In his book titled Turkey, Greece and Malta (vol. II, London, 1837, p. 15-18 and 63) digitized by Google) Adolphus Slade gives interesting information dealing with the Ottoman or Turkish navy and which adds new information to other notes on this weblog. See for instance “The Turkish or Ottoman navy as described by a voyager visiting Constantinople in or after 1833 6 august 2009” published on this weblog. Slades’ opinion about the worth of the Ottoman navy is however not quite enthusiastic although he also made some honest remarks dealing with the British naval shipbuilding compared with the Turkish.
P. 15: “Three English line of battle ships and as many frigates, would prove an overmatch to it. The Turkish navy, however, is a remarkable object, and worthy of any person’s notice, on account of its magnificent construction. We might scarcely have supposed a ship in it (the Mahmoudieh) six-hundred tons larger than the Caledonia: we might hardly have given it credit for having a vessel in very class equal to any of ours(1). We may say that the Ottoman navy has progressed inversely to the usual order; while its personnel retrograded fast, its materiel has surpassed that of the navies of western Europe. This is to be accounted for by there having been no party spirit in Turkey to depreciate a good plan, if emanating from a political opponent, and by the absence of certain prejudices of routine which obscure a man’s perceptions of the true and beautiful. Left to his own unaided judgment, and unwarped by theories, a man
p. 16: will rarely hesitate between the good and the bad - between the tasteful and the deformed. Such ships as the “Forty Thieves”(2), such vessels as the “donkey frigates”, such things as the “ten gun brigs”, could never have seen the light in Turkey, simply because there would have been nobody to write a pamphlet in favour of any one of the plans – no lord of acres, oaks, growing thereon, ready to take a contractor by the hand and put the country to the expense of exemplifying his want on science on a large scale. Even in the present day, when we exult in a new era of ship-building, when the Vernon and the Columbine(3), with others of the same school, gladden the waters and shame with their presence the profession of naval architecture, the Turks are not behind us in form and sailing qualities(4), and many of our latest improvements are of old date with them.
p. 17: The sultan, however, not content with the native talent which had furnished him with such fine ships, engaged an Americana architect lately, who sold him in the first place a fine corvette, and then commenced building on an unprecedented scale. But death married his ambition.(5). He died, leaving as a legacy to his foreman and successor (Mr. Rhodes) the completion of a frigate of two thousand seven-hundred tons burthen – two-hundred and seventy-two feet long, with fifty-three feet beam – to carry seventy-four forty-two pounders. (6)When launched – which operation was effected with great skill by easing her off the quay into the water by means of floating stages to received her “forefoot” – and rigged with
p. 18: spars so lofty that I fear to mention their height, she appeared a superb creature. No expense was spared on her equipment, and she sailed on her first cruise with the captain pasha’s flag. As if afraid to trust her on that occasion to ordinary management, lest she might shoot over to the other side of the Bosphorus, they brought her stern to the wind at her moorings and set her topsails: then all being ready, canvas swelling and hawsers straining, the latter were slipped and away she darted, past the Seraglio Point, into the silvery Propontis. I often saw her builder, Mr. Rhodes. A man of talent and free from many of the peculiarities of his countrymen; and he, although proud of his won production, assured me that, excepting in the finish of detail, of no consequence in the general result, he never saw finer vessels than two or three of the Turkish line-of-battle ships.”
p. 63: “During the winters of 1832-1833, when the Turkish squadron lay at Lampsaki, in order to keep up a show of readiness against the Egyptians, upwards of one thousand of the crews died of cold and want. The vessels are usually laid up in the winter, and the mein either discharged or housed in barracks. The want of proper bedding in the Turkish ships renders the men unable to contend with cold and wet weather. A bad cold easily prove fatal”.
Sources
J.J. Colledge/Ben Wanlow. Ships of the Royal navy. The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present. London, 2006.
David Lyon/Rif Winfield. The sail&steam navy list. All the ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. London, 2004.
Adolphus Slade. Turkey, Greece and Malta, vol. II, London, 1837. Digitized by Google).
