THE TURKISH IRON-CLAD FLEET.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 808, 2 May 1871, Page 3

THE TURKISH IRON-CLAD FLEET.

A correspondent of the " Standard" at Constantinople has paid a pronged visit to the Imperial Ottoman «aval Arsenal at Haskeui, and he °ays : -.The arsenal is on the right 8 0re , tne Inner Horn, facing atamboul, and is of immense extent, 2 s P n ncipal portion, however, consisting of the vast range of workn!op! ? d the g'gantic sheds in which "e to be found all the recent appli°ces and the monster machinery newsmtv f or tlle construction of the gj. powerful iron-clads. Magnifi-g™»n>n-olad vessels are now lying « riant grandeur in tbo Inner Horn

I am assured it is a mistake to suppose that these powerful ships could not be got ready for sea in a few weeks' tiuie. They could be manned, coaled, provisioned, and supplied with all their ammunition in comparatively a very short period, and energetic measures for that purpose have long been directed, and are now in a forward state of progress. Every single operation connected with the building of armour-plated ships of war, from the rolling of the thickest plates to the piercing of the thinnest and the manufacture of the smallest bolts or rivets, is being carried on there by means of machinery equal in power and in point of perfection, and every bit as extensive, as could be found in the most celebrated shipbuilding yards in England. They have plant sufficient to furnish material necessary for the building of three or four iron-clads at the same time; and all this, I understand, is the work of Ahmet Pasha, whose practical training in England for a long period has enabled him to carry out in the most perfect manner the desire expressed by the Sultan to establish a large iron shipbuilding yard, under the direct control of the Government, in the capital of Turkey. A number of English workmen, from the iron shipbuilding yards at home, probably about seventy of them, are employed at Haskeui; but native Workmen, as well as a large number of young lads, have become thoroughly efficient under their instruction. The ironclad now in coarse of construction was designed in England, bnt I understand that designs are already prepared for a much larger and more powerful vessel—one of four thousand tons and eight hundred horse-power—-and that they were executed here by gentlemen especially eugaged in England for that purpose by the Turkish Government.