1827 - First Battle Won by a Steam Warship

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. Eleftheria i Thanatos - Freedom or Death - was their bold motto. It has six years that the uprising begun and progressively succeeded in freeing territories, including Athens. It has been three years that Poet George Gordon Byron, leading character of the European supporters of the greek revolt, died at 36 from a fever contracted at 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 funds of the 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 plus a spanker. She seems to be a good sailer, steam being reserved to battle. The eight guns are 68-pounders. She fires shells on occasion, round shots, which the boiler can heat to red 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. 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 her 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. (Other reports have said 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 squadrons. At a technical level, it has proved the experts that a steam warship is valuable.

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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, celebrated as a national hero for the Greeks.

Note B - on Karteria's fate

She plays a minor role after Hastings, her patron, has passed 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 the one of a vassal state, and even if struggle will last four extra years. She is discarded by the government as obsolete after the independence established in 1833.

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SUGGESTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

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CREDIT

Illustration found on the Internet, derived from an unknown painting