Notes
1. The Ottoman ship-of-the-line Mahmoud, known for several years of the largest warship in the world. The Caledonia is presumably the 120-guns 1st rate Caledonia, with a builders measurement of 2616 tons, launched at the Plymouth dockyard, England 25 June 1808, fitted out with a circular stern, broken up in 1875.
2. Public nickname for the ships of the 'Armada'-class due to their extreme costs. Designed by Peake and Rule, sometimes also known as the ‘Surveyors’-class.
3. The 50 guns 4th rate Vernon of 2388 tons, launched at the Woolwich dockyard 1 May 1832 and sold 1923 and the 18-gun sloop Columbine, launched at the Portsmouth dockyard, England 1 December 1826, sold 1892.
4. Original footnote. “Turkish naval construction is similar to that of the Vernon &c., for which a model has existed for centuries in the coasting vessels of the Levant and Euxine. Le Brun, the naval architect whom Selim III engaged in his service, had the good sense only to remodel the upper works of the Turkish ships of war, which had retained up to that day the old galliot form. Whether the build be calculated to resist continued bad weather or long cruising is of no object to the Turks, as they only sail in the Mediterranean seas. Turkish ships have bows like that lately adopted by Mr. Blake (of Portsmouth yard) to the Vindictive, enabling the ‘chasers’ to cross their fire with ease. They have always a few pieces of extra calibre on their lower and middle decks, which practice we have lately adopted. A Turkish first-rate has four one-hundred and twenty pound stone shot guns on the lower deck: on the middle deck (and the lower decks of the second-rates) as many eighty-four pounders. The 74-gun 3rd rate Vindictive was part of the ‘Armada’-class, nicknamed the Forty Thieves. Launched at Portsmouth dockyard, England 23 November 1813 with a builders measurement of 1758 ton and 1871 sold as a wrecked.
5. The Mr. Eckford to which the author referred was Henry Eckford, born 12 March 1775 at Kilwinning, Scotland and which died 12 November 1832 at Constantinople. The 26-gun corvette was by him built as named United States and sold to the Ottoman empire and taken in to the Ottoman navy as Mesir-i-Ferah (www.wapedia.mobi.en/Henry_Eckford).
6. According to the lists available at wwww.3decks.pbworks.com this must be the 64-gun Nusritye built at Istanbul by Rhodes/Hassan in 1835 with a crew of 740 men.
P. 15: “Three English line of battle ships and as many frigates, would prove an overmatch to it. The Turkish navy, however, is a remarkable object, and worthy of any person’s notice, on account of its magnificent construction. We might scarcely have supposed a ship in it (the Mahmoudieh) six-hundred tons larger than the Caledonia: we might hardly have given it credit for having a vessel in very class equal to any of ours(1). We may say that the Ottoman navy has progressed inversely to the usual order; while its personnel retrograded fast, its materiel has surpassed that of the navies of western Europe. This is to be accounted for by there having been no party spirit in Turkey to depreciate a good plan, if emanating from a political opponent, and by the absence of certain prejudices of routine which obscure a man’s perceptions of the true and beautiful. Left to his own unaided judgment, and unwarped by theories, a man
p. 16: will rarely hesitate between the good and the bad - between the tasteful and the deformed. Such ships as the “Forty Thieves”(2), such vessels as the “donkey frigates”, such things as the “ten gun brigs”, could never have seen the light in Turkey, simply because there would have been nobody to write a pamphlet in favour of any one of the plans – no lord of acres, oaks, growing thereon, ready to take a contractor by the hand and put the country to the expense of exemplifying his want on science on a large scale. Even in the present day, when we exult in a new era of ship-building, when the Vernon and the Columbine(3), with others of the same school, gladden the waters and shame with their presence the profession of naval architecture, the Turks are not behind us in form and sailing qualities(4), and many of our latest improvements are of old date with them.
