Rev. Walsh gave a large account dealing with the Turkish navy and the Greek revolt during his living at Constantinople. One of the things he described was the Turkish victory at Lepanto where a Greek ‘fleet’ was partly destroyed or captured. And again, just like other authors Walsh pointed out that the Turkish heavily depended on Greek sailors lacking Turkish sailors and the foreign influences, mainly French, in the naval shipbuilding. When the Greeks couldn’t be longer trust by the Turkish government, the Capitan Pasha or high admiral badly needing navigators for his warships proposed to engage the boatmen on the Bosphorus, although none of them ever had done this. The Capitan Pasha himself was according to Walsh such a boatman! Walsh saw the Turkish fleet leaving the harbour and returning towards Constantinople with the Greek prizes and the faith of the Greek sailors which were all hanged in public.
P. 382: “The Capitan Pasha sailed first for Samos. When the Greeks heard he was at sea, they drew out their flotilla, consisting of one hundred sail, most of them mere craft, and the largest not carrying more than thirty small guns. They followed the Turks everywhere, hovering about them like a cloud; ready to take advantage, from their lightness and dexterity, of any circumstance, and keeping their enemies in a continued state of alarm. They left Samos without attempting anything, and proceeded to the Morea; and having victualled some of the garrisons on the coast, sailed for Patras, and thence up the Gulf of Lepanto, till they arrived at Galaxidi. This is a small port in the district of the ancient Locri, in the Bay of Cirrha. There were lying in the harbour a fleet of about fifty small ships, brigs, and sloops belonging to the inhabitants, who were industrious and commercial. These small ships the inhabitants had converted, like most of the other maritime towns, into
p. 383: vessels of war, and undertook to blockade the fortress of Lepanto, just in their neighbourhood, which they did with considerable effect, considering their very feeble means. The inhabitants of this little place knew they were devoted to destruction when the Turkish fleet approached; they therefore drew off their fleet from before the fortress, threw up some batteries on a small island at the entrance of the bay, and moored their ships in a judicious position; then sending off their wives and children to Salone, which was in their rear, and in the possession of their countrymen, they embarked on board their flotilla, and prepared to defend it to the last. The Turks commenced a bombardment, which was answered by the Greeks with great vivacity. It lasted for nine hours, till night put an end to it. The next morning it was renewed. A circumstance gave it considerable interest. The Greek army under Demetrius Ypsilantes had marched abreast of the Turkish fleet on the coast of the Morea, prepared to repel any attempt at landing for the purpose of plunder. They now halted opposite the ships, which they could distinctly see and hear at the other side of the narrow strait, but they had no means of getting across to the assistance of their friends. The report of the guns formed a striking contrast. That of the Turks was like thunder echoing along the shores; the return of the Greeks succeeded, sharp and feeble, like the report of pistols, strongly indicating the extraordinary disparity of the means of resistance. Towards evening the firing ceased. The great body of the Greeks, finding opposition with their shattered craft no longer practicable, left the vessels and town, and returned to their families. Some, however, still remained, and, with a fruitless enthusiasm, determined never to abandon their ships. They were captured
p. 384: after an expiring struggle - the Algerines landed and plundered the town, and the Capitan Pasha, having taken possession of the ships and their intrepid crews, again set sail. When the sanguine Greeks of the capital heard that the Turks had ventured up the narrow Gulf of Lepanto, with the Greek fleet pursuing them, they looked forward to a result similar to that which occurred when their ancestors, as they said, destroyed the immense ships of the Persians, which had entered the Gulf of Engia, on the opposite side of the isthmus; and had they been followed up, it is not impossible that the result might have been similar. But the same dissension which had nearly frustrated the combined Greek fleet at that time, did so effectually on the present occasion. The Hydriots could not hazard the total loss of their ships, in which many persons had shares, so the fleet dispersed and retired to the several islands. Meantime the Capitan Pasha returned to the Dardanelles, to lay up his fleet for the winter, but determined to display his triumph in the most imposing manner at Constantinople. His victory and his approach were announced; and as I had seen him depart, I determined to see him return. On the 24th of November I proceeded down to Tophana, the large area of which I found crowded with people, and presenting all the appearance of a jubilee. Refreshments were everywhere laid out to be sold; little shows were exhibited, and magnificent Arabian horses, splendidly caparisoned, were walked up and down by grooms, waiting the landing of the Capitan Pasha and his officers, to convey them in state to the Porte. All eyes were directed to the point of the Seraglio, round which the ships of the fleet would first be seen to sail. Presently the leading vessel appeared turning the point; the crews of the captured ships were reserved for this exhibition: they
p. 385: were seen on deck with cords about their necks, and were then dropped from different parts of the rigging, so that every vessel as it approached was distinguished by a number of men struggling in the agonies of death -from the bowsprits and yard-arms. The next day the ships proceeded up the harbour to the arsenal amid a general explosion of cannon, which actually shook the three towns of Constantinople, Pera, and Scutari; and two three-deckers, with the imperial flag flying, cast anchor just opposite my windows, with the bodies hanging round them, and flights of gulls screaming and hovering over them. This horrid exhibition remained for some days, and as the putrid bodies were dropped, the gulls lighted on them; and they so continued, floating among the boats and shipping for near a month, till the slow current carried them by degrees out of the harbour. The Greek prizes had been brought in tow after the Turks, with their flags half hauled down, and those of their captors flying over them. Compared with their opponents, they did not seem larger than the boats of the fleet. They were laid up at the arsenal, and I took a caique to view them. There were twenty sloops, of about thirty tons, and very small brigs, the largest not exceeding one hundred tons. Their guns were generally swivels mounted on the bows, and a few had small iron carronades on the deck, much honeycombed, and without carriages. The bows of some were stove in by the enormous shot of the Turkish guns, while their little balls could not penetrate an inch into the planks of their enemies. Their sails and cordage were much decayed, though every one of them had a large new flag flying, with some national device, generally an inverted crescent, surmounted with a cross. Some had an anchor beside these emblems, and others an eagle tearing the crescent to pieces; and on several was the inscription of the Sparl an Mother.”
Source
Rev. R. Walsh. A Residence at Constantinople during a period including the Commencement, Progress, and termination of the Greek and Turkish revolutions. Vol. I. London, 1836. Digitized by Google.
