CHAPTER XVIII.
THE WAR WITH RUSSIA.
In 1877 the war with Russia broke out, and through the absence of any powerful naval enemy, little in the way of hard fighting was done; still some very important service was performed by the Turkish fleet, much more so than is generally known.
In the first place we had to hold the Black Sea, with its extensive sea-board.

We defended Sulina and Batoum against Russian attack by land, and by torpedo on the sea.

We had to watch the little swift packet-boats equipped as men-of-war, which constantly made a rush from Sebastopol and Odessa (as they did, by the way, in the Crimean War, when twenty to thirty English and French ships were watching them), and when they could get a chance burnt some unfortunate little coasting craft, sending the crews of such vessels adrift in small boats to make the best of their way to the nearest land.

In addition to the above-named services, the Turkish fleet was called upon constantly to transport large bodies of troops from port to port.
On one memorable occasion the Turkish men-of-war and transports conveyed the whole of Suleiman Pasha's army, consisting of forty thousand men, from the coast of Albania to Salonica, a distance of some eight hundred miles, within the short space of twelve days, a feat, I venture to say, unheard of in the naval annals of this century.

Sulina was held safely by the Turkish fleet until the end of the war.
Batoum could not have been held by Dervish Pasha and his army had not the Turkish fleet been there to help him.