Ottoman ironclad Feth-i Bülend facts for kids
Feth-i Bülend during repairs in Ansaldo factory.
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Quick facts for kids History |
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 Ottoman Empire |
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| Name | Feth-i Bülend |
| Builder | Thames Iron Works, London |
| Laid down | May 1868 |
| Launched | 1869 |
| Commissioned | 1870 |
| Fate | Hulk in 1910, sunk by Greek torpedo boat in 1912 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Feth-i Bülend class |
| Displacement | 2,762 tonnes (2,718 long tons) |
| Length | 72 m (236 ft 3 in) (p.p.) |
| Beam | 11.9 m (39 ft 1 in) |
| Draft | 5.2 m (17 ft 1 in) |
| Installed power | |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement | 16 officers, 153 sailors |
| Armament | 4 × 229 mm (9 in) Armstrong guns |
| Armor |
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Feth-i Bülend (which means "Great Victory" in Ottoman Turkish) was a powerful Ottoman ironclad warship. She was the first ship of her kind, built in the late 1860s. The Ottoman Navy ordered her from a British company called Thames Iron Works in London.
Her construction started in 1868, she was launched in 1869, and joined the navy in 1870. Feth-i Bülend had four large 229 mm guns. She was powered by a single compound steam engine and could reach a top speed of 13 knots.
Feth-i Bülend fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, where she had a battle with the Russian ship Vesta. For about twenty years after that, the Ottoman fleet, including Feth-i Bülend, was not very active. Even after being updated in 1890, she wasn't ready for battle during the Greco-Turkish War in 1897.
Because of this, she went through a major rebuilding in Germany between 1903 and 1907. In 1912, at the start of the First Balkan War, the ship was in Salonica. Her guns were removed to help protect the port. On the night of October 31, a Greek torpedo boat secretly entered the harbor and sank Feth-i Bülend, sadly killing seven of her crew.
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What was the Feth-i Bülend like?
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The Feth-i Bülend was 72.01 meters (about 236 feet) long. She was 11.99 meters (about 39 feet) wide and had a draft of 5.51 meters (about 18 feet). Her body was made of iron.
The ship weighed 2,762 metric tons when fully loaded. She had a crew of 16 officers and 153 sailors.
How did the Feth-i Bülend move?
The ship used one horizontal compound engine to turn a single screw propeller. Six coal-fired box boilers created steam for the engine. These boilers sent their smoke through one large funnel in the middle of the ship.
The engine was designed to produce 3,250 horsepower, allowing the ship to reach a top speed of 13 knots. However, by 1877, her speed had dropped to 10 knots. By 1892, due to poor care, she could only go about 8 knots. Feth-i Bülend could carry 600 metric tons of coal. She also had sails to help her move.
What weapons and armor did Feth-i Bülend have?
The ship was armed with four 222 mm muzzle-loading Armstrong guns. These guns were placed in a central, armored room called a casemate. Two guns were on each side. They were set up so that any two guns could fire straight ahead, straight behind, or to either side of the ship.
The casemate had strong armor, with 222 mm (about 8.7 inches) of iron plating protecting the guns. The top part of the casemate had slightly thinner armor, about 150 mm (about 5.9 inches) thick. The ship's body had a full armored belt around the waterline. This belt was 222 mm thick above the water and 150 mm thick below the water.
Feth-i Bülend's Journey and Battles
Building the Ship and Early Wars
The Feth-i Bülend, meaning "Great Victory," was ordered in 1867 from the Thames Iron Works in London. Her construction started in May 1868. She was launched in 1869 and began sea trials (tests at sea) in 1870. Later that year, she officially joined the Ottoman Navy.
After being built, Feth-i Bülend and other new ironclads were sent to Crete. They helped keep peace on the island after a revolt there between 1866 and 1869. During this time, the Ottoman fleet didn't do much, mostly just practicing by reading translated British instruction books. In her early years, the Ottoman ironclad fleet would go on short summer cruises from the Golden Horn to the Bosporus. This was to make sure their engines were working well.
