Bulgarian torpedo boat Drazki

Worth a detour

On the night of 20–21 November 1912, in the first weeks of the Balkan War, a small French-built torpedo boat ran at the Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye off Varna and put a torpedo into her bow. The cruiser limped back to Istanbul for repairs. For a navy that owned almost nothing this was the entire story, and the boat has stood ashore beside the Naval Museum since 1957.

Story

Background

Drazki was one of six torpedo boats ordered from Schneider at Chalon-sur-Saône, launched in the summer of 1907 and shipped out to the Black Sea. Between them they were the whole offensive strength of the Bulgarian fleet — against an Ottoman navy with cruisers, they were a gesture. The attack on the Hamidiye was made by four of the six; Drazki got close enough to score, and the credit has stayed with her ever since.

Her later career was less tidy. She sank at Varna in October 1942 when her magazine went up, was raised and repaired, ended up as a target for gunnery practice, and was struck off the list in 1950. The memorial was set up on land in 1957.

One detail the panels are honest about and most visitors miss: the hull you walk around is that of her sister ship Strogi, fitted out with original Drazki equipment. It is a reconstruction rather than the boat herself. That does not make the night of 20 November any less real, and standing next to the thing — it is very small — is the fastest way to understand why Bulgarians still talk about it.