This week we stick close to the shore as we explore the naval buildings of Kassim Pasha, the largest neighborhood on the norther shore of Constantinople.
The Arsenal
A mile and a half of dry docks,
wet docks, shipyards, ship stores, barracks, and workshops devoted to the
maintenance of the Ottoman navy covers the shore of Kassim Pasha. The
neighborhood surrounding Kassim Pasha’s docks is called Tersane (from the
Italian word “Darsena” meaning “Shipyard) or the Arsenal. Both names refer to
the expansive complex of naval buildings. Further inland, the streets around
the Arsenal are as rough and filthy as those in Galata with only the occasional
handsomely appointed home of an officer to break up the sprawl of warehouses
and barracks. Hulls of old ships run aground serve as cheap warehouses for
supplies and raw materials.
For most of the year, the Ottoman
fleet docks in the Arsenal’s harbor for refit, repair, and resupply. The depth
of the water in the harbor safely docks even the largest vessels. Since the mid
1500s, sheer stone walls with a pair of gates protect the naval complex’s
secrets from curious land-bound eyes, while a line of guardhouses built on
wooden rafts anchored to the shore permit no boats to approach the harbor. Two
armed guards keep watch on every raft ready to call out the alarm. The Minster
of Marine, the Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, oversees the Arsenal’s activity
from the Admiralty building on a promontory southeast of the Arsenal.
After the fall of Constantinople,
Sultan Muhammad II needed to replace his ships damaged or destroyed during the
siege. In 1455, he started the construction of a shipyard on the northern shore
of the Golden Horn. Succeeding Ottoman sultans expanded the Arsenal further.
When the Arsenal shipyards overshadowed in number those at Gallipoli, the
Ottoman navy changed their headquarters from the harbor in Gallipoli to
Constantinople. In those days, the Ottoman navy was the scourge of European
shipping and one of the most powerful navies in the world. Nithamiyeen magicians bound a mighty jinni to
the Arsenal’s harbors. The jinni controlled the tides with her magic, moved
heavy ships to and from their docks, and guarded the harbor.
As the empire declined so did
it’s navy. The Arsenal’s shipyards
produced fewer ships, and those completed were of lesser quality than their
contemporaries in other naval powers. Like other powerful jinn, the bindings
restraining the Jinni of the Arsenal faded and she disappeared during a city
fire in 1792.
Sultan Selim III funded the
Arsenal’s modernization in the 1790s, with the help of French engineers. The
sultan brought vital improvements to the Arsenal, such as a naval hospital and
a magnificent three hundred and fifty foot long dry dock, but after his reign
the Arsenal fell behind again. Sultan Abdulmejid continues the modernization of
the Arsenal’s facilities. Now faced with war, the sultan pours out the
treasuries’ money in the hope of revitalizing his failing navy. Convoys of
wood, metal, rope, provisions, and other materials vital to shipmaking pour
into the Arsenal, but some suspect valuable components are diverted from their
destination by greedy pashas.
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