A NAVAL BATTLE 259 Dolmabagshe at the Double Columns. But the Turkish ships on the look-out at the entrance of the Bosporus appear to have observed the approaching vessels as soon as the watchmen in the city itself. They would also be seen by a portion of the Turkish army encamped outside the landward walls. Upon the report of their coming the sultan himself gal loped at once to his fleet, about two miles distant from his camp, and gave orders to the renegade Baltoglu to proceed with his vessels to meet the ships, to capture them if possible, but at any cost to prevent them passing the boom and entering the harbour of the Golden Horn. If he could not do that, he was told not to come back alive. 1 The four ships desired to pass the boom ; the object of Turkish, the Turkish fleet was to prevent them. Taking the lowest resists, estimate of the number of the Turkish vessels sent against them, it was apparently hopeless that four ships dependent on the wind should be able to hold their own against a fleet of not less than a hundred and forty-five vessels so com- pletely under control as that of Baltoglu, which contained triremes, biremes, and galleys. These Turkish ships, tri- remes, galleys, and even transports, were crowded with the best-equipped men of the army, including a body of archers and men heavily clad with helmets and breast- plates : in short, with as many of the sultan's best men as could be placed on board. Shields and bucklers were arranged around the larger galleys so as to form a breast- work of armour against arrows and javelins ; while on some of the boats the rude culverins of the period were ranged so as to bring them to bear against the four ships. Then, after these hasty preparations, the Turkish fleet proceeded in battle array down the Bosporus to Seraglio Point and the Marmora. Captains and crews went out with confidence of an easy victory. The fight was to be against only four ships, and, with such overpowering superiority in numbers of skilled fighters, who could doubt of success ? The admiral, says Critobulus, believed that he had the 1 Dueas, p. 121, and Crit. xxxix. s 2
