- Author
- Grazebrook, A.W., Lietutenant Commander
- Subjects
- Naval technology
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 1978 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Most of the Turkish ships were laid up in the Gulf of Izmid, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn. They played little if any part in the fighting which led to the end of the Ottoman dynasty and the establishment of the Republic under Ataturk.
Ataturk ordered the repair of Yavuz Sultan Selim (now with the shorter name of Yavuz), and commenced to build a fleet of destroyers and submarines. The first two submarines were completed in the Netherlands in 1928, whilst the first to be built in Turkey was laid down at Golcuk on 14 August 1937.
Thus Ataturk laid the foundations of the fine efficient Turkish Navy that is in service today. Yavuz continued in service until the 1960s. The ship was obsolete in terms of Western European navies, but remained of use as a counter to the heaviest ship in the Russian Black Sea Fleet – the Dreadnought Sevastopol, which remained in service until the 1950s.
Driving along the terrifying road from Istanbul to Izmit, in 1968, the writer could see across the Gulf to the Golcuk naval base. There lay Yavuz, moored in her dotage and awaiting the outcome of a debate over her preservation as a museum. With her passing ended the age of the Dreadnought. Yavuz was the last major ship which had remained in service from World War I.