When one thinks about early submarine designs, the names H.L. Hunley, Wilhem Bauer and John Philip Holland naturally come to mind and not that of a
late 19th century British clergyman. Yet, Reverend George W. Garrett should be listed among those more famous names. Garrett designed the
Resurgam, which was built in 1879 by the boiler making firm of Cochran & Co. of Birkenhead. On December 10, 1879, Resurgam was lowered into
the Great Float by a 50-ton crane and managed to move into the Mersey River under her own power. Garrett planned to steam his creation down to
Portsmouth with the hopes of gaining interest from the Admiralty. Resurgam was able to reach Rhyl in North Wales and remained there for several
weeks for some additional modifications before heading further south. Garrett used his remaining funds to purchase a small steam yacht named Elfin to
serve as an escort and provide accommodations during the voyage to Portsmouth. On February 24, 1880, the Elfin with Resurgam in tow, left for
Portsmouth but the submarine never reached her destination. The pair encountered bad weather the following day and the tow line broke, causing the
unmanned Resurgam to drift off and eventually sink. With the loss of Resurgam, the Admiralty lost interest and Garrett was essentially bankrupt.

Undeterred, Garrett approached Swedish arms manufacturer Thorsten Nordenfelt with a proposal that he should take over the development of
Englishman’s submarine patents. Nordenfelt recognized the potential and viewed this type of craft as the ideal platform for the Whitehead torpedo. So in
1881, the two came to a formal agreement, with Garrett becoming Nordenfelt’s assistant, which led to the production of a series of steam powered
submarines. At this time, an arms race was heating up among Balkan and eastern Mediterranean countries and Greece agreed to purchase Nordenfelt I.
Not wishing to fall behind, the Ottoman Empire, Greece’s arch rival, agreed to purchase the next two submarines. Nordenfelt II was built at the Barrow
Shipyard in England in 1886. It was dismantled and shipped to Constantinople, where it was re-assembled at the Taşkızak Naval Shipyard under the
supervision Garrett himself. The submarine was renamed Abdul Hamid, after Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Nordenfelt III, renamed Abdul Mecid, was later
delivered to the Ottoman Navy.
Abdul Hamid was officially launched on September 6, 1886 and the following February it carried out its first diving test, with three 20 second dives
successfully completed. Prior to diving, the crew had to close the boiler and pull down the funnel. While surfaced, the boat was powered by a Lamm
locomotive type steam engine and air tanks were pressurized. The latter were then used to propel the boat a short distance under water with only the
hemispherical navigator cockpit remaining above the surface. It could remain submerged for only a few minutes. In another trial in early 1888, Abdul
Hamid successfully sank an old target ship with a single torpedo, making it the first submarine in the world to fire a live torpedo underwater.

Both submarines officially joined the Ottoman Navy in a flag ceremony on March 24, 1888. However, it soon became apparent that they were not
battle worthy, as their submerged speed and range were limited at best. They were also poorly balanced, which was made even worse when firing off
a torpedo. They were eventually stricken in 1910 and scrapped.
The Kit - The Abdul Hamid kit is a joint venture between U-Boat Laboratorium and Combrig. U-Boat Laboratorium produces the master, casts
the resin parts, designs and produces the photo-etch and creates the instructions. Combrig creates the box labels, packs the kits and distributes them.
Now I must insert a disclaimer here:  I wrote the English-language history for this kit, as well as for several other U-Boat Laboratorium releases, as
a service to Eduard Zhuravlev. That is the extent of my involvement and I was not involved in any other aspect of the creation of this model kit.

As you can see, the kit has a very low part count which is fine as it is not a very complicated submarine to model. The resin parts consist of the hull,
the funnel (it is strange to mention a funnel when describing a submarine), a pair of 35mm Nordenfelt machine guns and the propeller. The main part
captures the unusual ship of hull and it is fairly well cast. There is an opening for the funnel, recessed areas for the guns and shallow holes for the
bow dive planes. A groove is cast into the hull at the stern for the aft dive planes. The machine guns are also well cast with a decent amount of detail.
The propeller is good but requires some sanding to smooth out some uneven surfaces on the blades. The funnel is a solid casting and you will have
use a drill bit to hollow it out a little. The smaller resin parts all need to be removed from casting plugs
A small photo-etch fret is included which contains the forward and aft diving planes, rudders, and vertical diving screws. The etch is well done and
there is no relief etching because it really is not required. The instructions are simple but effective. They come printed in color on a double-side sheet
of A5 paper. The front page has a photo of the Abdul Hamid with a brief history of the ship and some specifications. As mentioned above, I wrote
the brief history for U-Boat Laboratorium. The flip side of the sheet has an assembly diagram showing where the resin and photo-etch parts go and
a profile and plan view with some basic painting instructions.

The Build - As you can imagine, this is not a complicated kit to build and it could be a “weekend” model in terms of the amount spent working on it.
Removing the hull from the casting runner required some filling and sanding to smooth the surface out along the keel. Upon a closer examination,
there were some tiny pinholes on the hull that required brushing on a little touch of Mr. Surfacer 500 and sanded it smooth. I then drilled a small hole
along the bottom to accommodate a bit of brass rod to display the model. I drilled another smaller hole just forward of the front gun mount for a
brass wire flag staff and the holes at the bow a little more to attach the forward planes.

I decided not to use the kit’s funnel substituting it some brass tubing using the resin version as a guide for the length. The photo-etch rudders and
forward and aft dive planes went on without a hitch, though keeping the aft planes level and square required some patience. I found it was easier to
get one side straight and let capillary action help the CA glue flow. Once that bond was tight, I repeated the step for the other side. I then attached the
Nordenfelt guns but be aware that the bases but not fit exactly into the depressions in the hull, so a little maneuvering was needed to keep them
straight.

At this point I painted the model with Testors Model Masters Gull Gray from a spray can which I already had and was a close enough match to the
color in the instructions. The guns were painted Testors Model Masters Gunmetal as per the instructions. The last parts that went on are the resin
propeller and photo-etch vertical diving screws, which were painted Testors Model Masters Brass. The final touch was adding a Turkish flag, which
came from the Hawk Graphic’s Oliver Hazard Perry class decal sheet (my thanks to Pete Beck and Walt Haynes for sending me those flags). The
model was finished off with some Dullcote and mounted on the brass rod for display.
Conclusion - I have to say that this was probably the easiest or one of the easiest models I have assembled. This should be no surprise as there weren’
t too many parts to this model, but you never know. It is a fairly well designed and captures the great steampunk look of this unusual submarine.
Displaying Abdul Hamid among the other more modern sub models I have accentuates the uniqueness of this early boat and just how far submarine
design has come. Since it is a rather simple model, I would recommend to as a first time resin kit. My thanks to Combrig for providing the review
sample.
Felix Bustelo
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