Nusret symbol drawing by Kagan Agun

 
Nusret water colored picture
NUSRET
(A Story of Turkish Minelayer Ship)

The Last Voyage of Turkish Minelayer Ship  (Updated)

In the world, you can see museum ships that are still alive and tell their heroitic stories to the next generations. On the other hands we, Turks, sold Yavuz (Ex Goeben) for breaking up and left Nusret half sunk in the mud of Mersin Harbor. Minelayer Nusret has stopped Allied naval forces under Admiral de Robeck in the World War I by mining the Gallipoli Straits.

Nusret joined to Ottoman Navy in 1913. It was launched from Schiff & Maschinenbaun AG 'Germania' , Kiel in 1911. She was able to maneuver over minefields due to her lower under water structure. This feature made her safest and efficient minelayer of the Ottoman Navy. Fortunately her mines stopped Allied Naval Attack on March 18, 1915 by sinking 3 battleships and heavily damaging 3 others. After these casualties allied forces gave up to cross dardanelles by naval attacks, instead they started long and costly land battles. Ottomans never let enemy pass the straits. Minelayer Nusret played key role during the naval attacks to defend the Ottoman waters. She had more than deserved to live longer honorably to be a museum ship, instead she is waiting for her destiny in the mud of Mersin harbor [From Turkish newspapers1999 - 3,4]. While you are reading this paragraphs, she had already been scraped [news 1999]. Recent developments about Nusret is coming to good end. Ministry of Culture finally purchased the minelayer Nusret[12]. She was going to be brought to Çanakkale. Turkish Navy is providing the detailed plans of Nusret. Next step is restoration of Nusret back to original condition.

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Here is the short but brave story of Turkish Minelayer, Nusret. It was ordered in 1910 from German ship builders, Schiff & Maschinenbaun AG 'Germania' , Kiel. Launched on Dec. 4, 1911, commissioned 1913 and joined the Ottoman Navy [1]. Nusret : Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet On March 8, 1915, she left from Nara , loaded some 26 mines at the Çimenlik Iskele and laid these mines in the bay of Erenköy in the early morning parallel to the Asiatic shore [1,2,6] * . (These mines were transported on Feb 17, 1915 steamers Selanik from Istanbul and loaded to Nusret [6] ). She was under the commander of Lieutenant Tophaneli Hakki (Guverte Kidemli Yuzbasi Tophaneli Ibrahim oglu Hakki). This bay was known safe for enemy ships. Mines were laid down with 100 meter distance and in the 5 meter depth [1,2,6]. Lieutenant Nazmi ( Mayin Grup Komutani Guverte Kidemli Yuzbasi Nazmi Bey) was the Mine Group Commander who gave the order [1,2,6]**.

On March 18, 1915, the final Allied naval attack turned to a disaster. British battleships, Irresistible and Ocean, French battleship Bouvet sunk. Inflexible, British battleship and Gaulois and Suffren, French battleships were heavily damaged by mainly mines and left the battlefield. Shore batteries played important role at this victory for Turks. British ... Winston Churchill was telling that " During 1915, all over the Europe, millions of people lives were put into danger, many attacks were done ... 2-3 millions soldiers died and wounded, 4-5 thousands of warships were sailing over the seas ... but none of them was effective as much as Nusret, and her mines did " [2].

Replica of Nusret in Canakkale Navy Museum (taken by K.Agun) 1918 - 1926, she was laid up at Istanbul and operated mine search ship at Marmara Sea. 1926-1927, she was refitted by TCDK (Turkish Naval Forces) at Gölcuk Shipyard. In 1937, Nusret was renamed as Yardim (Help or Helper) and used as diver support ship. In 1939, she got her name "Nusret" again. 1955, she was decommissioned and laid up at Gölcuk (Turkish army naval base and shipyards). 1962, she was sold to a private company ( K. Kalkavan and Ismail Kaptanoglu Sea Transportation Company). She was used as a cargo ship from 1962 to 1966 under the name of Captain Nusret. Sold to A Tombul in 1979 and Mustafa Okan Kardesler Company 1980. In 1989, she was in terrible condition. Once in the Mersin harbor, she was rescued by the harbor cranes while she was turning aside[2]. Unfortunately, in 1990, she sunk in the Mersin harbor on her voyage to Magosa [2,4,1]***. Mersin is a Turkish city on the east-southern coast of Turkey, Magosa is a city of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At the same year, she was floated and anchored in the harbor. Owners donated their shares to Mersin City Hospital and Turkish Red Crescent (equivalent to Red Cross). The hospital and Turkish Red Crescent could not do anything with this half sunk ship in the mud of the harbor [2,4].

Replica of Nusret in Canakkale Navy Museum (taken by K.Agun) Time to time, several public organizations bring the rescue of Nusret to public. Following these, Icel city cultural Department assigned (Mersin) City Museum architects to prepare report. In this report, the museum architects stated that, the ship lost all of her identity and she doesn't have historical value anymore [4,13]. Some of the remains from her were being displayed at Navy Museum, Besiktas, Istanbul, Turkey : a rudder cabinet, a machine telegram, searchlight, 1/50 plan of Nusret and her model, her awards, and a picture of her commander, Kd. Yzb. Hakki. Ali Inselel, Hurriyet writer, remembered that Nusret was laying in the harbor of Gölcuk with others Yavuz (ex Goeben) and Hamidiye in 1958. When he revisited Gölcuk as a Navy commander (yedek subay) he didn't see any trace of Nusret. She was gone[3].

