon's invasion of Russia, he once more administered the peaceful port of Reval and was given no chance to take part in hostilities, despite his regular petitions to let him muster a militia in his native province.

Although he settled into retirement in the next year, Senyavin's name remained so popular in the Navy that the Decembrist conspirators planned to make him a member of the Provisional Government after staging a palace revolution.

[5] The following year, he was promoted full Admiral and accompanied Login Geiden's squadron heading for the Mediterranean, where combined Anglo-Franco-Russian forces would score the great victory at Navarino.