Ron van Maanen
John Cam Hobhouse, 1st baron Broughton made in the years 1809-1810 a journey through the Ottoman Empire . Of course he visited Constantinople where he met the Capuda-Pasha or High Admiral. His comments dealing with this admiral are quite honest and can’t be misunderstood. He was allowed to visit some of the Turkish men of war lying in the harbour. Again, his comments are honest and are in fact not very different from what other authors wrote. The Turkish navy was lacking good officers, the seamen came from Greece
P. 295: “Leaving the Ters-Hane-Emini, we proceeded, accompanied by some of his officers, to examine the port. There were nine two-deckers, and one three-decker, laid up close to the pier, quite out of repair, besides several frigates, one of which, distinguished by a palm at the head, was La Justice, now La Victorieuse, that carried Denon to Egypt
p. 296: “ From Ters-Hane we went on board the Sultan Selim, the Capudan-Pasha’s ship, of a hundred and twenty guns, built on the French model, and perhaps as fine a vessel as any in the world. The High Admiral’s cabin is a magnificent apartment, surrounded by a handsome stern-gallery; but that of the Captain, and the ward-room, are not very comfortably contrived, especially the latter, which is half filled with small arms: indeed the places where the officers sleep are near the forecastle, where there is also an immense oven for baking bread. Her decks were perfectly clean and sweet; and, as she was not burthened with any comforts or conveniences for the crew, her quarters were quite clear below as well as on the upper deck. Her complement of men is twelve hundred, all of whom, the Captain told us, were on board, although there were but few of them visible above, and the- most perfect good order and silence were observed in every part of the ship. On the lower deck were four enormous cannons on each side, upon carriages without cither trucks or wheels, and incapable of elevation. It
p. 297 is extraordinary that a reform in this particular should not have taken place at the same time with the other improvements. The crew is divided into two distinct bodies; the Greeks who manage, and the Turks who fight, the ship: the former are about two hundred in number. With such a regulation, it cannot be expected that any excellence in the vessels themselves should enable the Turkish navy to equal that of any civilised state. The line-of-battle ships in commission when we were in the Sultan Selim, were two of three-decks, and ten of seventy-four guns; all of which were moored in the port near Ters-Hane. Whilst we were in Pera the fleet left the harbour, and proceeded towards its annual cruise in the Black Sea . It first anchored off Beshik-Tash, then remained some time in the bay of Buyuk-dere Black Sea . Several of the squadron generally return, after suffering by mismanagement, into the canal, previously to the appointed season for giving up the cruise. During a war with Russia, great promises are annually made on the part of the Capudan-Pasha on commencing the expedition, which are almost as regularly disappointed, and have sometimes been fatal to the Admiral, who contrives in some instances to acquit himself by strangling his Captain, or that of the Patrona Bey or Vice-Admiral, and laying the charge of misconduct on the pretended delinquent. I had an opportunity of going on board one of the Turkish ships of war at sea, and saw nothing of that good order and discipline, which apparently prevailed in the Sultan Selim when in harbour. She was a sloop of eighteen guns, and one hundred and twenty-five men, and would certainly have proved herself not equal to an English armed cutter. It was difficult to distinguish the Captain from his sailors, either from his dress or manner: indeed the dignity of naval command cannot be at all understood in a Turkish ship of war ; for one traveller relates, that he saw the Captain and one of his men playing at chess on the quarter-deck; and I heard Sir S. Smith mention, that upon his coming on board the Turkish admiral's ship, the great Capudan-Pasha Kutchuk-
p. 299: Hussein, either as a distinguished honour, or as a proof of his nautical accomplishments, fired a salute with his own hand, running along the deck from gun to gun. Whilst we were walking the deck of the Sultan Selim, the Capudan-Pasha left Ters-Hane, to proceed to Buyukdere. He passed near the ship in his gilded barge, and the band mounting the poop, continued to play until they were relieved by those in the three-decker of the Patrona Bey. Their long trumpets, the only instruments, produced nothing like our martial airs, but slow and unvarying, though not unpleasant sounds, such as we may conceive the mournful music of the Goths, or the longdrawn note of the ancient Swiss clarion. After leaving the Sultan Selim, we went on board a seventy-four, commanded by a Captain who had been made prisoner in Alexandria
p. 300: the British, and who, although he retired for three years to Syracuse before he ventured to return, would have lost his head on coming bark to Constantinople, had lie not been saved by English interposition ; by which also he obtained his ship: another officer who had been his companion in the same circumstances, was on board. We were received with the utmost cordiality, and as they spoke Italian, they made us at once understand how much they regretted they were unprepared for the visit: they would have sent a boat on shore for coffee.”
Source
J.C. Hobhouse. Journey through 