Feth-i Bülend was very active in the Black Sea during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. She was mainly based at Batumi. She helped attack Russian positions and capture the port of Sokhumi between May 14 and 16, 1877. On July 23, she fought the Russian armed steamer Vesta. The battle didn't have a clear winner. Smoke and steam made it hard to see, so both ships pulled away with only minor damage and few injuries.
On July 31, Feth-i Bülend, her sister ship Mukaddeme-i Hayir, and other ships sailed to Trabzon. They picked up soldiers to take to Varna to defend against a possible Russian attack. The Ottoman fleet then returned to Batumi and stayed mostly inactive. On August 25, Feth-i Bülend spotted the Russian yacht Livadia during a patrol. However, the Russian ship quickly escaped before Feth-i Bülend could get close enough to fire.
Quiet Years: 1880s and 1890s
After the Ottoman Empire lost the war in 1878, Feth-i Bülend was kept in Constantinople. The yearly summer cruises stopped. By the mid-1880s, the Ottoman ironclad fleet was in poor condition. Feth-i Bülend was not able to go to sea. Many of the ships' engines were rusted and stuck, and their hulls were very dirty from things growing on them.
A British naval expert at the time thought it would take six months to get just five of the ironclads ready for sea. During this time, the ship's crew was much smaller than usual. In 1886, when there was tension with Greece, the fleet got full crews and prepared for sea. But none of the ships actually left the Golden Horn, and they were soon put away again. By then, most of the ships could only go about 4 to 6 knots.
The fleet stayed inactive at the Golden Horn for twenty years. However, in October 1889, Feth-i Bülend did leave the Golden Horn. She escorted the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, during his visit to the Ottoman Empire. She sailed with Wilhelm as he traveled through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara to Constantinople.
Feth-i Bülend was repaired and updated at the Imperial Arsenal in 1890. During this update, several smaller guns were added. These included two 87 mm Krupp guns, two 63 mm guns, two 37 mm guns, and one 25.4 mm Nordenfelt gun. In 1892, Feth-i Bülend and another ironclad, Asar-i Tevfik, were ordered to help the Cretan Squadron during unrest on the island. But neither ship could go to sea because their boiler tubes were leaking. When the Greco-Turkish War began in February 1897, the Ottomans checked their fleet. They found that almost all the ships, including Feth-i Bülend, were completely unfit to fight against the Greek Navy.
Rebuilding and the Final Battle
After the war ended, the government decided to start a program to rebuild the navy. The first step was to fix the older armored warships, like Feth-i Bülend. The Ottomans contacted several foreign shipyards. At first, a German company called Germaniawerft got the contract to rebuild Feth-i Bülend in August 1900. But by December 1902, the Ottomans made a deal with Armstrong-Ansaldo in Genoa, Italy, to rebuild the ship.
The rebuilding work took place between 1903 and 1907. The ship received new water-tube boilers, which slightly improved her speed to 9 knots. All her old weapons were replaced with new, quick-firing guns made by Krupp. Four 15 cm guns were placed in the casemate. Six 75 mm guns and six 57 mm guns were installed on the upper deck.
When the Italo-Turkish War started in 1911–1912, Feth-i Bülend was part of the Reserve Division. She did not see any action during this conflict. Instead, her weapons were removed. All four 15 cm guns, and four each of the 75 mm and 57 mm guns, were used to make the defenses of Salonica's harbor stronger. About 90 of the ship's crew members operated these guns. The ship itself was turned into a barracks ship, a floating home for sailors.
At the start of the First Balkan War on October 18, 1912, the ship's commander was Captain Aziz Mahmut Bey. He was also in charge of the naval base. On the night of October 31, a Greek torpedo boat called No. 11 managed to get past the shore defenses and searchlights. At 11:30 PM, it launched three torpedoes at Feth-i Bülend. One torpedo missed and hit the dock, but the other two hit the ship. This caused her to flip over and sink. Seven of her crew, including the ship's imam (religious leader), died in the sinking. The Greek vessel left the harbor safely without any problems.
