FLEET AT AUCTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13978, 13 August 1909, Page 3

FLEET AT AUCTION.

The wave of reform which has swept over Constantinople has nowhere produe d greater bustle and commotion than in the naval department. Heroic elforts are being made to evolve some sort of fleet from the collection of venerable derelicts which compose the present Turkish navy. It was resolved to class as effective all those warships which have undergone renovation hi comparatively recent years, namely, within the last decade. Practically all the others are condemned to the scrap heap, and the local newspapers publish announcements that over sixty battleships, cruisers, monitors, gunboats, and torpedo vessels are to lie sold by auction. Some of these discarded veterans are interesting specimens of the earliest typos ■ of' ironclad. Practically all date their birth from towards the middle of last century. Among other oddities to be disposed of is one of the oldest submarines extant. It has been peacefully reposing under a shed in the Golden Horn for the last quarter of a century, literally dropping to pieces from rust nad neglect. It never saw active service, and only made o!ie trial trip after its purchase by the Turkish Government. On that occasion it dived prematurely in the Golden Horn and stuck in the mud in a shallow part of that harbour. The crew were rescued after some hours' imprisonment, but apparently could never be persuaded to make another attempt. Barring sonic torpedo craft and two comparatively modern cruisers, the vessels retained' on the active list are very few degrees superior to . those which are to be sold. The flagship, the battleship .Messoudieh, was sister ship to the old Superb, which, was withdrawn as obsolete from the British navy about the eighties.