_THE SIEGE_
INVESTMENT BY TURKS; FIRST ASSAULT FAILS; ATTEMPT TO FORCE
BOOM; ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE SHIPS BRINGING AID; GALLANT FIGHT AND
DEFEAT OF TURKISH FLEET; TURKISH ADMIRAL DEGRADED; TRANSPORT
OF TURKISH SHIPS ACROSS PERA INTO THE GOLDEN HORN.
We have now arrived at the last act of the tragedy of Constantinople.
The Queen City is cut off from the outside world. Its small fleet dare
not attempt to pass outside the boom which excludes the Turkish fleet.
An overwhelming force of ships had been collected to keep out supplies
of men or provisions. Before its landward walls is an army of one
hundred and fifty thousand fighting men and a crowd perhaps equally
numerous awaiting their chance of plundering the remnant of that wealth
which had once been contained in the great storehouse of the Western
world.
[Sidenote: Mahomet’s army before the walls on April 7, 1453.]
On April 7 Mahomet’s army had taken up its position along the whole
four miles length of the landward walls from the Marmora to the Golden
Horn, and with the aid of the fleet prevented all access to or egress
from the city. But the men in it had made up their minds to hold it or
to die. They began on the first day of the siege to make the best show
they could. At the emperor’s request, but also at their own desire, the
crews of the galleys under Trevisano and of two others, numbering in
all a thousand men, landed and marched along the whole length of the
landward walls in presence of the enemy with the object of proving to
the Turks that they would have to fight Venetians as well as Greeks.
On the 9th the ships in the harbour were drawn up in battle array, ten
being at the boom and seventeen in reserve further within the harbour.
The Turkish army on the 11th placed its guns in position before the
walls.
[Sidenote: Cannonading commences April 12.]
On the 12th the batteries began playing against the walls and, with
ceaseless monotony, day and night the discharge of these new machines
was heard throughout the city during the next six days. Their immediate
effect soon showed that the walls, solid as they had proved themselves
in a score of former sieges, were not sufficiently strong to resist
the new invention. The huge balls, fired from a short distance amid a
cloud of the blackest smoke, making a terrible roar and breaking into
a thousand pieces as they struck the walls, so damaged them that they
required daily and constant repair. The narratives of those present
agree in representing the defenders from the very commencement of the
bombardment as being constantly engaged in repairing the injury done by
these ‘takers of cities.’ Large and unwieldy as they were, unmounted
and half buried amid the stones and beams by which they were kept in
position, they were yet engines of destruction such as the world had
never seen. Planted on the very edge of the foss and requiring such
management and care that the largest could only be fired seven times
a day, they gave proof within a week of their employment that they
could destroy slowly but surely the walls which had stood since the
reign of the younger Theodosius. The defenders in vain suspended bales
of wool and tried other means of lessening the damage. All they could
accomplish was to repair and strengthen the damaged portions as rapidly
as possible.
[Sidenote: Damage done by cannon by April 18.]
Already by April 18 a part of the Outer Wall and even two great towers
of the Inner had been broken down in the Lycus valley.[282] Justiniani
had been compelled to take in hand the construction of a stockade for
their defence ‘where the attack was the fiercest and the damage to the
walls the greatest.’ The walls of the foss, including the breastwork,
had been broken down, the foss itself in this place partly filled.
The wonderful success already achieved by his great guns led Mahomet
to believe that he could already capture the city. Accordingly, at two
hours after sunset on April 18 he gave orders for the first time to
attempt the city by assault.
[Sidenote: Attempt to capture city by assault on April 18 fails.]
Infantry, cuirassiers, archers, and lancers joined in this night
attack. They crossed the foss and vigorously attempted to break through
or destroy the Outer Wall. They had observed that in the repairs the
besieged had been driven to employ beams, smaller timber, crates of
vine cuttings, and other inflammable materials. These they attempted
to set on fire; but the attempt failed. The defenders extinguished the
fires before they could get well hold. The Turks with hooks at the
end of lances or poles then tried to pull down the barrels of earth
which had been placed so as to form a crenellation and in this way to
expose the defenders to the attacks of the archers and slingers. Others
endeavoured to scale the hastily repaired and partially destroyed wall.
During four hours Justiniani led his Italians and Greeks in the defence
of the damaged part, and after a hard conflict the Turks were driven
across the foss with a loss in killed and wounded estimated by Barbaro
at two hundred.
The attack was local and not general, though Barbaro remarks that
the emperor began to be in doubt whether general battle would not be
given on this night, and ‘we Christians were not yet ready for it.’
