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This page last updated on 05/24/2008 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What follows is intended for search engine robots and spiders and not necessarily for human beings. Further information about chartering in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the blue links immediately above. Thank You. Are you searching for a yacht chartering in Turkey or Greece? Are you thinking of a yacht chartering in Turkey? Perhaps of a motor-sailing gulet on Blue Cruise in the eastern Mediterranean? Or are you thinking of a yacht chartering in Greece? Or both? How about a crewed motor-sailing gulet chartering in both Turkey and Greece with accommodations for fourteen. Like the motor-sailing gulet Akana. What would you think about a crewed gulet chartering Greece and Turkey in the wake of Aruj Reis? Cruising the coast of Asia Minor and among neighboring Greek islands. Aruj Reis (Aruj Captain) was the eldest of six children born to Greek parents, the father a former janissary, on the Aegean island of Lesbos. Of the four sons two were later known as Barbarossa, Aruj the first, the youngest son Khizr the second. But the Barbarossas were not the only brothers cruising the coast of Asia Minor and among neighboring Aegean islands. There were also the Curtogoli brothers of the same generation probably born at Phocaea or Smyrna in Ottoman Turkey. Two of these brothers lost their lives at the hands of Hospitaller Knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem then headquarterd at Rhodes, just as did one of the Barbarossa brothers. Like Aruj Barbarossa, a third Curtogoli brother was a Rhodian prisoner sent to the oars of a Hospitaller galley. Freed when the Hospitallers were evicted on 1 January 1523, this Curtogoli brother later saw service in the western Mediterranean under Khizr Barbarossa. But it was the eldest brother who was to rise to maritime prominence. Following an extraordinary early history mostly in the western Mediterranean where he nearly rendered navigation in the Tyrrhenian Sea prohibitive, desolating the coasts of Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, and Naples, sowing panic and terror everywhere. Not for the first time, he appeared in the Aegean in September 1516 raiding Venetian Crete and the Aegean islands of Mykonos, Skiros, Serifos, and Milos, all Venetian even though Venice and the Ottoman Porte were at peace. Late the same year he was back in the western Mediterranean unsuccessfully attempting to hunt down Pope Leo X. He vented his disappointment by devastating the west coast of Italy from Lavinio to Anzio including the island of Elba. In March of 1517 he reappeared in the Aegean. Anchored at Livadhia, Tilos, with 35 sails, a Rhodian flotilla appeared; there followed an inconclusive engagement in which the Rhodians lost a bark and Curtogoli lost 3 fustas. Late the same year, after exploring the Nile for the Ottoman Sultan Selim I, he again appeared in the Aegean terrorizing the Venetian Duchy of Naxos. Wintering in Istanbul's Golden Horn, he was unperturbed as subject of the Venetian ambassador's wrath. Departing Istanbul in March 1518 he again sacked Naxos, as well as Venetian Lesbos. The following winter, too, was spent in Istanbul drawing the Venetian ambassador's ire. The sultan, by then known as Selim The Grim, had no sympathy for the ambassador. In the Fall of 1519 he assigned Curtogoli the responsibility of assembling an Ottoman fleet for the invasion of Rhodes. Selim deemed the Knights Hospitallers no more than pirates, but pirates sitting astride trade routes from Alexandretta and Alexandria to Istanbul, and he was determined to eradicate the Order. While Selim died before an invasion could be organized, Curtogoli continued for the next eighteen months to assemble the fleet, and while assembling the fleet he practiced an uninterrupted harassment of both Rhodes and Venice. In September of 1520 Selim was succeeded by his son Suleiman known to history as The Magnificent, and it fell to Suleiman to conduct the 1522 invasion and siege which brought the Hospitallers to their knees, Curtogoli his admiral at the head of an armada comprising 103 galleys and 300 additional troop carriers and support vessels. When the remaining Hospitallers marched out on New Years Day 1523, Curtogoli was named sanjak bey or governor of Rhodes. Incredibly, there is a forepart and an after part to the saga of Curtogoli Reis, too much to relate here. But should you decide to holiday aboard the motor-sailing gulet Akana you might learn the balance of this history. What would you think about chartering Greece and Turkey in Curtogoli's wake? While you holiday. While you proceed from pine-encircled cove to remote island. What would you think about an extended-family holiday aboard a crewed sailing gulet cruising these waters? You might have to reach out to cousins to fill Akana's seven cabins. Or would you be more likely to have a group of friends holiday with you aboard a charter gulet proceeding leisurely from fascinating locale to fascinating locale? Perhaps cruising into the Cyclades. Perhaps visiting those Venetian subjects of Curtogoli wrath. Yes, cruising from Turkey into the central Aegean, to Mykonos and Naxos and other Cyclades islands of Greece. Starting in Phocaea or Smyrna. Are you searching for Phocaea or Smyrna in Turkey? Well, they are now known as Foca and Izmir, and they are both within 60 minutes of Izmir's Adnan Menderes International Airport. There or elsewhere we can put you aboard a charter gulet with an experienced crew able to show you tracks left by the Curtogoli brothers, a superb crewed gulet chartering Greece and Turkey and knowledgeable of local history. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at bcycharter@aol.com |
