In the dark hours of November 8, 1912, four small Bulgarian torpedo boats confront a much larger Ottoman cruiser. About 32 nautical miles east of Varna, the “Drazki” strikes the “Hamidiye” with a torpedo and forces the ship to withdraw from the battle. The clash goes down as the first naval victory of the Bulgarian Navy.
The operation begins on the evening of November 7, when the Bulgarian naval headquarters receives information that a transport carrying military supplies is being prepared from Constanța to Constantinople. Under the command of Captain, Second Rank, Dimitar Dobrev, the “Letiashti”, “Smeli”, “Strogi” and “Drazki” set out from Varna.
The Final Shot Comes from the “Drazki”
At around 12:30 a.m., the flotilla spots the silhouette of a large warship. It is the Ottoman cruiser “Hamidiye”, which is escorting the transport. According to data from the National Museum of Military History, the ship is armed with 22 guns and two torpedo tubes and has a crew of around 400.
The Bulgarian torpedo boats begin their attack one after another. The first torpedoes miss the target, but the “Drazki”, commanded by Midshipman, First Rank, Georgi Kupov, approaches to within approximately 50–60 meters. A torpedo is fired from the vessel and strikes the bow section of the “Hamidiye”.
The explosion inflicts severe damage on the cruiser. The “Hamidiye” is towed to Istanbul and takes no further part in combat operations until the end of the First Balkan War. The Bulgarian ships also come under fire, but the damage they sustain is limited. One sailor from the “Smeli” is wounded, while the “Drazki” suffers damage from the gunfire around its funnel.
A Victory Remembered as a Beginning
The attack has significance that goes beyond the damage inflicted on a single Ottoman ship. It demonstrates that the small Bulgarian fleet can carry out a successful torpedo attack against a stronger adversary and limits the activity of the Ottoman naval forces along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.
In Bulgarian publications, the commander of the “Hamidiye”, Hüseyin Rauf Bey, is credited with saying: “This major and successful attack by the Bulgarian fleet is a glorious beginning of which it can be proud.” Specialized studies, however, question the precise attribution of the quote.
Historical accounts associate the victory not with a single ship acting alone, but with the actions of the entire flotilla. Dobrev leads the operation, Kupov commands the “Drazki”, and the crews of the four torpedo boats carry out the attack under heavy artillery fire. It is precisely the final torpedo shot that turns the night battle off Varna into Bulgaria’s most famous naval victory of the First Balkan War.
Sources: bntnews.bg, maritime.bg, dnes.bg