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Date Posted: 15:46:00 05/14/12 Mon
Author: Albert Parker
Subject: Re: Battle of Matapan 1717: Turkish Order of Battle
In reply to: Emir Yener 's message, "Battle of Matapan 1717: Turkish Order of Battle" on 15:19:58 05/12/12 Sat

>Greetings,

This has to be transliterated by substitution for the Icelandic letters as previously discussed. I managed to import Turkish letters into the "Type your message here" window but they did not make it to the on-screen preview:

Şş = Ss-sedilla
Ğğ = Gg-hacek
İ = Dotted capital I
ı = undotted lower case i

This doesn't appear to be the actual order of battle but rather a list of the ships comprising the Ottoman fleet, in descending order of size. That was a common way to list ships when their actual order (which one was at the head of the line, which one followed in second place . . . which one was at the other end of the line) was unknown. It's a big advance on the information published by R.C. Anderson (Naval Wars in the Baltic) and probably most other western Europen discussions of the Battle of Cape Matapan. However, it was very unusual to put the largest ship, which was usually the flagship of the commander in chief of the fleet, at one end of the line, followed by the second-largest or second most powerful ship (usually but not always the flagship of the second in command), with the smallest and weakest ship at the other end of the line.

I don't know about the Ottoman navy, but western European (including Russian) navies usually put the commander in chief in the center, divided the fleet into three squadrons with approximately equal numbers of ships, and put an admiral or other senior officer in command of the van and rear squadrons, with that officer in his squadron's largest ship and in the middle of his squadron. There was usually a strong ship at each end of the line and strong ones ahead and astern of each flagship, with the weakest ships scattered throughout the line to prevent development of a "weak spot."

If we have 30 ships here, a western admiral would have 10 each in van, center, and rear squadrons, with the commander in chief in Kebir Üç Ambarlı in position #15 or #16 and two other admirals in Ejder Başli and Cifte Ceylan Kıçlı, in positions #5 or #6 and #15 or #16. Şadirvan Kıçlı and Sıyah At Baslı might have been ahead or astern of the commander-in-chief, but this is not certain.

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