p. 17: The sultan, however, not content with the native talent which had furnished him with such fine ships, engaged an Americana architect lately, who sold him in the first place a fine corvette, and then commenced building on an unprecedented scale. But death married his ambition.(5). He died, leaving as a legacy to his foreman and successor (Mr. Rhodes) the completion of a frigate of two thousand seven-hundred tons burthen – two-hundred and seventy-two feet long, with fifty-three feet beam – to carry seventy-four forty-two pounders. (6)When launched – which operation was effected with great skill by easing her off the quay into the water by means of floating stages to received her “forefoot” – and rigged with
p. 18: spars so lofty that I fear to mention their height, she appeared a superb creature. No expense was spared on her equipment, and she sailed on her first cruise with the captain pasha’s flag. As if afraid to trust her on that occasion to ordinary management, lest she might shoot over to the other side of the Bosphorus, they brought her stern to the wind at her moorings and set her topsails: then all being ready, canvas swelling and hawsers straining, the latter were slipped and away she darted, past the Seraglio Point, into the silvery Propontis. I often saw her builder, Mr. Rhodes. A man of talent and free from many of the peculiarities of his countrymen; and he, although proud of his won production, assured me that, excepting in the finish of detail, of no consequence in the general result, he never saw finer vessels than two or three of the Turkish line-of-battle ships.”
p. 63: “During the winters of 1832-1833, when the Turkish squadron lay at Lampsaki, in order to keep up a show of readiness against the Egyptians, upwards of one thousand of the crews died of cold and want. The vessels are usually laid up in the winter, and the mein either discharged or housed in barracks. The want of proper bedding in the Turkish ships renders the men unable to contend with cold and wet weather. A bad cold easily prove fatal”.
Sources
J.J. Colledge/Ben Wanlow. Ships of the Royal navy. The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present. London, 2006.
David Lyon/Rif Winfield. The sail&steam navy list. All the ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. London, 2004.
Adolphus Slade. Turkey, Greece and Malta, vol. II, London, 1837. Digitized by Google).
Notes
1. The Ottoman ship-of-the-line Mahmoud, known for several years of the largest warship in the world. The Caledonia is presumably the 120-guns 1st rate Caledonia, with a builders measurement of 2616 tons, launched at the Plymouth dockyard, England 25 June 1808, fitted out with a circular stern, broken up in 1875.
2. Public nickname for the ships of the 'Armada'-class due to their extreme costs. Designed by Peake and Rule, sometimes also known as the ‘Surveyors’-class.
3. The 50 guns 4th rate Vernon of 2388 tons, launched at the Woolwich dockyard 1 May 1832 and sold 1923 and the 18-gun sloop Columbine, launched at the Portsmouth dockyard, England 1 December 1826, sold 1892.
4. Original footnote. “Turkish naval construction is similar to that of the Vernon &c., for which a model has existed for centuries in the coasting vessels of the Levant and Euxine. Le Brun, the naval architect whom Selim III engaged in his service, had the good sense only to remodel the upper works of the Turkish ships of war, which had retained up to that day the old galliot form. Whether the build be calculated to resist continued bad weather or long cruising is of no object to the Turks, as they only sail in the Mediterranean seas. Turkish ships have bows like that lately adopted by Mr. Blake (of Portsmouth yard) to the Vindictive, enabling the ‘chasers’ to cross their fire with ease. They have always a few pieces of extra calibre on their lower and middle decks, which practice we have lately adopted. A Turkish first-rate has four one-hundred and twenty pound stone shot guns on the lower deck: on the middle deck (and the lower decks of the second-rates) as many eighty-four pounders. The 74-gun 3rd rate Vindictive was part of the ‘Armada’-class, nicknamed the Forty Thieves. Launched at Portsmouth dockyard, England 23 November 1813 with a builders measurement of 1758 ton and 1871 sold as a wrecked.
5. The Mr. Eckford to which the author referred was Henry Eckford, born 12 March 1775 at Kilwinning, Scotland and which died 12 November 1832 at Constantinople. The 26-gun corvette was by him built as named United States and sold to the Ottoman empire and taken in to the Ottoman navy as Mesir-i-Ferah (www.wapedia.mobi.en/Henry_Eckford).
6. According to the lists available at wwww.3decks.pbworks.com this must be the 64-gun Nusritye built at Istanbul by Rhodes/Hassan in 1835 with a crew of 740 men.
