Reports had got about that some wonderful new guns had been installed
in one of the forts on the Bosphorus and that a great deal of secrecy
was observed in their being put up. It became my duty to go and find
out any particulars about them.
My first day in Constantinople was spent under the guidance of an
American lady in seeing the sights of the city, and when we had
visited almost all the usual resorts for tourists she asked whether
there was anything else that I wanted to see, and to a certain
extent I let her into my confidence when I told her that I would give
anything to see the inside of one of these forts, if it were possible.
She at once said she would be delighted to take me to see her old
friend Hamid Pasha, who was quartered in one of them and was always
willing to give her and her friends a cup of tea.
When we arrived at the gate of the fort the sentry and the officer in
charge would on no account allow us to pass until the lady said that
she was a friend of the Pasha, when we were at once admitted and
passed to his quarters.
He was a charming host, and received us with the greatest kindness,
and after showing us his own quarters and the many curiosities he had
collected he took us all round the fort and pointed out its ancient
and modern devices for defence, and finally showed us its guns. Two
of these, in a somewhat prominent position where they could easily be
seen from outside, were covered with canvas covers.
My excitement naturally grew intense when I saw these, and I secretly
begged the lady to persuade him to allow us to look at them, and he
at once acquiesced, thinking I was an American, and, grinning all over
his face, said, "These are our very latest development."
I almost trembled as the covers were drawn off, and then I recognised
guns, truly of a modern make but not very new nor powerful, and then
he gave away the whole secret by saying: "Of course, we are trying to
impress a certain power with the idea that we are re-arming our forts,
and therefore we are letting it be known that we are keeping these
guns a dead secret and covered from view of any spies."
On another occasion it fell to my lot to inspect some of the defences
of the Dardanelles, and I found it could best be done from the
seaward. This involved my taking passage in an old grain steamer
running between Odessa and Liverpool, and my voyage in her was one of
the most charming and original that it has been my lot to take.
A tramp steamer loaded down with grain until its cargo is almost
running out of the ventilators is--contrary to all expectations--quite
a comfortable boat for cruising in. The captain and his wife lived
in comfortable cabins amidships under the bridge; the after deck was
stocked with pigs and chickens, which fed liberally on the cargo. The
captain's good lady was a Scotch woman, and therefore an excellent
cook.
Everything was most clean and comfortable, and the captain most
thoroughly entered into my various schemes for observing and examining
the defences of the coast as we went along.
He allowed me practically to take command of the ship as regards
her course and anchoring. From side to side of the Dardanelles we
wandered, and when we came abreast of one of the forts that needed
study we anchored ship.
Our erratic procedure naturally invited investigation, and when a
Government pilot boat put off to enquire our reason for anchoring in
a certain bay he came to the conclusion that our steering gear was not
in very good order and that we had stopped to repair it.
While the ship was at anchor a boat was lowered and I whiled away the
time, nominally in fishing, but really in cruising about close to the
forts and fishing for information rather than for fish by observing
the different types of the guns employed and sketching their position
and the radius of fire allowed to take them by the splay of their
embrasures; also we took soundings where necessary and made sketch
maps of possible landing places for attacking or other purposes.