Gülcemal Omnibus | Passenger Steam Ship

Gülcemal  Omnibus | Passenger Steam Ship posting combines a series of early Mavi Boncuk articles.

Name: Gul Djemal (1910–1928) |Gülcemal (1928–1950)

Owner: Administration de Navigation à Vapeur Ottomane (1910–28) | Türkiye Seyr-i Sefain İdaresi(1928–50)

In service 1910 | Out of service 1950 | Scrapped, 1950

Mavi Boncuk | A Passenger Steam Ship, Gülcemal

Gülcemal[1], a passenger steam ship, was constructed in 1874 in Belfast and initially provided service on the Atlantic Ocean under the names Germanic[2] and Ottawa. It was sold to the Ottoman Seyr-i Sefain Management in 1911. During the Balcan War, First World War and the Turkish War of Independence it was used to provide military transportation. After four civil voyages in the early 1920s, Gülcemal became the preferred ship of Atatürk and the first ship to officially travel to America under the Turkish flag. Decommissioned in 1950, after 75 years in service, Gülcemal at that time was known as the second longest serving ship in the world.

During the population exchange (1924) following Lausanne Treaty Gulcemal brought many refugees to Turkey. 

In 1910, the Government of the Ottoman Empire bought the ship from IMM, and it became part of a five-ship transport fleet, leaving Liverpool for the last time on 15 May 1911, carrying the name Gul Djemal, and operated by the Administration de Nav. A Vapeur Ottomane. 

In a few months, she was carrying Turkish soldiers to war duty in Yemen. When World War I began, Ottoman Empire joined forces with Germany, and she again became a troop ship, ferrying fighters to the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 3 May 1915, Gul Djemal was on this run, carrying over 4,000 soldiers, when she was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E14. 

Though she sank in shallow waters, and only up to her superstructure, the British claimed that most of those on board lost their lives. Turkish and German sources mention a very limited number of casualties.

Since Gul Djemal had not completely sunk, it was determined that she could be raised and repaired to continue to serve the war effort. 

Gul Djemal was repaired with German assistance and put back into service, at first as a naval auxiliary in the Black Sea. In November 1918, she was used to repatriate 1,500 German troops from Turkey after the Armistice. She turned up unannounced to the Allied control point at Dover, which caused alarm and confusion, however the German soldiers were disarmed and sent home. In 1919 the ship embarked returning German troops of General Kress's Caucasus expedition, and the remaining German residents of Constantinople, from there to Bremen, arriving 29 June 1919.

With the war finally over, Gul Djemal went to work for the Dedeyan's (George Dedeoglou) Ottoman American Line, again carrying immigrants to new lives in America, making her first trip in this role on 10 October 1921 and crossed the Atlantic 3 more times (Constanza, Istanbul, Naples, Marseille,New York). 

She was one of the ships responsible in transporting Turks from Crete, Greece to Turkey during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey after the Turkish War of Independence. After this mission she returned to regular services along the Turkish Black Sea coast between Istanbul and Trabzon

"In 1928, she was transferred to Turkiye Seyrisefain Idaresi, and became the Gulcemal. In 1931, she was grounded in the Sea of Marmora, but managed to live on beyond that mishap, and even survived World War II, although she played no notable part in it. By 1949, she was a storage ship, and in 1950 she was converted to a floating hotel. 

Finally, on 29 October of that year, the end had arrived, and she was moved to Messina for scrapping, having survived 75 years, three major mishaps and two World Wars. As the scrappers cut up her hull, her original White Star Line gold stripe could still be seen along her hull. Only Cunard's SS Parthia (1870) served a longer time afloat than Germanic, ending her days as a lumber tug in 1956. Parthia's record (84 years) as longest serving floating palace, in any capacity, still holds today." 

