TURKEY'S FORTS AND SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2296, 2 November 1914, Page 6

TURKEY'S FORTS AND SHIPS

MIXTURE OF OLD AND NEW < .1 The principal fortress in Buropoon Turko.v is tho entrenched camp of ( Admuople Constantinople is defended by tho lines of Chataljoi. The Eospliorue and Dardanelles are strongly fortified, although the guns arc—or \vero i before the Germans came—out of do to. The entrance to Smyrna is defended by a fort which, like those of I the BosphoTUS and DardanoiJeSj is of an obsolete typo, and the importiuit position of Erzeriim, in Armenia, is ] surrounded by forts, on which, however, little modern work has been earned out. The navy, according to tho last num- ] ber of tho "Statesman's Yenr Book," consists of two Dreadnoughts, flip <)s----nian (puiohasod fiom Brizil), 27,000 tons, built m 1912, speed 22 knots, foviiteou 12-mch 2» I1S - an, l G-ir>cli eu'nej'-tlifi Rcstndich, 23,000 tons, 21 knots, built in. 1913, carrying ten 13,5inch and sixteen 6 inch cuiib A tln.-cl, i tho Ffttili, was ordcied in England list o Apnl Their are olio three old battle- r slims, the Mes'-ondijel, 10 000 tcois, t built in 1874, 1C knots, two 9.2-incli aiul v Ltwelw 6-uicli the Tliorriout j-s

Reies, Hairredine, and Barbarouss (the first two are' ox-Gorman battleships). 10,000 tons, built in 1891, six 11-mcli and eight 4.1-inch guns, 17 knots.Turkey has two cruisers, both built in ] 003, the Medjidieh, 3300 # tons, carrying two'6-inch guiis and oiglro 4.7, and tho Hamidiych, 3800 tons, similarly armed. ■■ There are also two torpedo gunboats of 22-knot speed and one of 1 J knots and a variety of small gunboats, 8 destroyers, and 9 torpedo boats. ' '...-•■ .• : ) In the early days of the present war tho Turkish Navy received a notable accession of strength by the purchase , of tho - bafctlo-cruiser Gooben and the cruiser Breslau, two German ships which were chased through the Mediterranean by the Anglo-French ■ squadrons and sought refuge' in the Dardanelles. The Goebeh is a fine battle- • cruiser, of 22,640 tens, completed m 1912, with a speed of 28.6 knot. 'She, mounts ten 11-inch', guns, twelve 5.9-inch, and twelve ' 3.4-inch; The Breslau is an armoured cruiser of 4500 tons, completed in 1912, and armed with twelve 4.1-inch guns and '■ two Maxims. She has a . speed of 27.5 knots. : .:■'-, ' ■ • The Ottoman Navy has been, in the course of reorganisation; Since 1909 under a Britisn Admiral and a British' staff of navigating, torpedo, and gunnery officers, but the British Admiral and staff, have now been supersided by, German officers.