News and Stories of the Ottoman Empire: 1900

[Darman]

January

The young officer stands on the edge of the busy Admiratly dry dock.  Below him the keel of a brand new ship has been laid and workers scurry around, busy with their various tasks.  The young Deniz Binbaşısı, equivalent to a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, looks up and comments to his host in lightly accented English, "All looks well, she will be a good ship, will she not?"  He turns back before the answer to look longingly down at the backbone of the warship, growing slightly before his very eyes.  The busy English workers seemed very professional, far more so than the workers at the Imperial Naval Arsenal in Istanbul.  Arif Ahmet was very glad he had been chosen to oversee the construction of the newest armored cruisers for the Ottoman Navy.  Even more glad because the work was being done in England, a country he had much admired ever since his education there as a teenager.  His companion grins  and his nod goes unseen by Arif, "Yes she will be.  And hopefully, my friend, she will be yours to command one day".  Arif looks at his companion, an old friend from his school days, now an employee for Vickers, the firm contracted to build the two cruisers, "never mine, dear friend.  Some highly connected albayi (Captain) will receive her command in exchange for political favors."  The two friends stare out over the ship slowly taking shape before them in silence. 
Rear Admiral Xander James Wilcox approached the two Ottoman officers alone. Guess it is time to play nice with them he muttered to himself.  The fires or revenge still burned hot within him, and someone in the Admiralty had missed the carefully recorded bit of paperwork that had lead to that first spark. The blood of his twin brother Riley had been split in the Crimean War, an act which Xander blamed on the Ottomans and there Army. That fact had evidently been missed when choosing a lead officer for this assignment. Xander was a professional however, and would try his level best to help whip the Ottoman Navy's training system into shape. Taking in a deep breath and puffing out his chest, he approached the two Ottomans watching the armored cruiser destined for lifelong service in the Mediteranian begin her long transformation from chunks of steel to a fighting ship.