The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-05-04


castle. The vessels are all absent from
on service, four of them |
being stationed in the Adriatic; one at |
Trebizond, in the Black sea two in the |
Red sea two up the Persian gulf, and |
the Others in the Levant. The two gun
vessels-the Sedkul Bahar and Beirut
each carry five guns, one heavy and the |
other of light caliber, and are generally |
on service in the Red sea. The
four gunboats, called respectively the
Akya, Shefket, Sunneh and Varna, are |
fitted with sixty horse power engines
and carry each of them light guns. OF
the three old wooden line-of-battle ships
one, the Shadieh, is employed as the |
gunnery ship, and is stationed up the
gulf of Ismid one, the Fetigeh, Is the
depot OF Klet, and the other, the Peki
Zefier, is the receiving ship at the
Golden Horn, having taken the place of
the old Mahmondieh, which has since
been broken up.
THE PERSONNEL.
The strength of the personnel is set
down officially as ,92l officers of all
ranks and $4,000 men, in which are in
cluded $500 marines. Besides these
men, however, there are the credits"
who have already served their time in
the navy, and whose number may be
safely set down as another $4,000. 1t
can not be said that the crews of the
iron-clads have had all the training that
is necessary to make them good and
efficient seamen, yet still good deal has
been done in the way of gunne-y drill,
and attempts have been made OF late by
changing the crews of the cadet training
frigate after each voyage to afford as
many of these men as possible the oppor-
tunity of acquiring some experience at
sea. A gunnery ship was established
some six years ago, and the services OF a
very efficient instructor obtained from
the British government. Nearly the
whole of the men and all the subordinate
officers have passed through a regular
course of drill on board of the said ship,
and a number of the most intelligent
among the latter have been specially
trained as gunnery instructors, so that,
in imitation of the British navy, each of
the iron clads has now its gunnery officer,
charged with the duty of keeping the
men up to the mark in their gun drill.
Foreign officers who at different times
have visited the ron-clad fleet in the
Bosphorus have been particularly struck
with the apparent order on board, the
general neatness all round and the man
ner in which the men went through their
drill. Their performance with the heavy
guns has been particularly praised, and
there is but little doubt that with more
target pratice they would make splendid
artillerists. Something has been done in
the way of firing at target, sufficient
at least to familiariZe the men with the
proper manner of using the navel pro-
jectiles of the present day, and the Turk
Is by nature a good marksman. In the
early part of last summer, also, flying
squadron was sent to sea under command
of Hassan Pacha, with orders to cruise
under sail in the Mediterranean, visiting
particularly the ports on the African
coast, Glbralter, MaTseillies, Malta and
the Adratic. The squadron consisted of
the following corvettes: Edirne, Mus
sefiir, Ismir and MansOurah, and was af-
terward Joined by the school frigate
Mukbir Starting from Crete, the ports
of Beniazi, Tripoli and Tunis were each
touched at in succession, the voyage
being always performed under sail and
advantage taken 'of favorable weather
to perform a few simple maneuvers and
to accustom the officers to signalling at
sea. While at Tunis it became neces-
sary, on account of the disturbances in
Herzegovina and Bosnia, to send the
squadron to Kleck, so that the cruise
was prematurely broken up, and the
Others soon afterward separated on special
service.
Great efforts have been made also ut
the navel college to impart as much pro-
fessiOnal knowledge TO the cadets as pos
sible; for, owing to the scarcity of good
technical works in their own languages,
the cadets, after leaving that establish
ment, labor under great difficulty with
regard to their after education as naval
officers. With this view, then, the
pupils receive instruction on torpedoes,
naval prize law and navel tactics. In
stuctors from the British navy, in addi-
ton 10 a large staff of Turkish prOfes-
sors, have been for some considerable
time in the employ of the imperial OF
toman government, and quite a number of
smart young officers have been sent from
the navel college within the last few
years to Join the fleet. With regard to
the feet maneuvering and navel tactics
in general, a step has been taken in the
right direction by sending an iron-clad
squadron to cruise in the Levant, for it
is of the utmost Importance that the
captains of the irOn-clads should have
the opportunity of acquiring more expe-
rience in the handling of such enOr-
nous masses in motion than is to be
picked up in passing from the Golden
Horn to the Bosphorus, or in making
a voyage simply from one port to an
other.
TIE CENTFNNI4I DECISION