British Henry Felix Woods, also known as Woods Pasha, served more than 40 years in the Ottoman navy, most of it under Abdul Hamid II’s reign. Woods was the main reason why the Ottoman navy completely rotted away during Abdul Hamid II’s reign in the Golden Horn, despite the fact …
Read More »Baldwin Wake Walker (Yavir Pasha)
British Baldwin Wake Walker, or Yavir Pasha, joined the Ottoman navy in 1838 and served for seven years. In 1840, Ahmet Fevzi Pasha, using an insignificant incident as an excuse, handed over the fleet under his command to Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who had previously rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. …
Read More »Douglas Gamble and Hugh Pigot Williams
Five years before WWI, Douglas Gamble was hired as an advisor for the Ottoman navy and made the head of the 6th fleet under the pretense of ‘reforming the fleet’. Gamble was also a former British navy intelligence officer. Unsurprisingly, when he returned to his homeland one year later, he …
Read More »Adolphus Slade or the Mushaver Pasha
After serving thirty years in the Royal Navy, Adolphus Slade joined the Ottoman navy as an admiral. Renamed ‘Mushaver’ (meaning ‘consulting’), Slade was intricately involved in the Ottoman maritime force. When the Russians burnt the Ottoman fleet in Sinop during the Crimean War and sank twelve Ottoman ships, the only …
Read More »Valentine Baker or Baker Pasha
Valentine Baker was a felon that received a dishonorable discharge from the British army for rape. During the Russo-Turkish war, he served in the Ottoman army as a Brigadier General in Mehmet Ali Pasha’s staff. Mehmet Ali Pasha, on the other hand, was a German who had converted to Islam …
Read More »Arnold Burrowes Kemball
During the Russo-Turkish war, Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha headed the Balkan forces of the Ottoman army. After the Russians passed the Danube River without incident, they advanced on Svishtov and Nikopol and easily won two battles. Since the main Balkan forces couldn’t get to the region in time, the Turkish forces …
Read More »Hobart Pasha
Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden, widely known as Hobart Pasha, was a naval captain who served in the Royal Navy. He worked as a midshipman in Brazil. Upon retirement, he joined the American Civil War and commanded a blockade runner, which conveyed British weapons to the South in exchange for cheap cotton. …
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