The failure of this the first attack stimulated Greeks and Italians to
press on the repairs to the Outer Wall. Every day, however, there were
new assaults made at one place or another, but especially in the Lycus
valley.
[Sidenote: Attempt to force boom.]
A few days after the return of Baltoglu with the fleet from Prinkipo,
and probably contemporaneously with the attack in the Lycus valley on
the 18th, the admiral was ordered to force a passage into the Golden
Horn.
His fleet, counting vessels of all kinds, probably now numbered not
less than three hundred and fifty ships. By their aid Mahomet hoped
to gain possession of the harbour by destroying or forcing the boom.
Accordingly, Baltoglu sailed down from the Double Columns, towards the
ships stationed for its defence, and endeavoured to force an entry.
The Turkish crews came on with the battle-cry of ‘Allah, Allah!’ and
when within gun- and arrow-shot of their enemies closed bravely for
the attack. The cuirassiers tried to burn the vessels at the boom
with torches; others discharged arrows bearing burning cotton, while
others again endeavoured to cut the cables of some of the ships so that
they might be free to destroy the boom. In other parts they sought to
grapple with the defending vessels and if possible to capture them.
Both sides fought fiercely, but the Greeks and Italians, under the
leadership of the Grand Duke Notaras, had provided against all the
Turkish means of attack. The defending ships were higher out of the
water than those of the Turks, and this gave them an advantage in
throwing stones and discharging darts and javelins. Stones tied to
ropes had been taken aloft on the yards and bowsprits, and the dropping
of these into vessels alongside caused great damage. Barrels and other
vessels full of water were at hand to extinguish fire. After a short
but fierce fight the assailants judged that for the present at least
the attempt to capture the boom and thus obtain an entrance into the
harbour was hopeless, and amid taunts and shouts of joy from the
Christians withdrew to the Double Columns.
On April 20 we come to an incident at once interesting and suggestive.
[Sidenote: Attempt to capture ships bringing aid.]
In the midst of a story which is necessarily depressing from the
consciousness that it is that of a lost cause, one incident is related
by all Christian contemporary writers, whether eye-witnesses or not,
with satisfaction or delight. This is the incident of a naval battle
under the walls of the city itself. Spectators and writers dependent on
the testimony of others who had seen the fight differ among themselves
as to details but agree as to the main facts.
Three large Genoese ships on their way to Constantinople had been
delayed at Chios[283] by northerly winds during the month of March and
part of April. Accounts differ as to the object of their voyage. One
would like to believe the statement of Critobulus that they were sent
by the pope to bring provisions and help to the city and as an earnest
of the aid he was about to furnish, and that thirty triremes and
other great vessels were in preparation.[284] But Barbaro, who, as a
Venetian, seldom loses an opportunity of depreciating the Genoese, says
that they had been induced to sail for the city by the imperial order
allowing all Genoese ships bringing provisions to enter their goods
duty free. The statement of Leonard, archbishop of Chios, that they had
on board soldiers, arms, and coin for Constantinople would appear to
confirm that of Critobulus.
The arrival of a fleet from Italy was expected and anxiously looked for
by all the inhabitants from the emperor downwards. They had accepted,
though they heartily disliked, the Union, and they consoled themselves
with the belief that in return the pope and other Western rulers
would at once send a fleet with soldiers and munitions of war. It was
generally believed in the city that the ships were sent by the pope.
Even where it was doubted, all agreed that the arrival of additional
fighting men for the defence of the walls was of supreme importance.
Nor were the Turks less interested. They, too, expected and feared the
arrival of ships from the West, and, in addition to their objection
to Italian ships, they had already learned the value of Genoese and
Venetian soldiers for the defence.
[Sidenote: Ships arrive at mouth of Bosporus.]
When, about April 15, a south wind blew, the Genoese weighed their
anchors and made sail for the Dardanelles. On their way they fell in
with an imperial transport under Flatanelas which had come from Sicily
laden with corn.[285] On the second day the wind became stronger and
carried the four ships through the straits and into the Marmora. At
about ten o’clock on the morning of April 20, their crews saw in the
distance the dome of Hagia Sophia.
When the Genoese ships were first seen, most of the vessels of the
Turkish fleet were anchored in the bay of Dolmabagshe at the Double
Columns. But the Turkish ships on the look-out at the entrance of the
Bosporus appear to have observed the approaching vessels as soon as the
watchmen in the city itself. They would also be seen by a portion of
the Turkish army encamped outside the landward walls.
Upon the report of their coming the sultan himself galloped at once to
his fleet, about two miles distant from his camp, and gave orders to
the renegade Baltoglu to proceed with his vessels to meet the ships, to
capture them if possible, but at any cost to prevent them passing the
boom and entering the harbour of the Golden Horn. If he could not do
that, he was told not to come back alive.[286]
[Sidenote: Turkish fleet resists.]
