Ketch-rigged Schatz features aesthetic
appeal and comfort.
Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece Still Another Luxury Yacht Sailing Turkey And Greece A Larger Yacht Sailing Lycian Turkey This page last updated on 05/08/2012 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page.
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Further information concerning charter sailing in Turkey and Greece may be obtained by clicking on the
blue links immediately above. Thank You. You may be searching for a yacht charter-sailing Turkey
and Greece. You may be dreaming of a yacht charter in the Aegean or eastern Mediterranean. You may even
be hoping to cruise the crossroads of history at the cradle of civilization. Alternatively, you may be
searching for German treasure. Or for a sweetheart: schatz. If any of these, you might consider
the sleek ketch-rigged Schatz with an upper-case S, a sweetheart of a yacht charter-sailing both
Turkey and Greece in style, cruising one of the world's last remaining tree-fringed coasts, cruising from
one pastel-hued Dodecanese island to the next pastel-hued Dodecanese island. Just |
as in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries did the red-hulled black-prowed
galleys of the Hospitaller Knights of Rhodes, later the Knights of Malta. Sortie-ing from Rhodes Town's
middle harbor until 1523 and from Malta's Grand Harbor soon thereafter, these rejoinders to the galleys of
Ottoman corsairs were captained by the likes of Pierre d'Aubusson and Philippe Villiers de L'Isle Adam
depicted at left, both to succeed to higher rank. Sailing in company and individually they prowled the
Aegean preying on treasure-laden merchantmen bound from Silk Road termini to Constantinople, creating so
much havoc as to force Ottoman Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror's unsuccessful 1480 siege of Rhodes and
Suleiman the Magnificent's successful siege 42 years later, the first a siege defended by d'Aubusson as
Grand Master and the second by de L'Isle Adam as Grand Master. Born in 1464 at L'Isle Adam 25 miles north
of Paris, Philippe Villiers was the fourth of eleven children to lesser nobility and was not destined to
succeed to family estates. He was received into the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem at the
age of sixteen and was almost immediately summoned by d'Aubusson to participate in defense of the 1480
siege. This first major Ottoman siege, of three months, failed mostly thanks to d'Aubusson and his corps
of experienced knights, but Philippe Villiers made a lasting impression. He soon began climbing through
the ranks of seagoing knights to become a galley captain, Captain General of Galleys, and Seneschal of
Rhodes commanding the island's militia. By 1510 Villiers had risen to become the Order's Grand Admiral
and as such obtained considerable fame by defeating that year a 25-ship Mameluk Egyptian flotilla in the
Gulf of Latakia near modern Iskenderun, Turkey. One year later he was appointed Grand Prior of France and
secretary to the Grand Master. The next year he became Grand Hospitaller responsible for what was then the
leading medical facility in the world, and in 1515 he was posted as the Order's ambassador to the court of
new French King Francis I. He was still there in 1521 when elected by fellow Hospitallers to succeed the
deceased Fabrizzio del Carretta as Grand Master. He returned to Rhodes aboard the Hospital's great carrack
and flagship Santa Maria depicted at right. A seven-decker with 100 guns, the Santa Maria was
the only Hospitaller vessel painted all black. In a journey of eight months with several waypoints,
Villiers successfully eluded the Ottoman 
corsair Muslihidden
Kurtoglu enroute. Commanding a flotilla of galleys and galliots numbering up to eighty, Kurtoglu was that
year not in the employ of the Ottoman state but was rather seeking to avenge the loss to Hospitallers of two
of his brothers as well as seeking hostages for the swap of a third brother then imprisoned at Rhodes.
Returned to Rhodes in September 1522 Villiers immediately began preparing the Hospitaller fortress for a
siege known to be coming. In June of the following year the first of what would become more than 200 Ottoman
warships and transports appeared off Rhodes Town commanded by none other than Kurtoglu in his other role as
an Ottoman admiral. Those ships were to put ashore upward of 100,000 Ottoman soldiers as well as 60,000
Serbian and Ruthenian sappers, for Suleiman intended to bring down the walls surrounding Rhodes Town with
underground mines. Those walls were manned by 500 knights Hospitaller as well as by 100 Hospitaller chaplains
together with 1,000 mercenaries and another 1,000 Rhodian militia. Six months later some of the walls did
come down, heralding the end for Hospitaller Rhodes. There in person, Suleiman offered generous terms. The
siege was lifted on Christmas Eve 1522. During the following week Villiers and Suleiman met on three
occasions, one of these having to do with a prisoner swap which included the Kurtoglu brother. On the first
of the new year Villiers at the head of 160 surviving Hospitallers and 4,000-odd mostly Latin islanders
marched out of Rhodes Town flags flying and boarded 50 vessels, many of them loaned by Suleiman. On the
occasion the Ottoman sultan is reported to have said, "It is not without regret that I drive this
brave old man out of his home," while the Holy Roman Empire's Charles V said, "Nothing in
the world was ever so well lost as Rhodes." Philippe Villiers de L'Isle Adam was to live to settle
the Hospitallers in their new home at Malta where he died of natural causes on the 22nd of August 1534.
Muslihiddin Kurtoglu settled in his new home at Rhodes, becoming the first Ottoman beylerbey or
governor of the island. He died there of natural causes in 1535, no longer having the favor of the Ottoman
sultan in consequence of his indiscriminate corsair activities. This is but a 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 spinach pie, climb to an ancient acropolis re-fortified by these same Knights, enjoy the luxury of a
catered yacht charter in Greece and Turkey, and learn more. Surely this is the holiday for which you search.
Rare comfort under sun at the crossroads of history. Try it! You'll like it! Schatz, a superb crewed charter
yacht sailing Turkey and Greece. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at