Geuing up steam on the little Kocatas, built in the 1930s in Istanbul. All photos by the author.
Istanbul 'un Buharli Gemileri: The Steamboats of Istanbul by Philip Thorneycroft Teuscher Travel posters always catch my eye, particularl y if they illustrate a waterfront scene. with boats and ships. Posters advertising Turkey seem to invariably focus on the splendors of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. The standard views show the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Top Kepi Palace against a blue backgroundthe waters of the Bosporus. Straddling two continents, Istanbul is a city whose identity and raison d'etre derive from her waterways. The Bosporus separates Europe from Asia while connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and the eastern Mediterranean. Due to her unique geographical situation, Istanbul commands a position of strategic importance dating to pre-classical times. No less strategic today than in antiquity, her waterways also serve as the thoroughfare over which her people commute between the European and Asian sides of the city via harbor steamers. I first went to Istanbul to see whether, in the penultimate decade of the twentieth century , steam vessels still plied the waters of Lhe Bosporus. My interest centered on the Istanbul ' un buharli gemi leri--coalfired , reciprocating steam-engined ships of another era. These smoking, hissing samovars have throbbed their way into the 1980s thanks to the ready availability of cheap coal, cheap labor and the proven reliability of stean1 power. It was night when I first hit the streets of Istanbul. My nostrils were tantalized by the dank salty bouquet of a waterfront pervaded by sulphurous coal smoke. An occasional hooting answered by the drawnout moan of a steam whistle echoed SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1987
through the cobbled streets and dark alleys of the Serkeci , the ancient waterside quarter of the city. At first light the next day I fo llowed the harbor sounds to the Golden Hom , the inlet penetrating the European side of Istanbul. This is where colonists from Megara founded Byzantium in 667Bc. More than a few plumes of coal smoke marked the passage of steamers moving purposefully over the waters of the Bosporus. Rafted three and four abreast at the Serkeci docks, still more steamers lay ready for their human cargos. Passengers elbowed and shoved across gangways like rushhour crowds in any major city . -But here smoke issued from tall buff funnels rising from varnished pilot houses while steam leaked from scape pipes and whistle mountings and hissed above the morning crowd. As I was just taking in this vignette, a siren honked from the outermost steamer. Billows of gray-black smoke rolled from her stack: the stokers were getting steam
up as she was readied for casting off. Two short whistle blasts signalled her departure and a couple of latecomers rushed across the gangway as it was handed aboard. From below the bells of the engine room telegraph sounded Astern One-Third. Quickwater roiled up and swept forward from her stem . The aft spring line stretched taut, wringi ng water from its strands, and the bow eased outward . Then the engine room telegraph sounded Stop Engines; Ahead Full. Erupting from under her fantail a veritable tidal bore churned and rushed astern . Driven by the twin triple-expansion engines , the broad-bladed props pushed her stead ily toward the shore. The smallest of the passenger steamers running on the Golden Hom is the jaunty two-decked Kocatas. The lower saloon is heated with steam radiators and the upper cabin sports an open-air promenade aft. Old-style wooden slatted benches with The pre-World War 1 Guzelhisar may have been built in Germany . Here she approaches the Serkeci against a backdrop ofAsian hills.
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