Nordenfelt[1] class Ottoman submarine[2] Abdülhamid (1886) was the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged. Two submarines of this class, Nordenfelt II (Abdülhamid, 1886) and Nordenfelt III (Abdülmecid, 1887) joined the Ottoman fleet. They were built in pieces by Des Vignes (Chertsey) and Vickers (Sheffield) in England, and assembled at the Taşkızak Naval Shipyard in Istanbul, Turkey.
Mavi Boncuk |
George Garrett designed the worlds first mechanically powered submarine for the Imperial Ottoman Navy and rose to considerable wealth and a Commission by selling two appalling Nordenfelt steam submersibles to Turkey in 1887. He maintained friends and acquaintances including royalty and J.J. Astor. His business colleagues included Basil Zaharoff, future famous arms merchant.
George Garrett (4 July 1852 – 26 February 1902) was a British clergyman and inventor. He invented a diving suit in 1877, demonstrating it to the French government in the River Seine. In 1878, he built a 14 foot long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the Resurgam. This was followed by the second (and more famous) Resurgam of 1879. It was 45 feet long, displaced about 30 tons on the surface and 38 tons submerged and was powered by steam - the furnace and chimney being shut off before diving. It was not very practical - the boiler full of superheated water made conditions inside the submarine very hot indeed, and in common with many early submarine inventors he had not overcome the problems of longitudinal stability.
Nevertheless, although the submarine was lost whilst under tow in 1880, it impressed the Swedish industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt sufficiently to finance Reverend George Garrett. Together, they built a submarine for Greece, and two for Turkey.
George Garrett (4 July 1852 – 26 February 1902) was a British clergyman and inventor. He invented a diving suit in 1877, demonstrating it to the French government in the River Seine. In 1878, he built a 14 foot long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the Resurgam. This was followed by the second (and more famous) Resurgam of 1879. It was 45 feet long, displaced about 30 tons on the surface and 38 tons submerged and was powered by steam - the furnace and chimney being shut off before diving. It was not very practical - the boiler full of superheated water made conditions inside the submarine very hot indeed, and in common with many early submarine inventors he had not overcome the problems of longitudinal stability.
Nevertheless, although the submarine was lost whilst under tow in 1880, it impressed the Swedish industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt sufficiently to finance Reverend George Garrett. Together, they built a submarine for Greece, and two for Turkey.
Abdülhamid and Abdülmecid were in Istanbul in 1914. The submarines were briefly considered for use in harbour defence but it was found that their hulls were too badly corroded.
Discussions between Thorsten Nordenfelt and the English reverend George Garrett led to the production of a series of steam-powered submarines. The first was the Nordenfelt I, a 56-tonne, 19.5-metre long vessel similar to Garret's ill-fated Resurgam (1879), with a range of 240 kilometres and armed with a single torpedo and a 25.4 mm machine gun. It was manufactured by Bolinders in Stockholm in 1884–1885. Like the Resurgam, it operated on the surface using a 100 HP steam engine with a maximum speed of 9 kn, then it shut down its engine to dive. She was purchased by the Greek Government and was delivered to Piraeus harbor in 1886. Following the acceptance tests, she was never used again by the Hellenic Navy and was scrapped in 1901.[2]
Nordenfelt then built the Nordenfelt II (Abdül Hamid) in 1886 and Nordenfelt III (Abdül Mecid) in 1887, a pair of 30-metre long submarines with twin torpedo tubes, for the Ottoman Navy. Abdül Hamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo while submerged under water. Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with the Nordenfelt IV which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but proved unstable and ran aground off Jutland; it was scrapped when the Russians refused to pay for it.
[2] The submarine that the Swedish Nordenfeldt Company, represented by Zaharoff, is working on is still in the testing phase. Minister of Naval Affairs Hasan Hüsnü Pasha was also invited to the promotional demonstration of Nordenfeldt-1, which was produced in 1885. Major Halil Efendi is appointed to represent the Ottoman Empire. Zaharoff succeeds in selling the first submarine, which did not receive full marks from the invited observers from 39 countries, to newly independent Greece for 9,000 pounds. Immediately afterwards, Zaharoff went to Istanbul and sold both submarines to the Ottoman Navy Ministry, despite the negative report of Major Halil Efendi. The concern that Greece could sink Ottoman merchant ships in the Aegean with its submarine was effective in this sale. While protecting the harbor mouths with Nordenfeldt-2 and 3 was considered, since the balance problem in submarines could not be solved, a 1-inch gun and a machine gun were placed on them for surface defense and attack.
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