Slanders On Muslims In History

The British Officers of the Ottoman

Hobart Pasha

Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden, widely known as Hobart Pasha, was a naval captain who served in the Royal Navy. He worked as a midshipman in Brazil. Upon retirement, he joined the American Civil War and commanded a blockade runner, which conveyed British weapons to the South in exchange for cheap cotton. After the American Civil War, he joined the Ottoman army and was made rear-admiral.

Hobart Pasha was in charge of the Ottoman navy during the Russo-Turkish war (1877-78). During the conflict, the only position from which the Ottomans could block a Russian ground attack was the Danube River in Romania. The Ottoman navy was perfectly capable of preventing the Russian army's passage through the Siret River. However, Turkish ships under the command of Hobart Pasha, arrived too late to gain control of the river. Four to five days had already passed before four vessels could reach the critical points, allowing the Russian army to easily cross the river. The Ottoman army, which was on the verge of gaining control of the Balkans after defeating the Serbian and Montenegro armies, was stabbed in the back. From that point on, there was nothing that could stop the Russian navy from coming as far as Yeşilköy in Istanbul.

The Ottoman navy under Hobart Pasha's command was, in fact, a more powerful army than that of the Russians, but strangely wasn't used to defend the Balkans. Hobart Pasha sent the vessels from the western Black Sea to the Caucasus and left the ground troops in the Balkans without support. At the end of the war, the Ottomans had to cede both the Balkans and the Caucasus.

Vere Henry Hobart, Lord Hobart, who was the older brother of Hobart Pasha, was at the time the director-general of the Ottoman Bank. He later started working in the Ottoman Public Debt Administration that brought about the bankruptcy of the Empire.