Back in September, I wrote a blog post that included images of some of the ships that were going to be featured in Antoine Vanner's forthcoming novel (BRITANNIA'S BLUFF), which was published recently.
The book includes illustrations of the most important ships featured in the book. These are shown below.
I am particularly pleased that Antoine Vanner has included a battleship (the Memduhiye) that is based on one of my favourite Turkish ships, the Mesudiye.
The Mesudiye (Turkish: Happiness) was built as a central-battery ironclad for the Ottoman Navy in the 1870s. She was ordered – along with a sister ship – from Thames Iron Works and delivered in December 1875. (Her sister ship – the Hamidieh – was compulsorily purchased by the British Government at the time of the Russian war scare of 1878 and completed as HMS Sultan.)
By the end of the nineteenth century, she was obsolete and poorly maintained, and in 1898 the Ottoman government decided to have her reconstructed by the Gio. Ansaldo & C. shipyard in Genoa. When she returned to service in 1904, she was a coastal defence pre-dreadnought battleship.
Her characteristics when built were:
- Displacement: 8,797 tons
- Dimensions:
- Length: 101.02m (331ft 5in)
- Beam: 17.98m (59.0ft)
- Draught: 7.9m (25ft 11in)
- Propulsion: 8 x box boilers producing steam to power 1 x 7,431 ihp compound steam engine driving a single propeller
- Speed: 13.7 knots
- Complement: 700
- Armament: 12 × 10-inch RML guns; 3 × 7-inch RML guns
- Armour: Belt: 305mm (12-inches); Battery: 254mm (10-inches)
Her characteristics after being reconstructed were:
- Displacement: 8,980 tons
- Dimensions:
- Length: 101.02m (331ft 5in)
- Beam: 17.98m (59.0ft)
- Draught: 7.9m (25ft 11in)
- Propulsion: 16 x Niclausse boilers producing steam to power 2 x 5,500 ihp triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a propeller
- Speed: 17 knots
- Complement: 800
- Armament: 2 × 9-inch Vickers A guns (Not fitted); 12 × 5.9-inch Vickers D QF guns; 16 x 3-inch Vickers N QF guns; 10 x 57mm Hotchkiss QF guns; 2 x 47mm Hotchkiss QF guns
- Armour: Belt: 305mm (12-inches); Battery: 254mm (10-inches)
The Mesudiye.
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