SOURCE: Falling Star: The Misadventures of White Star Line Ships by John Eaton & Charles Haas c. 1990

See also: A transatlantic in our Seas by Eser Tutel (in Turkish)

Gülcemal in poetry and folk sayings

Hanginiz bilir benim kadar

Karpuzdan fener yapmasını;
Sedefli hançerle, üstüne Gülcemal resmi çizmesini 
Beyit düzmesini;
Mektup yazmasını
Yatmasını;
Kalkmasını,
Hanginiz bilir, benim kadar
Değirmende ağartmadık biz bu sakalı. 

Orhan Veli poem "Sakal" 

İstanbul deyince aklıma Gülcemal gelir. Anadolu'da toprak damlı bir evde Gülcemal üstüne türküler söylenir. Süt akar cümle musluklarından Direklerinde güller tomurcuklanır, Anadolu'da toprak damlı bir evde çocukluğum. Gülcemal'le gider İstanbul'a Gülcemal'le gelir. 

Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu poem "Gülcemal" 

Gülcemal vapuru nu bilmem ama benim tanıdığım cemal gül idi. 

Sunay Akın for Cemal Süreya /Once Cocuklar ve Kadinlar 1999 

Folk saying from Unye (Black Sea) 'Don't stop everywhere like Gülcemal (Do not waste time on an errand) Gülcemal vapuru gibi her yere uğramadan git gel.'

Black Sea Run: İstanbul-Zonguldak-İnebolu-Sinop-Samsun-Ünye-Ordu-Giresun and Trabzon

[1] Named after the Ottoman Sultan MEHMED V Reshad's mother. HH Gülcemal Kadin Efendi

b.1826- d.29 DEC 1895, Ortakoy,Turkey
Wife of HM Grand Sultan ABDUL MEJID I [25 APR 1823 - 25 JUN 1861] Married: 27 MAR 1843, Constantinople,Turkey
Children:
1. HIH Princess Fatma Sultana [1 NOV 1840 - 29 AUG 1884]
2. HIH Princess Hadice Sultana [7 FEB 1842 - 1842]
3. HIH Princess Refia Sultana [7 FEB 1842 - 4 JAN 1880]
4. HM Grand Sultan MEHMED V Reshad [2 NOV 1844 - 4 JUL 1918]
5. HIH Princess Rukiye Sultana [1850 - ]

Gülcemal Kadın (Ottoman Turkish: کل جمال قادین‎) (c. 1826 – 15 December 1851) was a consort of Sultan Abdülmecid I. She was the mother of Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire.

She was born in 1826 in the Bosnia Eyalet.[1] Her actual name is unknown. At a young age Gülcemal and her sister Bimisal entered the Imperial Harem. She married Abdülmecid in 1840 at Topkapı Palace. She gave birth to three children, including Mehmed V. All the three of them were adopted by, Servetseza Kadın, first wife of Abdülmecid.

She died on 15 December 1851 in Ortaköy, Istanbul She was never Valide Sultan to her son, because she died before Mehmed Reşad's accession to the Ottoman throne. Her cause of death was tuberculosis. She is buried in the Mausoleum of the imperial ladies at the Yeni Mosque Istanbul.

[2] SS Germanic was an ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff in 1874 and operated by the White Star Line. She was the sister ship of Britannic, serving with the White Star Line until 1904. She later operated under the name Ottawa until 1910. After passing into Turkish ownership she operated under the names Gul Djemal and Gülcemal, until broken up in 1950 after a total career of 75 years.

In her original design, Germanic was nearly identical to her earlier sister Britannic, and details about the technical features and facilities of the two ships can be found on the Britannic article. Germanic was originally intended to be fitted with the same experimental adjustable propeller system as her sister, however as this proved to be unsuccessful in service on her sister, it was removed during construction, and Germanic was instead fitted with a conventional fixed propeller arrangement. Germanic was built at Harland and Wolff, Belfast and was launched on 15 July 1874. Although fitting out was completed in early 1875, delivery was delayed until May of that year so that she would arrive in time for the summer transatlantic season. She was primarily steam powered, but was equipped with auxiliary sails. Germanic was the last iron-hulled ship built for the White Star Line as all their future ships used steel from then on.