The four ships desired to pass the boom; the object of the Turkish
fleet was to prevent them. Taking the lowest estimate of the number
of the Turkish vessels sent against them, it was apparently hopeless
that four ships dependent on the wind should be able to hold their
own against a fleet of not less than a hundred and forty-five vessels
so completely under control as that of Baltoglu, which contained
triremes, biremes, and galleys. These Turkish ships, triremes, galleys,
and even transports, were crowded with the best-equipped men of the
army, including a body of archers and men heavily clad with helmets
and breastplates: in short, with as many of the sultan’s best men as
could be placed on board. Shields and bucklers were arranged around the
larger galleys so as to form a breastwork of armour against arrows and
javelins; while on some of the boats the rude culverins of the period
were ranged so as to bring them to bear against the four ships.
Then, after these hasty preparations, the Turkish fleet proceeded in
battle array down the Bosporus to Seraglio Point and the Marmora.
Captains and crews went out with confidence of an easy victory. The
fight was to be against only four ships, and, with such overpowering
superiority in numbers of skilled fighters, who could doubt of success?
The admiral, says Critobulus, believed that he had the Genoese already
in his hand. Barbaro notes the shouts of delight with which the enemy
came forward to the attack, the noise of their many oars, and the sound
of their trumpets. ‘They came on,’ he says, ‘like men who intended to
win.’[287]
The archbishop, another spectator, notes also that the Turkish fleet
advanced with every sign of joy, with the beating of drums, and the
clanging of trumpets. Phrantzes, a third eye-witness, was specially
impressed with the confidence with which the Turkish flotilla
approached. They went on to meet the Genoese ships, he says, with drums
and horns, believing that they could intercept them without difficulty.
The wind being against them, sails were dispensed with, but as their
progress was independent of wind the whole fleet advanced steadily to
capture the foe.
Meantime the four ships kept on a direct course, steering for and
striving to pass the tower of ‘Megademetrius’ at the Acropolis and
to enter the Golden Horn.[288] As they sail along with a stiff south
breeze behind them and keeping, as vessels usually keep on making for
the Golden Horn with a southerly wind, well out from the land until
they reach the Point, their progress is easily seen by the citizens.
Many of them crowd the walls or climb the roofs of houses near the
seashore, while others hasten to the Sphendone of the Hippodrome,[289]
where they have a wide view of the Marmora and the entrance of the
Bosporus.
[Sidenote: Fight commences.]
Meantime the strong southerly wind has brought the four ships abreast
of the city. Their short but sturdy hulls with high bows and loftier
poops are driven steadily through the water by the big swelling
mainsails of the period. As they approach the Straits, when they are
well in view from the Sphendone, they are met by the Turkish admiral
who from the poop of his trireme commands them peremptorily to lower
their sails. On their refusal he gives orders for attack. The leading
boats pull for the ships, but both the advantages of wind and a
considerable sea were with the larger vessels, while their greater
height from the water made boarding under the circumstances extremely
difficult. The Italians with axes and boathooks make short work of
any who attempt it. The skirmish became a running fight in which the
attackers shot their arrows and fire-bearing darts and threw their
lances with little effect.
[Sidenote: Wind drops.]
The south wind continuing to blow, the ships held on their course until
they entered the Bosporus and came near Seraglio Point. Then, all of a
sudden, the wind fell,[290] and in a few minutes the sails flap idly
under the very walls of the Acropolis.[291]
The sudden fall of the wind had shifted the advantage of the position
from the ships to the Turkish fleet. Then, indeed, says Pusculus, the
real fight commenced. The Turkish admiral had apparently now complete
justification for the belief that he would have an easy capture. The
four ships were powerless to move, while Baltoglu could choose his
own mode of attack by his hundred and fifty fighting vessels. When,
while the ships were under the walls of the Acropolis, the wind fell,
they would nevertheless drift over towards the Galata shore of the
Bosporus by the current which after a south wind invariably sets in
that direction. Probably they would be influenced also by the last
puffs which usually follow the sudden dropping of the south wind near
Constantinople. The remainder of the combat is therefore to be fought
at the mouth of the Golden Horn, between Seraglio Point and the shore
east of Galata near Tophana, and just outside the walls of that city.
Thousands of spectators had gathered to witness this second portion
of the fight. The walls at Seraglio Point were crowded with soldiers
and citizens fearing for the result but unable to render assistance.
