This is the story of three submarines, the first Greek and the other two Turkish. For the last ten or twelve years of the last century they may have been the only submarines with any military potential though, admittedly, the first had very little.
Although a number of hermetically sealed boats able to submerge had been built in the 17th and 18th centuries, inability to develop an efficient method of underwater propulsion, an effective method of attack, and satisfactory underwater guidance and control prevented the development of a true military submarine. David Bushnell's one man hand-operated craft was unable to attach its mine to Lord Howe's flagship Eagle in New York harbor in September 1776. Robert Fulton's "plunging boat", which sailed on the surface and was hand propelled beneath, succeeded in blowing up some hulks in Brest harbor but impressed neither Napoleon's nor Britain's conservative naval experts. When the Civil War broke out in the United States, Germany, Russia, and France had all developed prototype submarines, but each was deficient in one or another of the three vital points. On 17 February 1864 the Hunley, an eight-man hand-driven submarine made from an old boiler, sank the Union Housatonic, to become the first submarine ever to destroy an enemy ship. But Hunley sank herself and lost her crew in the encounter.
France probably made the most progress in the 20 years after the end of the Civil War. She experimented with a compressed air engine, with electricity, and developed good underwater control. But her boats were experimental; all had very short ranges and none had a military value.
The Reverend George William Garrett and Torsten Wilhelm Nordenfelt developed the three boats that might be said to be the first with true military potential. Garrett, a bluff, bearded inventor from Liverpool, had not been thinking of war when he started experimenting with submarines; he merely wanted to explore the ocean depths and decided to adapt to the submarine an idea he had successfully used in a tramcar-preheated steam kept in a container. In the mid 1870s, his Resurgam, a one-man 40-foot tube, used pre-heated steam when submerged; he followed this with a second boat. Nordenfelt, a Swedish engineer and well known inventor had come to England in 1862 and become the owner of a gun factory. He had perfected the base fuse, the eccentric screw breech, a mechanical time fuse and a quick firing light field gun. Garrett and Nordenfelt combined forces and on 21 September 1885 the first submarine believed capable of attacking an enemy ship by a self-propelled torpedo was ready for demonstration.
Trials of Nordenfelt I took place in the Oresund, the narrow straits below the Kattegat between the Swedish town of Landsknona and a point some 13 miles south of Hamlet's Elsinore and 15 miles north of Copenhagen, and was the occasion for a Danish Royal house-party. The Danish Royal Family, the Czarina of Russia, Marie Feodorovna (the former Danish Princess Dagmar) and the Prince and Princess of Wales were there; a number of Ministers and some 40 naval or military experts (8 British, 8 Swedes, 4 Danes, 4 Japanese, 3 French, 3 German, 2 Italian, 2 Russian, 2 Norwegian, and one each from Austria, Brazil, Spain and Turkey) were also on hand for the occasion.
The boat, which had been started in Stockholm in 1881 where there was a Nordenfelt factory was about 65 feet long, had one torpedo tube, and was driven by Garrett's steam engine. When submerged, steam was stored in an 8-ton container and the boat was designed to take her four-man submerged crew at two or three knots for 15 or so miles. Three hundred yards from the target, she was to launch her torpedo. A cupola, or glass dome tower, through which her Captain peered, remained above the water.
Damage to a horizontal fin made it necessary to limit the first day's activities to visits by groups of four and five persons. In spite of poor weather the second day, the boat's diving ability was tested. She was towed to within 500 yards of a gunboat where a couple of dives of short duration, and a mock attack were carried out. The boat moved back and forth only in an "awash" position with the cupola always out of the water. She did about four knots in this position and remained half-submerged for three hours. The injury of a crew member limited the third day's trials to a surface run of three hours at five knots, and the fourth day to visits. On the last day of the trials, 25 September, the weather was fine and the sea calm. The boat made a number of dives of between two and three minutes each and moved underwater but great difficulty was experienced in keeping the boat on course and controlled underwater.
These demonstrations received a great deal of publicity; the Graphic of London published illustrations and reported that the boat "had reached a really practical stage", yet the reports of the various experts could not have created much interest among the major powers. There had not been any torpedo trials, the boat did not seem to have met all the specifications, and no bids from any of the powers represented were submitted. Nordenfelt had on his staff, however, probably the world's greatest munitions salesman, then known as Zacharias Basileios Zaharoff later as Sir Basil, the "mystery man" of Europe. Zaharoff decided to place the boat. The Greeks bought her for £9,000 and she arrived at the Royal Arsenal in Piraeus in April 1886. Trials were held in the Bay of Salamis off the Piraeus, with Garrett in attendance. These trials have been described as "more successful" than the Elsinore demonstration, even as "very satisfactory…she is an exceedingly good sea boat," yet Greek records note that "the ship, however, never participated in active operations and was demolished 15 years later" (1901).
Major Halil Bey, Turkish Military Attaché in Berlin, had been present at the first demonstration and had reported to Constancinople. As war between Greece and Turkey was about to break out at all times, Zaharoff's next step was obvious. He approached Sultan Abdul Hamid who promptly ordered two boats of a newer design to be built at Barrow-in-Furness and sent to Constantinople in sections for assembly. These newer boats were to outperform the Greek boat in every way. They were to be about 100 feet long, 12 feet in beam, able to fire three torpedoes, do 10 knots on the surface and 3 submerged for eight or nine hours. They were to have two quick-firing guns. Submerged they would displace about 160 tons. Eight tons of coal would provide the steam for two 8-ton chambers for submerged cruising. A normal boiler for use on the surface produced 250 horsepower. Specifications also called for the ability to dive to a depth of 100 feet.
