Diving in Amasra

THE YEAR IS 1939 THE 800-TONNE SHIP “KARDEŞLer” SINKS IN AMASRA HARBOUR. Muhtar HASAN, AMASRA’s only diver, Hasan TUŞ;

will salvage his friend Captain Mehmet’s wheat-laden steel ship and be the occasion for this photograph being taken on the Amasra quayside.

Exactly 61 years later,

the AMASRA SAILING CLUB, working to remember and keep alive THE REMARKABLE SAILORS of this beautiful city, will learn the following from the diver’s son.

“My father knew Captain Mehmet — they were friends. The 800-tonne steel ship was loaded to the brim with wheat. She showed water in the harbour and ran herself aground bow-first. They called my father straight away. My father, a graduate of the rüşdiye school, was the equivalent of two universities today. He had done diving work in Izmir before the War of Independence. He had his own equipment too — his suit and such. He had his assistants too — the ones standing in the photograph; they put on his helmet, hold his air hose, turn his pump, and sometimes I helped too. My father dived down, held the tarpaulin to the parapet, pumped out the water, discharged the wheat, and floated the ship…”

AND IT WAS ON THAT DAY THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN

AMASRA SAILORS’ ARCHIVE Amasra Sailing Club 2001