Nor could any aid be given by the crews of the ships of the imperial
fleet which were near at hand on guard at the boom, though of course on
the harbour side. At one time, says Phrantzes, the ships were within
a stone’s-throw of the land. On the opposite shore of the Golden Horn
outside the walls of Galata, to which attackers and attacked were
slowly drifting as they fought, the sultan and his suite watched the
fight with interest not less keen than that of the Christians on the
walls of Constantinople, but with the same confidence of success as was
felt by the admiral.
[Sidenote: Attack at mouth of Golden Horn.]
A general attack was preceded by the order of Baltoglu to surround
the becalmed ships. After the fleet had been disposed so as to act
simultaneously, the order was given to begin the fight but, apparently,
not to close in on the ships. Stone cannon-balls were discharged by
the Turks and lances with lighted material were thrown so as to set
fire to the sails or cordage. But the crews of the vessels attacked
knew their business thoroughly. They easily extinguished the fire.
From their turrets on the masts and their poops and lofty bows they
threw their lances, shot their arrows, and hurled stones on the Turks
unceasingly, and Baltoglu soon found that this method of attack was
useless. Thereupon he shouted the order at the top of his voice for
all the vessels to advance and board. The admiral himself selected
for his special task the imperial transport as the largest of the
four ships. He ran his trireme’s bow against her poop and tried to
board her. For between two and three hours--that is, so long as the
fight endured--he stuck to her like the stubborn Bulgarian he was, and
never let go. The crews of the other Turkish vessels hooked on to the
anchors, seized on everything by which they could hold, and attempted
on all sides to reach the decks of the ships. While some tried to climb
on board, others endeavoured to cut the ropes with their axes, and
set the ships on fire. Showers of arrows and javelins were directed
against the Christian crews. The Genoese fighters were in armour and
were proof against the small missiles. Everything had been anticipated
by them. Their tuns of water extinguished the burning brands, and
their heavy stones and even small barrels of water dropped from above
sank or disabled the boats of their assailants. The axe-men on board
‘our ships’ chopped off the hands or broke the heads of all men who
succeeded in getting near the deck. Meanwhile, as amid shouts and yells
and blasphemies one boat’s crew after another was defeated, others
pressed near to replace them, and the Genoese had to recommence their
struggle against fresh and vigorous men.
While the fight was going on, the vessels were always drifting across
to the Galata shore.[292] Five triremes attacked one of the Genoese
ships; thirty large caiques or fustae tackled a second, and the
remaining Genoese was surrounded by forty transports or parandaria
filled with well-armed soldiers. The fight continued with great fury.
The sea seemed covered with struggling ships. An enormous number of
darts, arrows, and other missiles were thrown. The quantity of the
latter, says Ducas, with pardonable exaggeration, was so great that
after a while the oars could not be properly worked. The sea, says
Barbaro, could hardly be seen, on account of the great number of the
Turkish boats.
All this time the imperial ship commanded by Flatanelas, with the
Turkish admiral’s ship always holding on to her, was defending herself
bravely. Though Baltoglu would not let go, the other attacking vessels
which passed under her bow were driven off with earthen pots full of
Greek fire and with stones.[293] The slaughter around her was great.
For a time, indeed, the aim of the admiral and the energy of the
attack seem to have been concentrated on the capture of the imperial
ship. Chalcondylas declares that she would have been taken had it not
been for the help which the Genoese were able to give her; and Leonard
also says that she was protected by ‘ours’--that is, by the Genoese
ships. Probably it was in consequence of the risk which the imperial
ship had run of being captured that presently the whole four lashed
themselves together, so that, in the words of Pusculus, they appeared
to move like four towers.[294] Each of the four ships, however,
remained during the protracted battle a centre of attack in which the
triremes took the most important positions, grappling them and being
themselves supported by the smaller boats.
The fight was seen and every incident noted by the friends alike of
attackers and attacked from the opposite sides of the Golden Horn.
‘We, watching from the walls what passed, raised our prayers to God
that He would have mercy upon us.’[295] Flatanelas, the captain of the
imperial ship, was observed on his deck fighting like a lion and urging
his men to follow his example. It was followed both by his officers
and by those on board the Genoese ships. Nothing whatever occurred to
show that they lost courage for an instant. The attack on the ships
was apparently no nearer success than when it began. The spectators on
both sides had seen ships and fleet drifting towards the Galata shore,
and the citizens were aware that Mahomet with his staff was watching
the fierce struggle. This shore contains a wide strip of level ground
which has been silted up during the last few centuries and is now built
upon, but which, like the corresponding low-lying ground outside the
walls of Constantinople on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, either
did not exist four centuries ago or was in part covered with shallow
water.[296] Into the shallow water the sultan urged his horse in his
excitement until his long robe trailed in it. He went out as far as
was possible towards his vessels, in order to make himself seen and
heard. When he saw his large fleet and thousands of chosen men unable
to capture the four ships and again and again repulsed, his anger
knew no bounds. Roused to fury, he shouted and gnashed his teeth. He
hurled curses at the admiral and his crews at the top of his voice.
