“Good Morning Admiral Kemal”
“Morning your Majesty”
“So what was so important that I had to leave my army wintering in Moscow and rush all the way down here to the southern coast?”
“We’ve sighted enemy ships sir.”
“WHAT?!”
“At 21:10hrs on the 4th March 1903 a minelayer on routine manoeuvres in the Eastern mediterranean sighted a large number of ships about forty five miles off the coast. The Captain - a young man by the name of Yilmaz - closed to within sufficient distance to take these photos sire before being forced to withdraw under heavy fire.”
“Brave man. Promote him. So what do these pictures tell us?”
“Well Captain Yilmaz managed to get some good shots - there seem to be approximately 5-6 Dreadnoughts*, several supply ships, what appears to be a Hospital Ship and a couple of large-ish capital ships - two or three Cruisers maybe.”
“What’s that in the background there? Looks like a Battleship.”
“It is sir - i was coming to that. Captain Yilmaz quite rightly guessed that this was the Flagship and managed to get several good shots of her - note the emblem on the flag sire…”
“Ahhh yes - what is that??”
“I believe its a thin based Margheritta with extra cheese.”
“My god! Its the Bloody Italians!”
“Absolutely right sire - but there’s more - note the portion of Garlic Bread in the bottom corner, and what appears to be a stuffed crust?”
“Which means??”
"That this is an elite modern ship of the line - it comes with ‘all the trimmings’ so to speak. Sire, we are looking at the Gloria de Soupino - the most heavily armed and armoured ship in the Italian Navy.
“Bloody Hell!”
“My thoughts exactly sir. There is some good news though, we’ve managed to intercept their communications and crack their codes. It’s yielded some incredibly valuable information”
“Well done that man. Such as?”
“Apparently they offer free delivery within a ten mile radius.”
*yes i know dreadnoughts didn’t come out till 1906 - but i didn’t know what ships were called before then.