Fishermen of Amasra

In 1972, the fishermen of Amasra are out anchovy fishing aboard the boat of Captain Talip (Talip Reis). This photograph was taken at Zonguldak Harbour by *Damping Manav. Anchovy fishing was hard work. They spent days away from Amasra, chasing schools of anchovy. On cold winter days they longed for home and would do anything to get back to Amasra. While researching this photograph, one of them told us this story: “That winter of 1972 we wanted to spend New Year’s in Amasra. But leaving the boat — no chance. There was too much work; the skipper would have had our heads. So we found a way. The young lads of the crew went to the skipper and asked for money. We couldn’t say we were going to Amasra. So we said: SKIPPER, WE NEED MONEY. WE’RE GOING TO THE BROTHEL. Once we had the money from the skipper, it was straight to Amasra.” The story doesn’t end there. The fact that most of the people in this photograph had highly amusing nicknames was itself another subject of research. You will find them listed below. (Names — Nicknames)

1 - Hacı Serenli — Tatarağlu Hacı 2 - Celal Kökdemir — Berbat Celal 3 - İbrahim Çelik — Geyik İbram 4 - Mehmet Özkaya — Hamza Memet 5 - Mehmet Bağdatlı — Ligorin Memet 6 - Hamza Özkaya — Hamza Ali 7 - Mehmet Topuz — Ufacuk Memet 8 - Kemal Akgüneş — Torti Kemal 9 - Hasan Zor — Büyük Dilsiz 10 - Sayit Özbek — Kedigöz 11 - Turan Mızrap 12 - Mülayim Topuz 13 - Nizamettin Ünalan — Çarpuk Nizamettin 14 - Celil Zor — Dilsiz 15 - Orhan Mızrap — Camgöz Orhan 16 - Arif Çak — Uzun Arif 17 - Mustafa Demirci — Barbu Mustafa 18 - Hasan Martı — Hoşafcı 19 - Mıstık Zor We thank Rafet Martı, Mehmet Özkaya and Mor Ahmet for their contributions. Amasra Sailing Club, 2001

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*Damping Manav came every summer in the 1970s from Zonguldak to Amasra and sold watermelons on Eyiceoğlu Street. He became famous for carving the image of Hüdaverdi — the comic strip hero of the Hürriyet newspaper of the day — onto his watermelons.