He declared they were women, were fools and cowards, and no doubt let
loose a number not only of curses and blasphemies, as the archbishop
says, but of those opprobrious expressions in which the Turkish
language is exceptionally rich. The sultan’s followers were not less
disappointed and indignant than Mahomet. They, too, cursed those in the
fleet, and many of them followed him into the water and rode towards
the ships.[297]
[Sidenote: Turkish ships defeated and retreat.]
Urged by the presence and reproaches of their great leader, the
Turkish captains made one more desperate effort. For very shame,
says Phrantzes, they turned their bows against our ships and fought
fiercely. Pusculus says that Mahomet, watching from the shore, inflamed
their fury. But all was in vain. The Genoese and the imperial ship held
their own, repelled every attempt to board them, and did such slaughter
among the Turks that it was with difficulty the latter could withdraw
some of their galleys.
The later portion of the fight had lasted upwards of two hours; the
sun was already setting, and the four ships had been powerless to move
on account of the calm. But the fight was unequal, and they must have
been destroyed, says Critobulus, plausibly enough, if the battle had
continued under such conditions. In this extremity suddenly there came
a strong puff of wind. The sails filled, and the ships once more had
the advantage of being able to move. They crashed triumphantly through
the oars of the galleys and the boats, shook off their assailants, and
cleared themselves a path. If at that time the whole fleet of the
barbarians, says Ducas, had barred the way, the Genoese ships were
capable of driving through and defeating it. Thus, at the moment when
the fight was the most critical, they were able to sail away and take
refuge under the walls of the city. The wind had saved them. _Deus
afflavit, et dissipati sunt._
The battle was lost, but the sultan once again shouted out orders
to the admiral. Ducas suggests that Baltoglu pretended not to hear,
because Mahomet, being ignorant of ships and sailing, gave absurd
orders. There was, however, no longer any hope of success, and night
coming on, the command was again given, and this time heard by
Baltoglu, to withdraw to the Double Columns.
[Sidenote: Genoese ships brought inside harbour.]
Barbaro, who was in the city, describes how he himself took part in
bringing the four gallant vessels inside the boom. When it became dark,
he accompanied Gabriel Trevisano with the latter’s two galleys, and
Zacharia Grione with his one, and with them went outside the boom.
Fearing that they would be attacked, they did their utmost to make it
appear that their fleet was large. They had three trumpets for each of
the two galleys, and with these they made as much noise as if they had
at least twenty galleys.
In the darkness of the night the Turks thought their fleet was about to
be attacked, and remained at anchor on the defensive. The four ships
were safely towed within the boom and into the port of Constantinople,
to the indescribable delight of Greeks and Italians alike.
The Turks were possibly hindered in the fight by their numerical
superiority. The oars of their galleys were broken; one boat got into
the way of others, while in the confusion every bolt or arrow shot from
the ships told upon the crowded masses of men in the enemy’s vessels
below them. Many in the triremes were suffocated or trampled under
foot. Every attempt to board either of the ships had failed. The losses
suffered by the Turks were undoubtedly severe, though exaggerated by
the victors. A few of their boats were captured or destroyed. The
archbishop declares that he learned from the spies that nearly ten
thousand had been killed; Phrantzes, that he heard from the Turks
themselves that more than twelve thousand of these ‘Sons of Hagar’
perished in the sea alone. The version of Critobulus is the most likely
to be correct. He gives the killed as upwards of a hundred, and the
wounded as above three hundred.[298] The losses on board the four ships
were not altogether slight. Phrantzes declares that no Christians were
killed in the battle, though two or three who were wounded ‘departed
after some days to the Lord;’ while Critobulus gives a much more
probable story of twenty-two killed, and half the crews wounded.
All writers agree that the fight was manfully sustained on both sides.
The ships lay on the water without a breath of wind, though there was
probably a slight swell. It was a small but brilliant sea fight of the
old type between skilled sailors and skilled soldiers, in which the
latter were unable to gain any advantage over their opponents fighting
on their own element, and had to withdraw humbled and defeated.
The disappointment and rage of the sultan were great and not unnatural.
[Sidenote: Turkish admiral degraded.]
