1827 - First Battle Won by a Steam Warship

The struggle for Greek independence has just given steam the possibility of demonstrating its value at war.

It has been thirteen years that the Filiki Eteria, a society of Greek patriots, was founded in the hope of liberating Greece from the Ottoman rule, with this bold motto :

It has been six years that the uprising begun. It succeeded in freeing the inland and Athens within three years. At that time, Poet George Gordon Byron, leading figure of the supporters of the Greek revolt, died at 36 from a fever contracted during the siege of Missolonghi. It has been only two years that Egyptian General Ibrahim Pasha brought back most of the peninsula under Ottoman rule.

This is in the same year 1825 that the steam sloop Karteria was built for the Greek navy on money from London Philhellenic Committee. Her guns were bought by Frank Abney Hastings, 33, a former naval officer.

¤ Hastings retired from the Navy in 1819 after a feud with his captain. A young veteran, he was at Trafalgar (1805) at the age of eleven and at New Orleans (1815) at the age of 21. He joined the Greek uprising five years ago and fought aboard Greek warships in the Aegean sea. A forward-thinking officer, he advocated steam and shell instead of sail and round shot to the Greek government via Lord Byron. He made his proposition real in the form of the Karteria of which he supervised the building and which he has been captaining since last year.

Karteria is a paddle-wheel 230-ton 8-gun sloop. She can steam at seven knots. She has also the rigging of a three-masted barque stepped up by a spanker. She seems to be a good sailer, reserving steam to battle. The eight guns are 68-pounders. They fire shells on occasion, mostly round shots, which the boiler can heat to red-hot shots on occasion, and grapeshots at blank point. It is noteworthy that her 185-man crew is composed of Englishmen, Swedes and Greeks.

¤ There are good wind conditions for a sailer in the Aegean sea, in the Cyclads in particular. An exception is the gulf of Corinth, known for its frequent calms - a quarter of time. Is it the reason why Hastings advocated steam? Or did he simply foresee that a steamer would outmanoeuvre the Ottoman vessels and could pester them with impunity?

Hastings has led his ship in bold actions. It is said that she already fired the incredible number of 18,000 rounds in a single year of war service. He has just given the highlight with the raid on Itea in the gulf of Corinth, where he has defeated, with some help of a brig, an ottoman squadron of three schooners and three brigs, capturing two ships and destroying four others through shells, silencing the shore guns by dispersing and killing their servants through grapeshots. (It has also been told that seven ships have been destroyed, including troop transports.)

The event has drawn public attention in Europe at the very moment Britain, France and Russia have decided to intervene on the Greek side, and have sent naval squadrons. At a technical level, it has proved the experts that a steam warship is valuable for raiding.

____________

IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

Note A - on Hastings' fate

In 1828 Hastings is wounded in a attempt to reclaim Missolonghi. He dies a few days later, rightly celebrated as a national hero by the Greeks.

Note B - on Karteria's fate

She plays a minor role after Hastings, her patron, passing away. Her steam engine is progressively difficult to repair, while the war turns right for the Greeks - it is won as early as 1829, even if the controlled territory is still limited and the status is the one of a vassal state, and even if struggle will last four extra years. She is discarded by the new government as obsolete after the independence established in 1833.

____________

SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lawrence Sondhaus - Naval Warfare, 1815-1914 - London, 2001 - available on the internet

____________

CREDIT

Illustration found on the Internet, derived from an unknown painting