SS Germanic (1875) The SS Germanic was an ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff in 1875 and operated by the White Star Line (of SS Titanic fame). She was later operated by other lines under the names Ottawa. Her last voyage on Liverpool-Quebec-Montreal route
started on 2nd Sep.1909 and on 15th March 1911 she sailed from Liverpool for
Constantinople. Renamed "Gul Djemal". Her sister ship was the the Britannic, initially to be called the Hellenic, but, just prior to her launch, her name was changed to the Britannic. Ottoman-America Line

The Ottoman - America Line made four transatlantic passenger voyages in 1920-21 to New York from Constantinople and also made some calls at Varna, Constanza and Odessa. They only operated one ship on this service "Gul Djemal" and she was the first Turkish passenger steamer to cross the North Atlantic. 


Ottoman America Line / Gul Djemal / Sailings September 1921 (issued July 27, 1921)
Ports of call Ottoman America Line: New York, Naples, Constantinople, Varna, Constanza, Odessa. (No return voyage listed.) First voyage under ottoman banner: April 8, 1920(?) . Morton Allan Directory for 1921 lists 3 more arrival dates July 18, September 10 and November 18.

Gul Djemal confiscation case went all the way to Us Supreme Court and became a very important ruling in determining war time confiscation cited in many law cases.

See: U.S. Supreme Court / THE GUL DJEMAL, 264 U.S. 90 (1924)
264 U.S. 90 THE GUL DJEMAL. HUSSEIN LUTFI BEY v. CAMPBELL & STUART, inc.
No. 83. Argued Jan. 4, 1924. Decided Feb. 18, 1924.

Cedric[1], under construction, behind Britannic[2], 1901. Source: HOFM.HW.H771A 
© National Museums Northern Ireland Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.

RMS Cedric was an ocean liner owned by the White Star Line. She was the second of a quartet of ships over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four, and was the largest vessel in the world at the time of her launch. After her maiden voyage in 1903, she was in service until 1932. She was launched in Belfast on 21 August 1902, in a private ceremony which included several guests, amongst others William Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff and Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line. 

RMS Cedric commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 11 February 1903. This was the only route on which she was ever used, although Cedric was also sometimes used for winter cruises to the Mediterranean. 

Pictured Gulcemal in Karakoy c.(1928-1937)

" During the WW1, she served as a hospital ship for a while and then she carried soldiers to Gelibolu (Galipolli)  peninsula. In one trip she was torpedoed by English submarine E14 which could penetrate from Dardanelles straight under water to Sea of Marmara. Gülcemal was wounded from her bow. Some soldiers panicked and juped over board thinking that she will sink. And some of them drawned cause they did not know how to swim. The rest were carried to land by bosphorus steamer “Kalender” and car ferry “Sahilbent”. Then she was towed to Istanbul to be fixed, which took two years. At the end of the war, in 1918-19 she carried German prisoners kept in Egypt and Greece back home to Hamburg and Wilhelmhaven. Sunay Akın, a Turkish poet and researcher mentiones that Gülcemal broke another speed record during these voyages. She also served between thessalonica and Alexandria.

Gülcemal is the first Turkish flagged ship ever sailed to America. Before her, in 1864 Bursa and İzmir corvettes left İstanbul but lost their ways in Atlantic and drifted to Brasil. Then they came back sailing around Africa. Gülcemal was hired by a Greek business man Jorj Dedeoğlu under  Ottoman-American Line to carry immigrants by the route Constanta-Istanbul-Napoli-Marseilles . She arrived NewYork October 31st of 1920 once again after serving in other waters for a long while. The event took a large place in Turkish newspapers. New York Tribune also gave a place to the ship. Turkish, Greek and Armenian people in New York rushed to the ship to see the crew and the passengers. Also Americans had some interest to the ship, it appears that they were surprised to see a steam ship with a Turkish crew. Gülcemal made a total of 4 voyages to America. The last was in 1921."

