TERROR OF THE SEAS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13071, 10 May 1913, Page 9

TERROR OF THE SEAS.

AUDACIOUS CRUISE OF A TURKISH WARSHIP.

AN OBJECT LESSON. CONSTANTINOPLE, March 8. 1 The exploits of the Turkish cruiser Hamidieh are giving great satisfaction here. One hears at the street corners, "If only we had more like her. The meaning of sea power is being brought home to the Turks by the gallant and mysterious adventures of one of the few effective warships m the Turkish service. Battered, storm-beaten, with one boiler out of action and her bow; badly damaged, the last news of the Hamidieh to reach Constantinople is* that she has taken refuge, from a storm near Alexandretta. Her latest adventure was to stop a number of Greek sailing ships and obtain from them valuable information regarding the movements of Greek transports and the navigation and lights of the Greek islands and channels. Since then, with her decks cleared for action, she has pnee again set out, this time from Symi, on another warlike expedition, and hopes are high that any hour may bring news of a successful attack on the enemy's transports, or the "capture and ransom" of a town. DARING CAPTAIN. Her captain, Fuad Bey, a young man of twenty-nine, is as resourceful as he is daring. Already he has paralysed the movements 'of a Servian division of troops, and has rendered the naval operations of the Greeks a matter of considerable difficulty. But ! for the Hamidieh things would have gone much more easily and smoothly for the enemies of Turkey. Wireless messages have been received from the port of Adalia stating that the warship had started for Symi, and from there we learn that she has taken coal from the Khedival yacht Mahrousaia. Injured as she is, the young captain sends word that he has held up fifteen Greek vessels, only four of them escaping m the darkness. Rumor says that the wireless telegrams m cypher tell of the hope of the commander of inflicting serious damage on the Greeks "where they least expect it." Ihe Hamidieh, whose first name was Abdul Han-Id, was built m 1903, and has a crew of only a little mbre than two hundred men: ' She carries two 6-in, eight 4.7, and some smaller guns. . In November she returned to Constantinople badly damaged by a Bulgarian torpedo— this. was when the Hamidieh ran the gauntlet of four of the enemy's torpedo vessels, two of which she hurt seriously. She was docked and renovated at a cost of £25,000. ' SINKING VESSEL. _It was after this engagement that Uuad Bey gave his remarkable reason why, with a sinking ship, he had set his course straight across the open sea for the Golden Horn. m He arrived with his decks eighteen inches above water, and the ship practically sank at the entrance to the dock He explained that if he had hugged the shore he would not have been sure of his men standing, to their stations m an obviously sinking ship when m sight of land. They might have mutinied arid insisted on . his . running ashore. He therefore took the chance of the Teasel sinking and kept out at sea. *°£ fety^y 13 the Hamidieh put m at Malta /arid stayed there for twentvfour hours. This was after she had worried the Allies very cohsiderably m the Mediterranean. According to Greek reports she has been "blown up," sunk, and "completely disabled" a dozen, times. _The Turks are calling her the Turkish Novik-the little Russfan cruiir wSch: caused the Japanese more trouble than almost all the rest of the Russian fleet put together.