Grande Dame Savarona Charter Cruising Turkey And Greece
Savarona was designed by William Francis Gibbs, a leading naval architect
of the time, and built for Mrs. Emily Roebling Cadwallader, granddaughter of John Roebling, a wire-span bridge
engineer who designed the Brooklyn Bridge among others. Mrs. Cadwallader spent part of her inheritance building
three successively larger yachts, each named Savarona after a long-necked black swan found in the southern hemisphere.
This Savarona, the third, was built at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg, coming down the ways in 1931. Savarona
cruised Atlantic and Mediterranean waters for seven years, but Mrs. Cadwallader could not take her to the United States
because of depression-era import duties. In 1938 she sold Savarona to the Republic of Turkey.
Savarona is the the fourth largest private yacht in the world with a length
of 446 feet. Her 47,360 square-feet of covered and 38,750 square-feet of open space encompass a spacious living
area including 17 private suites each with bedroom, lounge, and bathroom. There is in addition a master suite
dedicated as a museum to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk for whom Turkey purchased the yacht.
Savarona's staircase is remarkable. Extending from the main deck to
the next level, it measures 282-feet (86-meters) and was formed from hand beaten solid brass.
Recreational Facilities:
Savarona
features state-of-the-art recreational facilities including a large swimming pool, two Jacuzzis, two separate
saunas, a fitness center, and a floor-heated turkish bath built from 260 tons of hand-carved marble. Water
sport activities such as windsurfing, water-skiing, jet-skiing, scuba diving, and sailing are offered. A
movie theatre with an archive of 2500 films and computer games played on a large screen are part of on-board
entertainment.
Specifications:
Year Built: 1931
Year Refit: 1999 Length: 446 ft Beam: 52 ft Draft: 20 ft Displacement: 4,650 tons
Diesel Engines: 3634 hp Caterpillar (2) Generators: 220v Water Tanks: 58,000 gal Fuel Tanks: 118,000 gal
Cruising Speed: 16 knots
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information contained in the following disclaimer may not be re-published, rewritten, or
redistributed without prior written consent. This page last updated
03/08/2013
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
charter cruising in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the blue links immediately above. Thank You. Could you be searching for information on black swans? For genus Cygnus, subgenus Chenopis, for
species Savarona? Sorry, you have found the wrong web page. This web page deals with the motor vessel
Savarona charter cruising Turkey and Greece, charter cruising, for that matter, the entire Mediterranean Sea. This
web page does not deal with black swans. Savarona is white, not black, white with yellow funnels one of which is
actually an elevator. Neither does this web page deal with the opera Swan Lake and its black swan. This web
page does deal in the abstract with Helen of Troy, as the motor vessel Savarona cruises past Troy several times each
year. Helen, it may be recalled, was the offspring of an encounter between Leda, Queen of Sparta, and
Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Zeus, it may also be recalled, came to the
encounter with Leda disguised as a swan. If not searching for swans, could you be searching for a motor vessel charter
cruising Turkey and Greece? Charter cruising the Mediterranean? If so, you're a rare bird. Not a swan but a rare bird.
Charter-hire this year (2012) is unlikely to be a corporate expense. Especially for Wall Street and City bankers. You must
therefore be independently wealthy, perhaps someone from Hollywood, someone who has lived so high on the hog for so long
that you are impervious to depression vicissitudes. Depression of the economic kind such as the protectionist taxes
which prevented Mrs. Cadwallader from importing Savarona, not depression of the kind for which you might bring
along your own therapist. The first guest to come aboard this yacht after its purchase by the Republic of Turkey was
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Born without a surname in Salonika (Thessaloniki) in 1881, he became Mustafa Kemal at cadet
school, the appellation Kemal, meaning perfection, awarded in recognition of academic excellence. He was
given the name Atatürk, Father of the Turks, in 1934. Mustafa Kemal first came to international prominence
during World War I's Battle of Gallipoli where, at left, he received much of the credit for Allied defeat. Following
Gallipoli, Ataturk served with distinction in the Caucasus and Palestine, but Ottoman Turkey was on the war's losing
side. The eventual Allied victory brought British, French, and Italian troops to the country. Appointed to restore
order in Anatolia, he used the opportunity to incite the people against Allied occupation. By June of 1919 he was
leading a resistance movement calling for national elections to establish a new parliament. In April 1920 a Grand
National Assembly convened with Ataturk as speaker. In August of that year the Ottoman government signed the Treaty
of Sèvres partitioning the Ottoman Empire, including regions that Turkish nationals viewed as their heartland. Mustafa
Kemal gathered a National Army which confronted advancing Greek forces and turned them back beginning the following year.
The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923. Ankara became the country's new seat of government. The work
of modernizing Turkey had begun. Mustafa Kemal capitalized on his reputation as an accomplished military commander and
pursued a policy of Westernization and secularization in which Western styles of dress and appellation were made
mandatory, seclusion of women was abolished, legal and educational systems were overhauled, and the alphabet was
changed from Arabic to Roman. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died in November 1938, months after taking delivery of Savarona.
Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at bcycharter@aol.com for charter cruising in Greece, Turkey, and the wider Mediterranean.