[nusretcalismagrubu.org] Picture of Nusret in Mersin Harbour (August 10, 2002 Update) Nusret is still in Mersin harbor and waiting for her restoration. Mersin is the provincial capital of Içel, one of Turkey's 74 provinces. Turkish Ministry of Culture gave the ownership rights of  Nusret to municipality of Tarsus on January 21, 2002 [11,12,13]. Tarsus is located 27 km to the east of Mersin, it is the largest town in Içel after Mersin.  Municipality of Tarsus decided to restore Nusret and place into Gallipoli Park located at  Çardak Avenue (Çardak Kavsagi) in Tarsus[12]. This park is also under construction. July 30, 2002 is the deadline for the offers to restore the ship[11]. This ship has been modified several times and her  length was extended for transportation (picture on the left taken from nusratcalismagrubu.org).

Today , Çanakkale Navy Museum has a replica of Nusret based on her plans. This small museum also keeps several other items last from Gallipoli wars.

NEWS :

Today , Çanakkale Navy Museum has a replica of Nusret based on her plans. This small museum also keeps several other items last from Gallipoli wars.

Replica of Nusret at Canakkale Navy Museum (taken by K.Agun)

Nusret: [1]
Type: minelayer
Builder: Schiffs- & Maschinenbau AG 'Germania', Kiel
Displacement: 365 t
Dimensions: Lpp 40.2m, B 7.5m, D 3.4m
Hull: Steel
Machinery: Steam, 2 shafts
Engines: 2 triple 3 cyl vertical, 1200ihp, 'Germania'
Boilers: 2 Schults watertube, 'Germania'
Bunkers: -
Complement: -
Speed: (trials) 15kts, (1914) 12 kts
Armament: (1913) 2-47 mm QF(K), 40 mines, (1927) 2-57 mm QF, 60 mines

* In some references the number of mines reported 24 and the operation date was March 17, 1999. These references mostly from the Turkish newspapers [3,4]).

** 5th reference claimed that the decision had been madden by Turkish mine expert, Lieutenant-Colonel Geehl. (At that time there were numbers of German military officers on duty under the Ottoman Army both as commanders or experts.)

*** 1st reference reported the sunk date of Nusret March 1989.

PLAN: [1]

Nusret Plan "Ottoman Steam Navy 1828 - 1923" permited from Bernd Langensiepen Thanks to Bernd Langensiepen (co-author of The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828- 1923)

LINKS

Canakkale Naval Museum and Replica of Nusret (shot from A. A. Efkarlioglu)

by Ahmet Afsin Efkarlioglu : wide picture of naval museum and the replica of Nusret

References

  • 1. The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828- 1923, Bernd Langensiepen & Ahmet Guleryuz, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1995.
  • 2. Savas Karakas's e-mail in Turkish. (Savas Karakas is the producer of "The History of Depths" documentary which is about underwater footage of Gallipoli Champaign
  • 3. "Destiny of Nusret" (in Turkish), Ali Inselel, Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet web pages, March 18, 1999, section Yasam
  • 4. "Hero Junk" (in Turkish), Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet web pages, May 9, 1999, Section Gundem.
  • 5. Göçmeyen Ruh (in Turkish), Muntaz Soysal, Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet web pages, May 30, 1999, Section Authors.
  • 6. Nusret'e Vali Engeli (in Turkish), Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet web pages, March 19, 1999, Section Gundem.
  • 7. Gallipoli 1915, Frontal Assault on Turkey, Philip J. Haythornthewaite, Osprey Publishing Ltd. 1991.
  • 8. Step by Step Gallipoli Battlefields (Adim Adim Gelibolu Savas Alanlari - in Turkish) , Ekrem Boz, Ata Ofset Ltd. Sti, 1994, Istanbul
  • 9. Gallipoli, Alan Moorehead, First Ballantine Books Edition: May 1958.
  • 10. Gallipoli Campaign (in Turkish) [section1][section2][section3][section4] by Savas Karakas - Erol Mütercimler underwater photos: Y.Fehmi Senok in Turkish Newspaper Sabah, 18 March 2000.
  • 11. " Nusret minelayer becomes a museum " (in Turkish), Turkish Newspaper, Hurriyet web pages, July 23, 2002, Section Yasam
  • 12. " Nusret minelayer ship becomes a museum " (in Turkish), Turkish Newspaper, Zaman web pages, January 10, 2002
  • 13. " Nusret minelayer ship is not orginal " (in Turkish), Turkish Newspaper, Zaman web pages, Mach 19, 2002
     

Download

  • Download Nusret icon Nusret icon by Kagan Agun

Related Topics

  • Bernd Langensiepen and Ahmet Guleryuz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 1828 - 1923, Naval Institute Press; First edition (April 1995), amazon

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