The
Basillica or Great Turkish Bombard
( tr, Şahi topu or simply ''Şahi'') is a 15th-century
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...
cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...
, specifically a
super-sized bombard, which saw action in the 1807
Dardanelles operation.
[Schmidtchen (1977b), p. 228] It was built in 1464 by Ottoman military engineer Munir Ali and modelled after the
Orban bombard that was used for the Ottoman
besiegers of Constantinople in 1453.
History
The Dardanelles Gun was cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali with a weight of 16.8 tonnes and a length of , being capable of firing stone balls of up to ).
The powder chamber and the barrel are connected by the way of a
screw
A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to ...
mechanism, allowing easier transport of the unwieldy device.
Such super-sized bombards had been employed in Ottoman warfare
and in Western European siege warfare since the beginning of the 15th century. According to Paul Hammer and Gábor Ágoston, the technology could have been introduced from other Islamic countries which had earlier used cannons.
[Paul E. J. Hammer (2007)]
''Warfare in Early Modern Europe 1450–1660''
page 297, Ashgate Publishing
Ashgate Publishing was an academic book and journal publisher based in Farnham (Surrey, United Kingdom). It was established in 1967 and specialised in the social sciences, arts, humanities and professional practice. It had an American office i ...
The
Ottoman army
The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire.
Army
The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
successfully deployed large bombards at the
siege of Salonica in 1430, and against the
Hexamilion wall
The Hexamilion wall ( el, Εξαμίλιον τείχος, "six-mile wall") was a defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth, guarding the only land route onto the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece.
History
Early fortif ...
at the
Isthmus of Corinth
The Isthmus of Corinth ( Greek: Ισθμός της Κορίνθου) is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word " isthmus" comes from the Anci ...
in 1446.
At the
siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans employed a number of cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62. They were built at
foundries that employed Turkish cannon founders and technicians, most notably Saruca, in addition to at least one foreign cannon founder,
Orban. Most of the cannons at the siege were built by Ottoman engineers, including a large bombard by Saruca, while one cannon was built by Orban, who also contributed a large bombard. Orban was from
Brassó,
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coronation of the Hungarian monarch, c ...
, before working for the Ottoman army in 1453.
[Schmidtchen (1977b), p. 226] Ali's piece is assumed to have closely followed the outline of the large bombards used at the siege of Constantinople.
Along with other huge cannons, the Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...
force appeared and commenced the
Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with
propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the ...
and
projectile
A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found i ...
s, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.
A spherical round made of full iron, of diameter, has a weight of .
The gun was being considered for scrapping by 1850 but this was held off after
John Henry Lefroy
Sir John Henry Lefroy (28 January 1817 – 11 April 1890) was an English military man and later colonial administrator who also distinguished himself with his scientific studies of the Earth's magnetism.
Biography
Lefroy was a son of the Rev ...
tried to get it added to the collection of Britain’s
Royal Military Depository.
In 1866, on the occasion of a state visit, Sultan
Abdulaziz
Abdulaziz ( ota, عبد العزيز, ʿAbdü'l-ʿAzîz; tr, Abdülaziz; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was overthrown in a government coup. He was a ...
gave the Dardanelles Gun to
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
as a present.
It became part of the
Royal Armouries collection and was displayed to visitors at the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
. In 1989, it was moved to
Fort Nelson, Hampshire, overlooking Portsmouth.
See also
*
List of the largest cannon by calibre
*
Orban
Notes
Sources
*
Ffoulkes, Charles, "The 'Dardanelles' Gun at the Tower", ''Antiquarian Journal'', Vol. 10 (1930), pp. 217–227
* Schmidtchen, Volker (1977a), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", ''Technikgeschichte'' 44 (2): 153–173 (153–157)
* Schmidtchen, Volker (1977b), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", ''Technikgeschichte'' 44 (3): 213–237 (226–228)
External links
{{Authority control
Artillery of the Ottoman Empire
630 mm artillery
History of the Dardanelles
Individual cannons
Siege artillery
Medieval artillery
Turkish inventions
1464