A FLEET UNDER COURTMARTIAL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XVII, Issue 298, 21 December 1882, Page 2

A FLEET UNDER COURTMARTIAL.

« . General Tchbknayeff, who is now making his way across the steppes that intervene between Orenburg and the Sea of Aral, has a nice little job awaiting him on his arrival at Kazala. All the officers of the Aral fleet, without exception, have been ordered to be tried by oourt-martial for corruption, negligence m the discharge of their duties, and other misdemeanors. Some of the charges throw a curious light upon Russian life m Central Asia. The Aral fleet is mainly useful as a means of transporting Orenburg reliefs and stores from Kazala up the Sur Daria to the various river forts and Tashkend. The river, however, i« very shallow, the current is Btrong, and the gunboats that tow the barges are so weakly constmcted that the naval service m Turkestan is altogether against the taste of officers arriving from the Baltic and Black Sea. On the departure of. .the gunboats from Kazala the officers would accompany them a few miles from the fort, where post-carts would be m readiness to carry them the rest of the journey on land. Leaving the vessels m charge of the stokers and natives, the officers would journey on to within a few miles of their destination, where they would go aboard again and gallantly convey their gunboats and transports into port. This mode of discharging naval duties was only recognised last autumn, when the Samarcand, the finest vessel of the fleet, was struck with floating ice during her final voyage, and disappeared to the bottom of the Sur. On this occasion all the officers were on board at the time of the accident, and it would appear to have been this remarkable phenomenon which first aroused the suspicions- pf the authorities. Investigation then elicited that the vessel had been, purposely sunk off Fort Perovsky by opening the -valves, m order'ithat the- task of •raising the wreck might enable the officers to pasa the winter pleasantly at that military station instead of m the midst of the howling wastes at Kazala.