excerpt from "THE FRIGATE ERTUĞRUL: The 2007 Underwater Survey off Oshima Island, Japan"
by Berta Lledó and Cemal Pulak
with contributions by Kazuhiro Hantani and Selçuk Kolay
Read the complete article first published in The INA Annual, 2007
Ertuğrul: Historical Background, Voyage and Tragedy
The frigate Ertuğrul was a wooden, full-rigged ship ordered built by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1854 in Istanbul’s Taşkızak shipyard and launched in 1864. Shortly afterward she sailed to England to be equipped with electrical lighting and outfitted with machinery and boilers. On January 18, 1865, Ertuğrul left Portsmouth, visiting several Spanish and French harbors on the long return trip to Istanbul and, in 1866, taking part in the Ottoman Cretan Campaign. Upon its arrival in its home port the frigate fell into a period of disuse. In 1889, however, after long and considerable assessment, 25-year-old Ertuğrul was chosen for a noble mission: a diplomatic trip to Japan. The mission was a visit to Emperor Meiji in return for the 1887 visit to Istanbul of his nephew Prince Komatsu and his wife.
In order to prepare her for the long (approximately 9,500-nautical-mile) journey, the frigate was taken to the shipyard in Istanbul for the necessary hull maintenance work, although nothing was done on the machinery installed in England 24 years earlier. In July 1889, Ertuğrul, with Admiral Ali Osman Pasa serving not only as the commander of the ship but also as the sultan’s diplomatic envoy, began her journey to Japan.
The voyage was not easy. Besides the requested courtesy and diplomatic stops in friendly countries, the old frigate had many hull and maintenance problems along the way that had to be solved. The first occurred within a month of departure, when Ertuğrul entered the Suez Canal and ran ashore in Great Bitter Lake, damaging the stern post and rudder in the process. It took almost two months repair the damage, and she set sail again on September 23rd. In western Indian Ocean, the ship took on water from the bow. The necessary repairs had to wait until arrival in the port of Singapore, from which Ertuğrul and her crew departed on March 22, 1890.
On June 7, 1890, at the end of 11 months at sea, the frigate finally arrived in Yokohama, Japan. After a very successful three months in the island nation, attending official events and meeting the Emperor Meiji, the Turkish dignitaries and crew of Ertuğrul started their way back to Turkey on September 15, 1890.
According to recollections of the survivors, shortly after their departure a reverse wind began to blow, gaining in strength until at some point the sails had to be furled. The frigate could hardly advance. The 40-meter (130-foot) high mizzen mast collapsed and caused severe damage by knocking from side to side and banging into the other sails. The severity of the storm caused the deck planking at the bow to loosen, allowing water to seep into the coal bunkers in the boiler room. The crew fruitlessly tried to repair the deck while simultaneously bailing out the coal bunkers by hand, since the mechanical pumps were insufficient.
Despite all efforts, the situation was unsustainable and the only option was to reach a nearby port. Ertuğrul was pointed toward Kobe, only 10 miles away, in the gulf beyond Cape Kashinozaki with the Oshima Lighthouse. The seawater breaking through the deck finally extinguished one of the furnaces in the engine room. Almost immobile without her main sails and sufficient propulsion, Ertuğrul drifted towards the dangerous rocks on the eastern coast of Oshima Island.
The crew tried to stop the frigate with emergency anchors before it hit the reef, but they were too late. The 76-meter ship, according to survivors, split in half and sank. Of more than 600 sailors, 533 died that day. Sixty-nine survivors managed to reach the shore near Kashinozaki and climbed up a steep and rocky cliff to the lighthouse. The accident was then reported and the entire village of Kashino on Oshima island worked on rescuing and caring for survivors of the accident.
The exact time and date of the collision is still under discussion since there are certain iscrepancies between Turkish and Japanese sources. It seems that the frigate reached her fatal destination at approximately 9:00 p.m., September 16th, 1890. Nevertheless, some sources describe the incident as a two-day-long fight against the storm that ended around midnight on September 18th, 1890.
At that time, there were about 50 households in Kashino. The inhabitants all lived in poverty, a poverty increased just then by poor luck in fishing due to the bad weather. Nevertheless, the local people offered everything they had to those who survived the wreck of Ertuğrul, a ship from an entirely unfamiliar country, Turkey.
When the news reached Tokyo, Emperor Meiji sent medical help to the village and shortly thereafter, on the 20th of September, the survivors were sent to a hospital in Kobe for their final recovery. On the 5th of October, by Imperial order, two Japanese warships, Hiei and Kongou, were assigned to take the Ertuğrul survivors back to Turkey. Condolence money was collected from all over Japan and delivered to the families of the accident victims. This unfortunate event remains to this day the biggest naval disaster in Turkish history, and its circumstances cemented the long and enduring friendship between the modern nations of Japan and Turkey.
Technical details of Ertuğrul:
Tons burden: 2,344 tons
Length: 79 m (260 ft)
Beam: 15.5 m (51 ft)
Draft: 8 m (26 ft)
Depth of hold: 25.6 m (84 ft)
Propulsion: two horizontal engines of 600 hp
Armament:
8x 15 cm Krupp guns
5x 150 lb (68 kg) Armstrong guns
2x 4, 2x 3 font Krupp guns
2x 5-barreled Hotchkiss guns
2x 5-barreled, 4x5-barreled Nordenfeld guns
1x 12-lb and 1x 6-lb rocket launcher
1x torpedo launcher
2x torpedoes
100x Martini-Henry rifles
100x Winchester rifles
40x pistols
Ertuğrul in Istanbul Harbor in an undated photo