It all began like this...

During the 20's of the last century, turkish boot-builders came to Bodrum from Crete and with them, they brought the ability of building seaworthy small ships made from pine wood. They built shipyards around the old Halikarnassos and constructed without a plan- as learned by the Greek- simple boats for fishers and sponge-divers. On a selected strong keel bar, frames that swung were set up, on which - just as in Odyssey times- planks were being nailed up. The "columns" between the planks were being sealed with tarred cotton by the calker and the open deck was covered up with deck beams and narrow wooden bars, so that no water could penetrate from above into the boat.

These boats, even during the 50's, drove with a two or three men crew to the Sea of Marmara, up or crossing over the Mediterranean to the Tunisian coast: for sponge diving. Captain Mehmet tells: "We paddled along the coast from the morning till the early afternoon. Then we pulled the boat on the beach and began to dive for sponges. Besides we caught fish, which we roasted in the evening at an open fire. With the sunset we laid down on the beach and continued early next morning. "

Some shipyards were building larger ships, which were ordered for the transport of the goods on the coast by the dealers. Wine, olives and the sponges found in the sea were brought not over the bumpy paths ashore, but over the sea to the open markets in the coastal towns. The boats were already equipped with engines. So they could drive against the prevailing north wind and usually be punctual at the destination. Some had a mast and simple sails, in order to get going in the favorable propulsion with the good wind. They drove until Izmir or far through the Dardanelles, also to Istanbul or other coastal cities until Mersin.

Kuno S. Stuben, who sailed from Bodrum into the Gökova-gulf in the early 60's, reports in his adorable book "Adventures with Shangrila", that the fishers from Bodrum met the fishers from Cos at the border area and sold them their fish. The fishers from Cos in turn sold the Turkish fish with impact at the market in Cos.

The ships were originally shaped in front and aft sharply just like the Norwegian rescue cutter "Colin Archer". The Turkish Name for it is Tirhandil. From the Tirhandil the Gulet developed and from the Gulet the Aynakic, in english: mirror-aft-gulet.

More: Gulet, Tirhandil, Aynakiç | declaration of love | nature purely