The unfortunate admiral was brought next day before him and reproached
as a traitor. Mahomet asked him how he could expect to capture the
fleet in the harbour since he could not even take four ships, upbraided
him for his inactivity and cowardice, and declared that he was ready
himself to behead him.[299] The admiral pleaded that from the beginning
to the end of the fight his own ship had never quitted its hold upon
the poop of the largest vessel, and that he and his crew had fought on
uninterruptedly until recalled. The Turkish officers also spoke on his
behalf, testified to his courage and tenacity, and called attention to
the severe wound on his eye accidentally inflicted by one of his men.
The sultan, after some hesitation, consented to spare his life, but
ordered him to be bastinadoed.[300] As a further punishment, he was
deprived of all his honours, and whatever he possessed was given to the
Janissaries.[301]
The success raised the hopes of the besieged, because they now firmly
believed that these ships were only the forerunners of many others
which were on their way to save the city. They had not yielded to Rome
for nothing, and aid would come, and the city would yet be saved. In
truth, a new crusade was not necessary to secure its deliverance. A
few more vessels sent by the Christian states, with an army one tenth
or even one twentieth of the number of the soldiers of the cross who
had passed by Constantinople under Godfrey, would have been enough to
prevent the conquest of the city by Mahomet. No further aid, however,
came. All the hopes based upon re-union proved illusory, and Hungarians
as well as Italians failed to render the assistance which might have
been of first importance to their own interests.[302]
[Sidenote: Attack contemporaneously made in Lycus valley.]
The fight with the four ships was on April 20. During that day the
great bombards had been hard at work along the landward walls, and
especially near the Romanus Gate. The sultan himself was absent on the
following day at the Double Columns, superintending one of the most
interesting operations connected with the siege, but the bombardment
went on as if he had been present. An important tower known as the
Bactatinian, near the Romanus Gate,[303] was destroyed on the 21st,
with a portion of the adjacent Outer Wall, and, says Barbaro, it was
only through the mercy of Jesus Christ that the Turks did not give
general battle, or they would have got into the city. He adds that
if they had attacked with even ten thousand men, no one could have
hindered their entry. The Moscovite, speaking of the same incident,
states that the Turks were so infuriated by a successful shot from
the small cannon of Justiniani that Mahomet gave the order for an
assault, raised the cry of ‘_Jagma, jagma!_’ ‘Pillage, pillage!’ but
they were repulsed. One of the balls, according to the same author,
knocked away five of the battlements and buried itself in the walls of
a church.[304] The defenders, among whom, notes Barbaro, were some ‘of
our Venetian gentlemen,’ set themselves at once to make stout repairs
where the wall had been broken down. Barrels full of stones, beams,
logs, anything that would help to make a barricade, were hastily got
together and worked with clay and earth, so as to form a substitute for
the Outer Wall. When completed, the new work formed a stockade, made
largely of wood and built up with earth and stones.[305] The ‘accursed
Turk,’ says Barbaro, did not cease day and night to fire his greatest
bombard against the walls near which the repairs were being made.
Arrows and stones innumerable were thrown, and there were discharges
also from firelocks or fusils[306] which threw leaden balls. He adds
that during these days the enemy were in such numbers that it was
hardly possible to see the ground or anything else except the white
head dress of the Janissaries, and the red fezes of the rest of the
Turks.[307]
Meantime the sultan was bent upon carrying into execution a plan for
obtaining access to the harbour.
[Sidenote: Transport of Turkish ships overland.]
All accounts agree that the defeat of the Turkish fleet on April 20 had
roused Mahomet to fury. More than one contemporary states that it was
the immediate cause of Mahomet’s decision to attempt to gain possession
of the Golden Horn by the transport of his ships over land across the
peninsula of Galata. The statement may well be doubted, but the failure
to capture the four ships probably hastened the execution of a project
already formed, and, like all his plans, carefully concealed until the
moment for action.
[Sidenote: Reasons for such project.]
The reasons which urged Mahomet to try to gain entrance to the
Golden Horn were principally three: to weaken the defence at the
landward walls, to exercise control over the Genoese of Galata, and
to facilitate the communications with his base at Roumelia-Hissar.
So long as he was excluded, the enemy had only two sides of the
triangular-shaped city to defend; whereas if the Turkish ships could
range up alongside the walls on the side of the Horn the army within
the city, already wretchedly inadequate for the defence on the landward
and Marmora sides, would have to be weakened by the withdrawal of men
necessary to guard the newly attacked position.
The possession of the Horn would enable Mahomet to exercise a dominant
influence over Galata. This was a matter of great importance, because
at any time the hostility of the Genoese might have enormously
increased the difficulties of the siege and probably have compelled him
to raise it. There were, indeed, already signs that Genoese sentiment
was unfriendly to him.
