In 1599 Queen Elizabeth I sent a wonderful present to Sultan Mehmet III of Turkey. It was a self-playing organ, which could play for six hours, combined with a speaking clock and jewel-encrusted moving figures, all contained in a gilded cabinet sixteen feet high, six feet wide and five feet deep. With it went four craftsmen led by young Thomas Dallam, musician and organ builder. It took them six eventful months to get from London to Constantinople. They encountered storms, volcanoes, exotic animals, foreign food, pirates, brigands, Moors, Turks, Greeks, Jews, beautiful women, barbarous men,...