Chapter 56: Burning Ships

Out of a fired ship, which by no way

But drowning could be rescued from the flame,

Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they came

Near the foes' ships, did by their shot decay;

So all were lost, which in the ship were found,

They in the sea being burnt, they in the burnt ship drowned.

- "A Burnt Ship" By John Donne (1572-1631)

It is tenth of February, before noon. The natural port of Gölcük belonging to Kocaeli province has became a port harbouring nothing but a sea of fire.

After the massive fleet left Constantinople and the Straits of Golden Horn, they sailed non stop against the wind back into the Aegean Sea, taking advantage of the time slot when the Ottoman sailors are mostly in sleep and non vigilant to avoid being noticed by Ottoman patrol boats alone the coast.

Since the failure of the Ottoman fleet outside the coast of Anatolia, the Ottoman fleet has changed their usual offensive tactic to defensive in order to avoid direct confrontation with Antonius' fleet, preserve their ships inside a well fortified harbour while new ships are being built with full strength to replenish the sunken ships, then they would dare to come out and challenge Antonius' naval superiority in the Aegean and Marmara.

However, it seems they do not have a chance to carry out this plan anymore.

There are no fancy twisting novel-like plots and miracles such as spies within Constantinople reporting the news of incoming fleet to the Ottomans before Antonius arrives, or the Ottoman admiral Kapudan Pasha predicting that the Romans are coming and put up defence ahead of them. The fleet led by Antonius flied across the sea surface with full sails and speed catching the waves non-stop, and they managed to reach the outskirts of Kocaeli within twelve hours after they leave the city.

The Ottoman scouts guarding the coasts immediately caught sight of the massive fleet and torched the beacon tower, sending the alarm of an impending unidentified fleet to the naval harbour through a chain of other beacon towers.

The Kapudan Pasha, Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey, did not believe it at first when he got the report, but as he came onto the embankment, his own eyes told him that the report is not lying. He saw the white and black sails of the Romans covering the horizon sailing full speed with their oars following the wind towards the harbour, as a well experienced man on sea he immediately scrambled to order all crew to board ships and prepare for battle, and he also estimated the time it takes for the enemies to reach the harbour, but no matter how he estimates he still finds out desperately that he has no time.

Thus, he grabbed the signal man and ordered him to signal the captain of ships to leave port at once, run for their lives and preserve their ships, panting with a blood-shot red eyes. Honestly speaking this is a correct military order in this kind of desperate situation. But there is only two exits in the fortified harbour, in times like this when everyone and every ship in the harbour want to get the hell out of this place, it created a maritime traffic jam, some ships even collided with each other in the process.

The Roman fleet arrived in the blink of an eye, while the Ottoman fleet still tries to maneuverer around in the already crammed port, some sailors who survived the fire of last battle became so nervous that they jumped into water and swam towards the shores hoping to survive.

Francesco led a dozen fast small ships as spear head into the port, showering the Ottomans with cross bows, trying to force the Ottoman ships to stop. Captain Julian leading six war galleys followed soon after. They two sea born captains worked with each other and successfully blockaded the entire harbour preventing hundreds of Ottoman ships, no matter big or small, from coming out. They then tossed bags of haystacks, torches, wooden planks, or anything ignitable onto Ottoman ships trying to start a fire.

In the meantime, the other ships led by Antonius himself, formed a long snake-like formation outside the harbour and started pondering enemy ships with shells from their brand-new Swivel guns. While his flagship started throwing bagged gunpowder onto enemy ships causing explosions everywhere.

The Romans did pay their price for this tactic, all ships in the spear head division are crushed and sunk by enemy rams, their captain Francesco are no where to be found, presumably has burnt himself alongside with the Ottomans. Julian's galleys also collided with the Ottomans and they succeeded in completely sealing off all Ottoman hope of escaping, after fulfilling his mission and strategic goals, he laughed and jumped into the water alongside with all of this crew, avoiding direct combat with the Ottomans.

However, their sacrifice and loss are all worth it.

With big ships on the outside constantly sending highly inflammable projectiles onto the heads of Ottoman ships, and small ships on the inside stopping the Ottoman ships and creating chaos among them, within half an hour the Ottoman fleet suffered a devastating strike. There are fire devouring ships everywhere and sailors crying for help, jumping into the water hoping to extinguish the flame on their shirt and pants.

The correct order by Kapudan Pasha Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey turned out to be having a negative effect. Burning Ottoman ships soon turned around trying to avoid the flames and Roman projectiles sailed towards the back, like cows running around with a burning tail, successfully making them the contributor to more and more burning ships as they spread the fire to ships at the back which are not covered in flames yet. If Antonius has known about their contributions, he might have awarded them at the end of this battle.

The chaos inside the harbour spread further and further, the flames, like a panther sent by Şeytan himself, opened its bloody mouth and began devouring everything inflammable.

The fire continued burning.