A Sister Yacht Charter Sailing Turkey And Greece This page last updated on 12/28/2009 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 concerning gulet charter sailing in Turkey and Greece may be
obtained by clicking on the blue links immediately above. Thank you. Could you be searching
for an aesthetically-pleasing low-profiled gulet charter sailing Turkey? Could you be considering a
sleek ketch-rigged gulet charter sailing Greece? A graceful gulet charter sailing Greece's azure
Aegean? Or Turkey's Turquoise Coast? Could you even be dreaming of charter sailing through history
at the crossroads of history? Could you be dreaming of a blue cruise among Aegean islands once
Venetian off the coast of Asia Minor? How about bringing your dream to life aboard a crewed
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charter yacht with six cabins
accommodating twelve or more guests. One with lots of uncluttered
teak deck ideal for reading in sun or shade while you bone up on history, one able to catch the
wind and race to the next destination. How about beginning your holiday racing along the coast of
ancient Lycia, home to many of Homer's Trojan heroes. Or how about beginning with a sail in Turgut's
wake along the coast of Ottoman Turkey and among Venetian islands of the Aegean. On your holiday!
How about having a family holiday, an extended family holiday, aboard a crewed sailing gulet
cruising the Turkish Riviera? Or having a group of friends holiday with you aboard a charter gulet
proceeding leisurely from one intriguing locale to another? How about chartering a sailing yacht to
cruise the eastern Mediterranean. As did the aforementioned Turgut (in the west, Dragut), a
mariner without peer who rose through Mediterranean privateer ranks to become an Ottoman admiral.
How about chartering a crewed yacht to cruise the Cyclades and Sporades islands
of Greece as did Turgut Reis when seeking Venetian
prey. Turgut was born circa 1485 on the Bodrum peninsula of Turkey near the seaside village of
Karatoprak, since renamed Turgut Reis, 20-odd kilometers from Bodrum town. The Bodrum peninsula was
then largely populated by a Greek-speaking people of Dorian and Carian stock, Orthodox Christians
dependent for livelihood on the sea, while Bodrum itself was occupied by the Hospitaller Knights of
St. John of Jerusalem, Latin Christians. At the age of between ten and twelve years Turgut was
conscripted into the Ottoman standing army. The standing army was comprised of janissaries and
household cavalry and was restricted to Christians by birth. Turgut's conscription may have been in
consequence of a periodic devsirme draft, or it may have been effected in consequence of an
Ottoman military foray into the peninsula, or it may have simply been a consequence of a mother
wishing her son a better life. However effected, conscription was routinely followed by years of
training at one of the janissary schools in or near Istanbul. As Turgut is next reported in Cairo in
the company of an Ottoman artillery officer, his training may well have included time as a
topcu or gunner at Tophane in Galata. It was in 1502 that Mamluk Egypt turned to the Ottomans
for support against the threat of Persian expansion, and it was in the Spring of 1504 that plague
struck Cairo, persisting for two years. It was likely in this interim when about 18 years of age
that Turgut arrived in Cairo, and on the untimely death of his military superior that he departed
Cairo for Alexandria. In Alexandria he came to the attention of Sinan of Smyrna, future
brother-in-law of Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa, and of Acsac Reis, soon to become a Barbarossa lieutenant.
Together they taught him seamanship and he taught them how to lay a naval cannon. It was to become a
lifelong partnership, and for Venice which had just concluded a four year war with the Ottomans, it
was the beginning of a protracted trauma. Turgut under Sinan and later in command of his own galliot
(small galley) operated from Alexandria raiding the Venetian Aegean. His prey included not only the
large island of Candia (Crete) but also the Cyclades islands of Naxos, Paros, Tinos, Milos, Kythnos,
Kea, Andros, and Thira (Santorini), not to mention the merchant shipping plying the waters in
between and from the islands to Venice itself. Turgut's eighty-year life was too momentous and
encompassed too many chapters to do it justice here, but come aboard Ayse Emre and explore Turgut's
early tracks along the Bodrum peninsula, come aboard Ayse Emre and trace his subsequent corsair
expeditions into the Venetian Aegean. Ayse Emre, a superb crewed gulet available for charter sailing
in Turkey and Greece. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at