Dorogii drugii,

Ya vam perevodu po anglisskiy, raport kotoryi Faik Bey, kapitan Turetskuyu bronefregatu "Mukaddeme-i Hayır", napisal o yego boy protiv Russkiy parohod "Eregli", v 9 Iyulya 1877.

"To the Ministry of Marine,

As the coal was running low in the fleet due to the bad weather, today we had returned to Balçık (Balchik). We had received intelligence about a possible attack by enemy torpedo steamers against the imperial navy ships off Sünne (Sulina). Yesterday, which was friday, as we were off Sünne and patrolling around Yılan Adası (Fidonisi Is.); we spotted the fast Russian Imperial steamer "Eregli" equipped with torpedo apparatus in the stern. Imperial ships immediately formed a line of defence and the guns of Mukaddeme-i Hayır are ranged against the enemy while I ordered flank speed chase. The Russian steamer was equipped with Krupp guns which had a range of 4500 yards and opened fire, while the maximum elevation of our carriages being 8 degrees, the shells we fired all fell approximately 1000 yards back of the enemy. As I knew that Russian steamers developed a trick to lure away ships singly from our fleet in order to fire a torpedo in their stern wake; and as we spotted activity around the torpedo apparatus at the stern of the enemy steamer; I ordered the maximum speed possible. Then I maneuvered, first to cut her way from ahead and secondly to gain 3200 yards advantage according to the maximum elevation of our guns. Thus, we cornered the enemy steamer from port side and forced her to close to the Kilia shore and we fired a lot of shells. Getting periliously close to the shallow banks, the enemy was forced to abandon torpedo operation, tacked to starboard at full speed and vanished from the sight on the direction of Hocabey (Odessa) in 20 minutes. All the shells that the enemy fired missed, except for two which hit Mukaddeme-i Hayır's port side and did no damage at all. Upon inspection, these shells are understood to be 12 cm Krupp ammunition. I also have to report that, repair to our machinery after a long and full speed chase, modifications to the carriages to increase the range of our guns and at least one Krupp gun to our broadside are greatly needed.

9 July 1293 (1877)

Commander Faik"

Source: Fevzi Kurtoğlu, "1877-78 Türk-Rus Harbinde Deniz Hareketleri", Istanbul 1935, s. 164