Ottoman torpedo boat Sultanhisar

Sultanhisar was a torpedo boat of the Ottoman Navy. She was built in 1907 by Schneider & Cie in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, and transferred the same year to Turkey.[1] She is best known for her action during the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I as she sank Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS AE2 in the Sea of Marmara and captured her crew.

For other ships with the same name, see TCG Sultanhisar.
History
Turkey
Name: Sultanhisar
Namesake: Sultanhisar
Owner: Ottoman Navy, Turkish Navy
Ordered: 25 October 1906
Builder: Schneider & Cie in Chalon-sur-Saône, France
Laid down: 1906
Launched: 1907
Completed: 1907
Commissioned: 1907
Recommissioned: 1924
Decommissioned: 1928
Stricken: 1935
General characteristics
Type: Torpedo boat
Displacement: 97 tons (full load)[1]
Length: 40.2 m (132 ft)[1]
Beam: 4.4 m (14 ft)[1]
Draft: 1.9 m (6.2 ft)[1]
Propulsion: Steam, 1 shaft. 2 Du Temple water tube, Schneider & Cie, 11.2t coal 1 triple expansion 3cyl., 2200ihp, Schneider & Cie[1]
Speed: 26 knots (48 km/h) (trial), 16 knots (30 km/h) (1915)[1]
Complement: 3 officers, 17-20 ratings (1907), 32 Ottomans, 4 Germans (1915)[1]
Armament: 2x37mm (1.46 inch) QF H guns, 3xTT 450mm (18 in) SK torpedoes[1]

Task

As of 16 October 1912, Sulthanisar was assigned to the Bosporus Fleet Command. From 19 December 1912 on, she served at the Armoured Warship Division.[1]

During the naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, the torpedo boat Sultanhisar was tasked with patrolling in the Dardanelles Strait. In addition, she daily transported German general Otto Liman von Sanders, who was the adviser and military commander of the Ottoman Army, between Eceabat and Gallipoli. On 29 April 1915, she received orders to return to Constantinople by sailing along the west coast of the Sea of Marmara. On the way, Commander Ali Rıza Bey changed his route and sailed eastwards in response to reports of the presence of a possible enemy submarine in that area.[2]

Attack on Australian submarine
Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS AE2

The Australian submarine HMAS AE2 was able to pass through the blocked Dardanelles Strait and entered the Sea of Marmara on the early hours of 25 April 1915. She was the first Allied ship to perform the feat.[3][4]

Sultanhisar sighted the submarine in the morning of 30 April in the Erdek Bay near Bandırma. AE2 tried to escape by diving and surfacing several times. Torpedoes were exchanged between the two warships unsuccessfully. In the meantime, Sultanhisar called the Ottoman gunboats Zuhaf and Aydın Reis, which were patrolling in the area, for help. Finally, the submarine surfaced about 100 m (110 yd) from the torpedo boat. Sultanhisar opened fire and hit the submarine's engine room.[2][3][4]

Lieutenant Commander Henry Stoker scuttled AE2 by opening all tanks and flooding his submarine, which was unable to maneuver. The crew abandoned the vessel, and she went down at 10:45. At this moment, the two Ottoman gunboats arrived at the scene and offered to rescue the submarine's crew, who had all survived the attack. Rejecting that offer, Commander Ali Rıza Bey took the 32 sailors on board and sailed back to Gallipoli.[3][4] After picking up two more POWs, one French and one British soldier, in Gallipoli, Sultanhisar headed for Istanbul.[2][5]

Aftermath

Sultanhisar served until the end of the war and was decommissioned by the end of October 1918, after the Armistice of Mudros. Following the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 in place of the dissolved Ottoman Empire, she returned in 1924 to service in the Turkish Navy. She was decommissioned in 1928 and was broken up in 1935.[1]

Namesakes

The name "Sultanhisar", a town in the Aydın Province of Aegean Region in Turkey, was given later to two other warships of the Turkish Navy:

See also

References
  1. Bernd Langensiepen, Ahmet Güleryüz, The Ottoman Steam Navy, 1828-1923, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-659-0, pp. 156-157.
  2. ""Sultanhisar" ve "AE2"" (in Turkish). Gallipoli-1915. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  3. "British and Australian Submarines in the Dardanelles, 1915 - The AE2". ANZAC site. Archived from the original on 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  4. Dr. Chambers, Ian. "Lt Cdr Henry Stoker -- an Historic Journey. The AE2 and the Gallipoli Campaign". ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee (Qld) Incorporated. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  5. Başarın, Vecihi and Hatice Başarin. Beneath the Dardanelles - The Australian Submarine at Gallipoli. ISBN 978-1-74175-595-4.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  6. Destroyers of World War Two, M. J. Whitley, 1988, Cassell Publishing ISBN 1-85409-521-8
  7. British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H. T. Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
  8. "Refakat ve Karakol Filosu Komutanlığı" (in Turkish). Türk Deniz Kuvvetleri. Retrieved 2011-03-30.
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