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The Fall of Constantinople / Notes 6 and 7 of Part 2

(They note-6 and 7)

Walls of Theodosius

(6) As the number of ships of the Turkish fleet, also There are different views. Here are the most significant:
says Barbaro 100 (op.cit. Note 5b); Tedaldi, 145 (op.cit. Note 5c) and Púsculo (a) up to 160.
As with the figures for ground troops, laypeople and Leonardo Kiev Isidore of Chios (ops.cit. 5e and 4b. 930C) exaggerate and give more numbers from 200 to 250 ships. And Phrantzes (op.cit. 5d) takes the cake, scoring 430.
Current investigations seek to refine and talk about 6 large galleys, 10 normal and 15 small, separate rowing barges 75 large and 20 cargo ships for the animals. In total 126.

(a) Ubertino Pusculo, Constantinople, 1464

(Courtesy of Denizcilik Muhteşem Tarihimiz

Collection Osmanli Kartpostal - 171
Besitkas, l- Istambu Türkiye)

(7) The Greek fire was a weapon incendiary used by the Byzantine Empire. Incendiary projectiles had been used previously (Persians, Romans ...) and were usually thrown by catapults and the like. Flammable substance filled the projectile, which should be started before being released. While there are historical references of its use by the Arabs, Chinese and Mongolian, the formula does not was the original and has been given many times the name of Greek fire weapons actually were not.

Authentic Greek fire was very particular to burn by itself, without a bullet-support (current mode flamethrower) and continue to burn in contact with water, something that other "copies" no getting completely. Even the attempt to stifle it with water au intensified action. For this reason it is used extensively at sea, trying to fleets Byzantine hegemony in this way.

The secret of its manufacture was guarded jealously by Byzantium, becoming its custody in a matter of state. Even the Crusaders or the Turks were able to discover when they conquered the Byzantines.

Although the original formula remains unknown, including some of the ingredients that could be speculation, we find naphtha, bitumen, sulfur, lime, potassium nitrate, beeswax, olive oil ...

It is called "Greek", although at different times and places was called "Byzantine fire", "Roman fire", "sea fire" - πῦρ θαλάσσιον-"liquid fire" - ὑγρόν πῦρ - or "fireworks" - πῦρ σκευαστόν, "a term that appears in some Byzantine military manuals.

"Greek Fire"
Σύνοψις Ἱστοριῶν (XI century) - Ἰωάννης Σκυλίτζης
National Library of Spain, Madrid

Prior to its discovery had been used mixtures petroleum and bituminous materials more or less worked, but the Greek fire was virtually impossible to shut down and lay in the water very quickly, making it a devastating weapon.
The first thing we have something similar in Byzantium, or, if you will, of a precedent, is the year 513 AD when the Emperor Anastasius I was facing a revolt and bring to a wise Athenian name Proclus, who makes a kind of powder burns on contact with sunlight, as he relates Juan Malalas - Ἰωάννης Μαλάλας-(491-578).

However, according to Theophanes The Confessor the invention is due to a certain Callinicus, an architect from Heliopolis (Baalbek, an ancient Phoenicia), who invented it to 670. have numerous news is its use by the Byzantines in the various wars that the rule contended throughout its existence and it seems to be first used in 674 against the Arab Umayyads in first siege of Constantinople (673-678) and the Battle of Silea, in 678, a naval confrontation occurred during the long siege and the fire was decisive because Grigo. The only reference of its composition has come from a Byzantine is a reference in alexia, written by Ana Conmena (1083-1153), daughter of Emperor Alexius I Conmena, although it seems more a product of his invention that the true knowledge of the formula, or gave a phony formula to "mislead" undesirable potential readers (a) :

"Fire" is made with the following gear. Inflammable resin is collected from the pine trees and some evergreens. This resin is mixed with sulfur and gets into reed pipes, which are blown by men violently and relentlessly. Thereby drive the " fire" until the end of the tube, which swells and falls like a whirlwind igneous on the faces of the enemies.

Although the data is indirect, it appears that the substance ignites on contact with air or water, which is causing him to speculate about its composition, since, as we said before, other methods known in antiquity needed to be lit before its release.
It also has some news about the functioning of the mechanism used for propulsion, it seems that the ingredients were preheated in a boiler and then pumped through a siphon or large syringe Managed by a specialist called sifonarios -σιφωναριος-(or sifonator ), whose output is installed in the bow of the boat. This type of boat called itself siphonophores dromon (b) -σιφωνoφoρoς δρόμων. Large ships could have more of a trap, not only ahead but in different places.
De Ortu Waluuanii Nepotis Arturi ( The rise of Gawin, nephew of Arthur ) anonymous late medieval romance the XIIth belonging to the Arthurian cycle , contains one of the earliest references on the European non-Byzantine Greek fire, although the description given in this account of its manufacture is a mixture of folklore and magic, could well result a substance similar to napalm.
also find an entry in Memoirs of J. Joinville (1224-1317), chronicler of St. Louis of France, speaking of its use by Muslims in the Seventh Crusade:

happened that one night while we were watching the towers of Tortosa (c) that (Saracens) attacked us with a machine called "perronel" that had never ever used, and sling contraption filled with Greek fire. When this fine gentleman is Sir Walter de Cureil saw this, we spoke as follows: "Gentlemen, we are facing the greatest danger we have ever known. If you burn our turrets and shelters, we are lost and burnt. And if they do repeatedly, leaving defenses that have been entrusted, we are in distress, so nobody can get rid of this danger except God himself. Therefore, my opinion and notice is this: every time we launch the fire, we kneel and we will pray to God Lord save us from this risk ."[...]
[...] This is the aspect of Greek fire: he came flying towards us like a barrel of vinegar used for dragging a tail of fire as long as a lance and he fell made a noise like thunder in the sky. It looked like a fiery dragon flying [...] Due to the brilliance of fire, the camp could be like daylight.

"The Saracens casting Greek fire Into the camp of King Louis"

George Morrow Illustration for the book
The Crusaders, a story of the war for the Holy Sepulchre by Reverend
AJChurch, MA
Seeley & Co. LTD, London. 1905

(a) is rare that just one member of the imperial family give clues to the formula, although in a somewhat innocent, since, as mentioned, was a secret kept with utmost zeal. Without going any further, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959) - Κωνσταντίνος Ζ Πορφυρογέννητος- in From Managing Empire (actually called Πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν Ρωμανόν, "my own son Romano ) says there are three things that should never fall into the hands of foreigners: the crown, the hand of a prince born under purpura (Porphyrogenitus) and fire water-πύρ ένυγρον .
(b) The dromon was a typical Byzantine ship model which had its predecessor in the Roman trireme.

Rebuilding a Siphonophores Dromon

(c) Tortosa Island (Arabic طرطوس, Tartus ) is a coastal town in Syria that was part of the Roman Empire and beyond, for a short time, the Byzantine, who lost at the hands of the Muslims in 636. Later, in 1123, was taken by the Crusaders, who was left in the hands of the Templars. These in turn were defeated by Saladin, who, however, allowed to use the port as a base and maintain a small garrison, the last enclave Templar of the Middle East on the mainland until 1291, when it fell definitively to the disappearance of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ( see Annex 5 ).

Tortosa

(Courtesy Denizcilik Muhteşem Tarihimiz
Osmanli Stock Kartpostal -187
Besitkas, Istanbul-Türkiye)

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