The position of the Genoese in Galata was a singular one. The city was
entirely theirs and under their government. It was surrounded by strong
walls which were built on the slope of the steep hill and with those
on the side of the Golden Horn formed a large but irregular triangle.
The highest position in the city was crowned by the noble tower still
existing, and then known as the Tower of Christ. Constantinople and
Galata were each interested in keeping the splendid natural harbour
closed. Behind Galata--that is, immediately behind the walls of the
city--the heights and all the back country were held by the Turks.
Like most neutrals, the people of Galata were accused by each of the
combatants of giving aid to the other side. The archbishop, himself a
Genoese by origin, is loud in his complaints against his countrymen
for having preferred their interests to their duty as Christians. But
it is abundantly clear that the Genoese continued to trade with their
neighbours across the Golden Horn. Whether the balance of services
rendered to the combatants was in favour of the Greeks or of Mahomet
may be doubtful, but there was no doubt in Mahomet’s mind, or probably
in that of any one else, that the sympathy of the Genoese, as shown by
their conduct, was with their fellow Christians. The Genoese ships with
which the fight had just taken place were safe once they had passed
the boom and had come under the protection of the Genoese on one side
and the Greeks on the other. The Golden Horn was thus a refuge for all
ships hostile to the Turks.
It was necessary to give the Podestà and the Council of Galata a
lesson. But Mahomet had tried and failed to force the boom. Nor
could he obtain possession of the end which was within boundaries of
Galata.[308] To have made the attempt would have been to make war on
the Genoese. But their walls were strong, their defenders brave, and
the first rumour of an attack upon the city would be the signal for
the despatch of the whole Genoese fleet and of all the forces that the
suzerain lord of Galata, the duke of Milan, could muster for their aid.
Moreover, within the harbour there were between twenty and thirty large
fighting ships, and the sea fight had now shown clearly how very much
his difficulties would be increased if he forced the Genoese into open
hostilities against him.
The third reason why Mahomet wanted command of the harbour was to
secure his own communications. His important division of troops
under Zagan Pasha occupied the northern shore of the Golden Horn
beyond Galata, together with the heights above the city. While it was
necessary to hold this position so as to keep in touch with his fleet
at the Double Columns and his fortresses at Roumelia-Hissar, the only
means of communication between the main body of his troops encamped
before the walls and those under Zagan was the distant and dangerous
ford over the upper portion of the Golden Horn at Kiat-Hana, then
called Cydaris. Once Mahomet obtained possession of the harbour he
could without interruption build a bridge over the upper end of the
Golden Horn by which communications between the two divisions of his
army would be greatly facilitated.
To accomplish these three objects Mahomet judged that his wisest
course was to let the Genoese severely alone and to attempt to
obtain possession of the harbour by a method which should not force
the neutrals to become open enemies. He resolved to accomplish the
difficult feat of transporting a fleet overland from the Bosporus to
the Horn. This feat may have been suggested to him by a Venetian who,
fourteen years earlier, had seen one of a similar kind performed, in
which his fellow citizens had transported a number of ships from the
Adige to Lake Garda.[309]
The sultan’s entire command of the country behind Galata would enable
him to make his preparations possibly without even the knowledge of the
Genoese. The ridge of hills now occupied by Pera was covered partly
with vineyards and partly with bushes. The western slope, from the
ridge along which runs the Grande Rue de Péra, down to the ‘Valley
of the Springs,’ now known as Cassim Pasha, was used as a Genoese
graveyard, and is still covered by the cypress trees that mark the
Turkish cemetery which took its place. There existed a path from a
place on the Bosporus near the present Tophana to The Springs at right
angles to the road on the ridge of Pera Hill, the two roads forming a
cross and thus giving to Pera its modern Greek name of Stavrodromion.
This path followed the natural valley, now forming the street by the
side of which is erected the church which is a memorial to British
soldiers and sailors who perished in the Crimean war, and then crossing
the ridge on a flat tableland over a few hundred yards descended in
almost a straight line by another valley which is also preserved by
a street to The Springs and the waters of the Golden Horn. It was
probably along this route that the sultan had determined to haul his
ships.
[Sidenote: Project not formed hastily.]
It is impossible to believe that Mahomet had arrived hastily at his
decision to accomplish this serious engineering feat. In accordance
with his usual habit, he would guard his design with the utmost
secrecy. At the same time, he would push on his preparations with his
customary energy. The timber needed for making a species of tramway,
for rollers and for ship cradles, had been carefully and secretly
amassed and everything was ready for execution when the leader gave
the word. The plan and execution was a great surprise, not only to
the Greeks, but even to the people of Galata. That the plan and
preparations were conceived and completed in a single day or night is
incredible.[310]
[Sidenote: Mahomet diverts attention from project.]
