Schooner-rigged Ecce Navigo is built to sail.
Guest Accommodations:
Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece And Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece A Large Bareboat Sailing Turkey And Greece This page last updated on 01/29/2010 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 luxury yacht sailing in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the blue links immediately
above. Thank You. You must be searching for a yacht sailing Turkey and Greece. Even the Latin search
term ecce navigo loosely translates to Behold, a sail! You may be
dreaming of a luxury yacht sailing the |
Aegean or eastern Mediterranean. If so, you might consider Maltese-flag Ecce Navigo, a luxury yacht sailing
both Turkey and Greece, the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, cruising one of the world's last remaining
tree-fringed coasts, sailing from remote Dodecanese island to mid-Aegean Cyclades island. Just as in the
sixteenth century did the red-hulled, black-prowed, galleys of the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John of
Jerusalem, or Knights of Rhodes, later the Knights of Malta. Sortie-ing from Rhodes Town's middle harbor until
1523 and from Malta's Grand Harbor thereafter, these rejoinders to the galleys of Ottoman corsairs were
captained by the likes of Jean Parisot de la Valette (depicted at left) and Maturin d'Aux de Lescout (depicted
at lower right), Prior of Toulouse, known as Romegas. Sailing in company and individually they wreaked havoc in
the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean on Ottoman galleys and laden merchantmen bound for Istanbul. So much havoc
as to force Ottoman Sultan Suleiman's successful 1522 siege of Rhodes and his unsuccessful 1565 siege of Malta,
the latter a siege defended by La Valette as Grand Master with Romegas in command of the Order's galleys. The
son of a Chevalier de France, La Valette became a Knight Hospitaller in 1514, swearing chastity and
abstinence at the age of 20. Eight years later he was among defenders at Rhodes resisting Suleiman's six-month
siege, and was one of the survivors accompanying Grand Master De L'Isle Adam in the evacuation. All Hospitallers
served aboard the order's galleys as well as in the order's hospitals, and La Valette was no exception. After
forty illustrious years doing both, La Valette was in 1554 made captain-general of all Hospitaller galleys, an
extraordinary honor as that position was by charter reserved for a 
knight
of the Italian chapter. Three years later he was elected Grand Master. Considered one of the great seamen of the
age, his San Giovanni was nevertheless captured off the coast of Tunisia in 1541 by several corsairs
operating under the orders of Aksac Reis, including Kust Ali of Tripoli. Sent to an Ottoman oar he was a year
later exchanged for Ibrahim Reis, Kust Ali's father. La Valette came out of his ordeal fluent in Arabic and
Turkish as well as in Italian, Spanish, and his native French. It was in Arabic that La Valette addressed Kust
Ali when, in a turn-about-is-fair-play, he in 1554 sent the latter to a Christian oar. A Gascon, Romegas became
a Hospitaller in 1542 at the age of 14, achieving knighthood four years later. In the Spring of 1547 he was
dispatched to the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean where he began to make a name for himself aboard the order's
galleys. Following eleven years of corsair warfare in these waters he in 1558 obtained his first command, a
galliot. By 1560 he commanded Grand Master La Valette's own San Gabriele, a galley with which for the next
three years he raided into the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. In July 1564 Romegas captured an Ottoman sultana
(large galleon) bound from Istanbul to Venice. Lost in the action was the Chief Black Eunuch of the sultan's
harem as well as a great deal of money (80,000 gold ducats) and other valuables. Perhaps more importantly, the wet
nurse for Suleiman's grown daughter Mihrmah was taken prisoner. This incident is said to have to have given rise
to Mihrmah's offer to her father to fund the construction of 400 galleys for an invasion of Malta, and to have
precipitated Suleiman's 1565 siege at which Romegas was distinguished by his heroics. Ten years later Romegas was
made captain-general of Hospitaller galleys, once more an extraordinary honor, but failed in his 1581 attempt to be
elected Grand Master. One small chapter at the crossroads of history. Come sail these crossroads yourself, breathe
the aroma of pine-shrouded coves dotting Turkey's Turquoise Coast, bask under a warm Aegean sun after swimming in
its azure sea, join in the search for a perfect tsatziki, climb to an ancient acropolis re-fortified by these same
Hospitallers, enjoy the luxury of a catered yacht charter sailing Greece and Turkey. Surely this is the holiday for
which you search. Rare comfort under sun at the crossroads of history. Try it! You'll like it! Ecce Navigo, a superb
crewed yacht available for luxury sailing in Greece and Turkey. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht
Charters today at