2-888-146 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Turkish Fleet in Bashika Bay, 1850. '...we must not fancy that the Turks have not much better means of destruction now than then. Any prudent man would march his small-arm men and marines with their field-pieces across from Bashika Bay, and decide the matter on shore: against such an attack there is scarcely any provision whatever. Once up through this channel, and the way to Constantinople is clear. The defences of the city for preventing a fleet reaching it from the Black Sea are very strong; and if the ships would only sail down, they would stand a chance of being sunk. But when Russia makes up her mind to attack the city of the Sultan, it will be done by an army landing at the end of the Black Sea, far enough out of range of the castles of the Bosphorus'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.