Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

The Russians seem to have had very little difficulty in approaching the Turkish ships, owing to the neglectful way in which the sentries kept a look-out, and their daring was certainly rewarded by a remarkable series of successes in which the luck was unquestionably on their side. Thus at the attack on the Seifi the latter’s turret guns missed fire three times, and the Russians got so near that they blew a hole in her by pushing a Whitehead torpedo under her stern, and exploded another near her bows in order to hasten her disappearance beneath the waters of the Black Sea. Possibly one reason why the Turks generally missed the Russian torpedo boats when they aimed at them was that there were no quick-firers, as the term is now understood, and that the Turks had nothing between the clumsy and heavy 40-pounders and the Gatlings, and had no guns to meet the torpedo attacks, even when they did sight the approaching torpedo boats. Another reason why they failed to prevent the attacks by gun-fire was the great difficulty of training heavy guns upon small fast-moving boats no bigger than steam launches upon the dark and inclement nights which were usually chosen for the enterprises. Again, the slow-firing guns of those days had to be laboriously reloaded afresh and aim had to be taken again, and by that time the attacking boat might be out of range or have discharged its dangerous and destructive missile.

The one ship-and-ship encounter of the war took place between the converted merchant steamer Vesta and the Turkish Assar-i-Chevket. The latter gave chase and steadily overhauled the other until those on the Vesta began to expect that another few minutes would see her career brought to an end by the warship overtaking and ramming her. Both ships had been making good shooting, especially the Turk, but at the last minute a heavy shot from the Vesta struck the warship’s conning tower a hard blow, and the warship gave up the chase.

DUEL BETWEEN THE “VESTA” AND “ASSAR-I-CHEVKET.”

From a Contemporary Wood Engraving.

RUSSIAN TORPEDO BOATS ON THE DANUBE IN THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR.

Many of the British ironclads, the development of which has been traced in earlier pages, participated in the bombardment of Alexandria, in July, 1882. The Egyptian fortifications mounted a great variety of guns, intended, it was unkindly suggested at that time, to meet on equal terms all kinds of floating craft from ships’ gigs to battleships. The forts were provided with a number of heavy Armstrong and Krupp guns of great calibre and immense power. These included five 10-inch 18-ton guns, eighteen 9-inch, and fourteen 8-inch guns, all of which were rifled. The majority of the guns in the forts were indifferently mounted, to a large extent through carelessness in the work, and some of the latest pattern had been so recently delivered that there was no time, as time is reckoned in the East where a few months seldom matter, to mount them at all. No doubt they had been intended to supersede the old, small, smooth-bore guns of which the forts had enough and to spare, there being no fewer than two hundred and eleven of them, but as this work had not been done the Egyptian gunners had to make shift as best they could with the guns in position. There were also thirty-eight mortars. Of course, under the circumstances many of their projectiles failed to reach the British vessels at which they were aimed. The Egyptian gunners also served their weapons very badly, and even when the British ships were within short range of the heavier guns, nearly every shot missed its mark. The forts appeared from the outside to be much better constructed than they really were, and their magazines, though extensive, were by no means the safe places they should have been for the storage of ammunition and projectiles, and in this probably lies the explanation of the blowing up of some of the forts. The heavier Egyptian guns were fired through embrasures, their gunners being thus afforded a considerable measure of protection; but most, if not all, of the smooth-bores were fired over parapets, so that they were more exposed to the fire of the ships.

The disparity in gun power between the fleet and the forts was so great that the view was confidently expressed in England that if hostilities should ensue the forts would be reduced in anything from half an hour to a couple of hours. Yet for eleven hours the Egyptian gunners maintained the unequal combat. Had their skill been equal to their determination, Alexandria had not fallen so easily and with so little damage to the British ships.

The ironclads were the Inflexible, firing a broadside of 6,880 lb. from her four 81-ton guns; the Temeraire, 8,540 tons, four 25-ton and four 18-ton guns; the Superb, 9,100 tons, with four 25-ton guns, and a weight of broadside of 3,280 lb.; the Alexandra, 9,490 tons, two 25-ton and ten 18-ton guns; the Monarch, 8,230 tons, four 25-ton and two 6½-ton guns; the Invincible, 6,010 tons, ten 12-ton guns; and the Penelope, 4,394 tons, ten 12-ton guns. All these vessels carried a number of smaller guns as well. The gunboats were the Beacon, Bittern, Cygnet, Condor, and Decoy, and there was also a small despatch boat.