''Nusret'' (Eng. 'the help of God') was a naval ship of the Ottoman Navy, which served as a

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine or military aircraft deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for installing control ...

during the Gallipoli Campaign, and later fulfilled various roles in the

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establis ...

; as minelayer (1927–1937), diver vessel (1937–1939) and tender (1939–1955). She was laid down in 1911 and launched from Schiff & Maschinenbau AG 'Germania' at

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

on 4 December of that year.Langensiepen & Gülyerüz "The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828-1923". Conway Maritime Press, London 1995

Characteristics

''Nusret'' was 40.2 meters long and displaced 365 tons. Her beam was 7.57 meters and her draught was 3.4 meters. Her propulsion was two vertical triple expansion steam engines powered by two Schultz boilers, driving twin screws. This system was designed to propel her at 15 knots, but when she arrived at Istanbul in 1913 she could only make 13 knots. She was designed on the basis of a

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

, but with mine rails for forty mines on the stern instead of bollards and winches. A crane was mounted on the back end of her superstructure, aft of the funnel, to assist in loading the mines. Aside from the mines, her armament consisted of two 47mm SK L/45 C/99 quick-firing guns mounted on platforms on either side of the bridge, manufactured by Krupp in Germany. In 1927 these guns were replaced by 57mm variants of the same weapon; also in 1927 her mine rails were extended to hold twenty extra mines.

Service history

''Nusret'' was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy in 1913, captained by Lieutenant Tophaneli Hakki (Güverte Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Tophaneli İbrahim oğlu Hakkı) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Geehl. ''Nusret'' played a pivotal role in the Dardanelles Campaign, laying 26 mines in an unexpected position in February 1915 just prior to the ill-fated invasion which sank , and the French battleship , and left the British battlecruiser badly damaged. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

''Nusret'' was laid up in Istanbul until 1926/7 when she was refitted at Gölcük. In 1937 she became the diving vessel ''Yardin'' and in 1939 reverted to ''Nusret'' as a tender. In 1955 she was decommissioned and again laid up, with the intention to convert her to a museum ship. However, in 1962 she was sold to commercial buyers who had her converted to a cargo motorship, unrecognisable as the former minelayer, entering service as ''Kaptan Nusret'' in 1966. In April 1989 she sank near Mersin Harbour, and lay submerged for 10 years.

Wreck discovery

In 2002 the wreck of ''Nusret'' was acquired by the Municipality of Tarsus,

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of f ...

for reconstruction ashore as a museum ship, opened in 2008. replica of the Turkish minelayer

A replica ''Nusret'' has been built by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard to be displayed in

Çanakkale Çanakkale (pronounced ), ancient ''Dardanellia'' (), is a city and seaport in Turkey in Çanakkale province on the southern shore of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the city is 195,439 (2021 estimate). Çanakkale is ...

by the shore of the Narrows of the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

along with the types of mines that it laid in World War I. In March 2011 this ''Nusret'' was commissioned into the Turkish Navy as the museum ship N-16.

References

Bibliography

External links