Thanks to the fact that nowadays more and more books are digitized we are able to read books that are some times for decades no longer available for the public for several reasons. That's quite a pity while these books contains useful information while the archives are destroyed, incomplete or nor accessible.
In a letter written to 'my dear Mrs. Austin dated Orta-kioy 8 June 1856 there is a small piece of information dealing with the Arsenal at Constantinople. p. 375. "Presently we came to a Turkish arsenal, and noticed an immense ship with its huge skeleton just completed. Before the arsenal lay four or five Turkish men-of-war (threedeckers), in one of which we counted a hundred and thirty guns. They were dressed with flags, from the top-mast down to the very water's edge, in honour of the Bairam, and made a splendid appearance: except for the huge gilt lion at their prows, I should not have known but that they were English ships, though perhaps a sailor might. Mehemet Ali, the Sultan's brother-in-law and Capitan Pasha, was going on board one of them ; his boats were also gaily dressed with flags and awnings, and the Turkish frigates had bands of music on board. I could not help shuddering, as I looked on the standard of the Crescent and Star, now waving quietly over the water, thinking that some of these ships had been at the massacre of Scio, when the Turks so mercilessly put all those unfortunate Islanders to the sword: one hears such frightful accounts of that barbarous affair still, from the Greeks, who have never forgotten or forgiven it.
Source
(Lady) Mrs. Edmund Hornby. Constantinople during the Crimean War. London, 1863.
In a letter written to 'my dear Mrs. Austin dated Orta-kioy 8 June 1856 there is a small piece of information dealing with the Arsenal at Constantinople. p. 375. "Presently we came to a Turkish arsenal, and noticed an immense ship with its huge skeleton just completed. Before the arsenal lay four or five Turkish men-of-war (threedeckers), in one of which we counted a hundred and thirty guns. They were dressed with flags, from the top-mast down to the very water's edge, in honour of the Bairam, and made a splendid appearance: except for the huge gilt lion at their prows, I should not have known but that they were English ships, though perhaps a sailor might. Mehemet Ali, the Sultan's brother-in-law and Capitan Pasha, was going on board one of them ; his boats were also gaily dressed with flags and awnings, and the Turkish frigates had bands of music on board. I could not help shuddering, as I looked on the standard of the Crescent and Star, now waving quietly over the water, thinking that some of these ships had been at the massacre of Scio, when the Turks so mercilessly put all those unfortunate Islanders to the sword: one hears such frightful accounts of that barbarous affair still, from the Greeks, who have never forgotten or forgiven it.
Source
(Lady) Mrs. Edmund Hornby. Constantinople during the Crimean War. London, 1863.