The contract, signed 23 January 1886, provided for completion of the two boats in ten weeks. They would be sent by ship to Constantinople within ten days thereafter, to be assembled in the Valde Tashkizak dockyards in Constantinople within another ten weeks. The first seven sections of the first boat arrived in early May, a few weeks behind schedule. Garrett arrived soon thereafter to find some of the components missing. He arranged for them to be built in Constantinople and went back to Piraeus to witness the torpedo trials of the first boat. A Nordenfelt engineer named von Eckerman ran day and night shifts, Garrett returned, and with a German naval advisor to the Sultan, Admiral Starke, assisting, Nordenfelt II was finished in great secrecy. It was launched 6 September 1886, and named Abdul Hamid.
The need for speed and secrecy in assembling this boat was justified; war with Greece was even more imminent than usual. The Bulgarian annexation in September 1885 of Eastern Rumelia had resulted in Greek mobilization on the theory that, if anyone was going to get a bit of the Ottoman Empire, she should too. Actual hostilities took place only between Bulgaria and Serbia and the Royal Navy blockaded Greece and made her demobilize in May 1886, just about the time the various sections of Abdul Hamid arrived in Constantinople.
Sea trials of Abdul Hamid were held off the Tashkizak yards in the Golden Horn 5 February 1887. The boat made three successful dives. She also steamed on the surface the few hundred yards down to the Ministry of the Navy. Though some failures to meet specifications were noted the publicity was very favorable. The London Graphic carried an article with pictures 16 April. The Graphic article tells us more about the boat:
"It is not pretended that the boat can make a long submarine voyage. Indeed, one great drawback to such an attempt would be the impossibility of seeing ahead, as the submerged craft must come up to the surface from time to time to correct her course. The great advantage claimed over the ordinary torpedo boat is its capacity for approaching a hostile vessel unseen, as it is exceedingly difficult for the ordinary torpedo boat to get within striking distance of a warship without being detected. As a surface boat, moreover, the Nordenfelt can undertake a long voyage and, owing to the greater strength of its construction, is better able to defend itself against the attacks of other vessels. When about to attack, the boat is submerged by admitting water until the vertically-acting screws seen in the upper surface are under water. A few revolutions of these screws suffice to send the boat under to any depth required, and by repeating their motion she can be kept stationary at any distance below the surface which may be desired. As soon as the motion of the screws ceases, the boat rises at once to the surface, owing to her spare buoyancy."
Unfortunately, the boat was very difficult to control under water and when Garrett arrived next in Constantinople 2 June 1887 he readily admitted that Abdul Hamid did not meet specifications. Movement of the crew caused the boat to make a see-saw movement and she could not dive more than 15 to 20 feet—not the 100 feet specified. Abdul Hamid was returned to the shipyard, and Garrett went back to England to try to prevent the same deficiencies from occurring in the second Turkish boat, the sections of which were delayed in arriving in Constantinople because of various improvements, including newer and more powerful Nordenfelt guns. Abdul Mecid was launched on 4 August. Trials were held and some dives took place. Control was a little better.
Early in 1888, Abdul Mecid (the record is not clear as to whether Abdul Hamid accompanied her) proceeded to Izmit, some 55 miles from Constantinople in the Sea of Marmora, the trip taking 6% hours. Then with Garrett, Starke, Von Eckerman and a large number of Turkish officers present, Abdul Mecid successfully launched a torpedo on 13 January 1888. Turkish records say "diving, torpedo launching, and underwater cruising" took place; though it is not clear if Abdul Hamid participated.
Turkish records speak of submarines in the plural proceeding to Izmit and taking part in the trials there. Garrett had not eliminated all of the bugs. The boat bucked when the torpedo was fired and the weight of the lost torpedo caused it to lose horizontal stability; this same loss of horizontal stability occurred as water and steam were consumed or when the crew moved about.
On 15 March 1888 a protocol was signed by Garrett and the Minister of the Navy, Hasan Pasha, by which it was agreed to subtract from the original price of £22,000 all the cost of the work done in the Tashkizak Yards—about £2,900. Furthermore, it was agreed that Garrett would become a Capitaine de Corvette, Honoraire in the Ottoman Navy, to serve withoutpay in the event of war. It appears that the Reverend Garrett had somewhat anticipated this, for his picture as a Commander in the Ottoman Navy was taken in Southampton by Adams and Scanlon in 1886.
The Ottoman records show that Sultan Abdul Hamid had, as of January 1888, two underwater boats with a military potential—even if slight—which no other Navy had at that time, except for Nordenfelt I in Greece, whose value was dubious. Each of the Sultan's boats had two quick firing guns and three Whitehead torpedoes which carried a 26-lb warhead effectively to 300-400 yards at about 18 knots.
The fate of the two Turkish Nordenfelt boats is unclear; the extreme secrecy imposed by the Porte on everything relating to submarines made it possible for some naval writers to claim that only one boat was ever delivered to Constantinople. A French expert writing in 1906 claims that the first boat, Abdul Hamid, was never used and rotted away in the shipyard, being sold bit-by-bit to ironmongers. Yet the Turkish naval records show that both boats were accepted on 22 March 1888 and remained on the Navy list for 20 years thereafter.
Mr. Collins graduated from Princeton University in 1933 and received an LL.B from New York University in 1938. During his lengthy career as a Foreign Service officer, he was twice assigned to Turkey. He attended the National War College from 1953-54. He served as First Secretary at the American Embassy in Rome from 1954-57 and as Political Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic from 1960-62. He also served as consul in Havana, Cuba, and in Porro Alegre, Brazil. Other assignments included duty in France, Panama, and Australia. Mr. Collins, now retired, makes his home in Cadiz, Spain.