If this conjecture is correct, Zagan, who was in command of the Turks
behind Galata and at the head of the Golden Horn, would have been able
to prevent the preparations from becoming known. Possibly it was in
order to conceal the final arrangements that the sultan, a few days
previously, had brought his guns or bombards to bear on the ships
which were moored to the boom, while Baltoglu, as we have seen, was
attacking them from the sea. These guns were stationed on the hill of
St. Theodore, northward of the eastern wall of Galata.[311] At daylight
on April 21, one of them opened fire. The discharge of cannon was
continued and would divert attention from what was going on behind the
Galata walls. The first shot caused great alarm. The ball, followed
by dense black smoke, went over the houses of the Genoese and made
them fear that the city itself was about to be attacked. The second
shot rose to a great distance, fell upon one of the ships at the
boom, smashed a hole in it and sank it, killing some of the crew. The
effect upon the crews of the other ships was for the moment to cause
consternation. They, however, soon placed themselves out of range. The
Turks continued to fire, though the balls fell short, and, according to
Leonard, this fire was continued during the day. A hundred cannon-balls
were discharged; many houses in Galata were struck and a woman was
killed. The Genoese were thus decoyed into paying no attention
to what was going on behind their city. During all the same day,
Barbaro records that the bombardment against the San Romano walls was
exceptionally heavy, and even during the night, according to Michael
the Janissary, all the batteries directed against the Constantinople
landward walls were kept hard at work. This, too, was probably intended
to divert attention from the preparations for the immediate transport
of the fleet.
These measures for diverting attention account for the passage of the
ships not being generally known, if, indeed, it was known at all by
any of the enemy, until it was accomplished.[312] For this reason no
attempt was made to destroy them either before they were placed on land
or as they reached the water. At the same time, Mahomet, who seldom
neglected a precaution, had made preparations to repel any attempt made
to oppose the transit.[313]
In the evening of the 21st or on the morning of the 22nd everything
appears to have been prepared for the remarkable overland voyage
of the sultan’s fleet. Between seventy and eighty vessels had been
selected from those anchored in the Bosporus.[314]
A road had been carefully levelled, probably following the route
already indicated, from a spot near the present Tophana to the valley
of The Springs. Stout planks or logs had been laid upon it. A great
number of rollers had been prepared of six pikes, or about thirteen or
fourteen feet, long.[315] Logs and rollers were thoroughly greased and
made ready for their burdens. The ships’ cradles, to the side of which
poles were fixed so as to enable the ships to be securely fastened,
were lowered into the water to receive the vessels which were then
floated upon them, and by means of long cables were pulled ashore and
started on their voyage.
[Sidenote: Transport of eighty ships overland.]
A preliminary trial was made with a small fusta, and this having been
successfully handled, the Turks began to transport others. Some were
hauled by mere hand power, others required the assistance of pulleys,
while buffaloes served to haul the remainder. The multitude of men at
the sultan’s disposal enabled the ships to start on their voyage in
rapid succession.
The strangeness and the oddity of the spectacle, the paradox of ships
journeying over land, seems to have impressed the Turks, who always
have a keen relish for fun, as much as did the ingenuity of the plan.
The whole business had indeed its ludicrous aspect. The men took their
accustomed places in the vessel. The sails were unfurled as if the
ships were putting out to sea. The oarsmen got out their oars and
pulled as if they were on the water. The leaders ran backwards and
forwards on the central gangway or _histodokè_ where the mast when not
hoisted usually rested, to see that they all kept stroke together. The
helmsmen were at their posts, while fifes and drums sounded as if the
boats were in the water. The display thus made, accompanied as it was
by cheering and music, may probably be attributed rather to the desire
of keeping every one in good humour than to the belief that such a
disposal of the men could facilitate the transport of the vessels.[316]
The vessels followed each other up the hill in rapid succession, and
amid shouting and singing and martial music were hauled up the steep
ridge to the level portion which is now the Grande Rue de Pera, a
height of two hundred and fifty feet from the level of the Bosporus. A
short haul of about a furlong upon level ground enabled them to begin
the descent to the Golden Horn, and so rapidly was this performed that
before the last ship had reached the ridge the first was afloat in the
harbour. The distance is described by Critobulus as not less than eight
stadia. Taking the stadium as a furlong or slightly less, this is a
correct estimate of the distance over which these ships travelled, if
the ships started, as I have suggested, from the present Tophana. Nor
is there reason to doubt the statement that the traject was made, as
many contemporaries assert, in one night.[317]