SOURCE

The year 1902 saw the introduction of White Star's Cedric. The new ship had a cargo capacity of 17,000 tons and a service speed of 19 knots using 280 tons of coal per day, it held the company record for carrying passengers at 2,957 during one trip in 1904. Considered the optimum of the cargo-passenger-fuel ratio, Cedric prompted three sisters, Celtic, Baltic and Adriatic to be built over the next four years. Each of the Cedric quartet was slightly longer and heavier in turn and each held the record of world's largest liner in succession.

(pictured above) The incomplete Cedric sits behind the old Britannic of 1874 just prior to the elder ship sailing to the scrappers. Both are Harland & Wolff products, owned by White Star. Britannic and her identical sister Germanic debuted as Blue Ribband racers, each gaining the speed award. Both originally had auxiliary sails coupled with a single screw. Cedric clearly shows some influence from her older fleet mate. Like Britannic, her passenger accommodation is in the center of the ship, with ends reserved for cargo. The newer ship, however, illustrates the increased hull volume that allowed for significantly more cargo capacity. Additionally, by 1901, multiple propellers had been added to many designs allowing steamers to dispense with sail altogether. This was another factor that allowed dramatic growth. No longer hindered by having to keep a ship small enough to be propelled by wind, ships could grow to gigantic proportions. The picture shows the immense growth and changes to nautical architecture in the short 28 years that passed between these ships. 

The need for increased tonnage grew critical as naval operations extended to the Eastern Mediterranean. In May 1915, Britannic completed mooring trials of her engines, and was prepared for emergency entrance into service with as little as four weeks' notice. The same month also saw the first major loss of a civilian ocean ship when the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed near the Irish coast by SM U-20.

The following month, the Admiralty decided to use recently requisitioned passenger liners as troop transports in the Gallipoli campaign (also called the Dardanelles service). The first to sail were Cunard's RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania. As the Gallipoli landings proved to be disastrous and the casualties mounted, the need for large hospital ships for treatment and evacuation of wounded became evident. RMS Aquitania was diverted to hospital ship duties in August (her place as a troop transport would be taken by RMS Olympic in September). Then on 13 November 1915, Britannic was requisitioned as a hospital ship from her storage location at Belfast. Repainted white with large red crosses and a horizontal green stripe, she was renamed HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic and placed under the command of Captain Charles Alfred Bartlett (1868–1945). In the interior, 3,309 beds and several operating rooms were installed. The common areas of the upper decks were transformed into rooms for the wounded. The cabins of B Deck were used to house doctors. The first-class dining room and the first-class reception room on Deck D were transformed into operating rooms. The lower bridge was used to accommodate the lightly wounded.[26] The medical equipment was installed on 12 December 1915.

First service
When declared fit for service on 12 December 1915 at Liverpool, Britannic was assigned a medical team consisting of 101 nurses, 336 non-commissioned officers and 52 commissioned officers as well as a crew of 675 persons.The chief engineer was Robert Flemming and the chief surgeon was John C. H. Beaumont. Both were accustomed to Olympic-class ships as both had served on the Olympic. On 23 December, she left Liverpool to join the port of Mudros on the island of Lemnos on the Aegean Sea to bring back sick and wounded soldiers.[ She joined with several ships on the same route, such as HMHS Mauretania, HMHS Aquitania, and her sister ship HMT Olympic.

The four ships were joined a little later by the Statendam. She made a stopover at Naples before continuing to Mudros in order for her stock of coal to be replenished. After she returned, she spent four weeks as a floating hospital off the Isle of Wight.

The third voyage was from 20 March 1916 to 4 April. The Dardanelles was evacuated in January.

At the end of her military service on 6 June 1916, she returned to Belfast to undergo the necessary modifications for transforming her into a transatlantic passenger liner. The British government paid the White Star Line £75,000 to compensate the transformation. The transformation took place for several months before being interrupted by a recall of the ship back into military service.


However, age did not totally eliminate utility. Under other names for different owners, Britannic's twin Germanic, built in 1874, soldiered on to 1950, before sailing to the scrap yard, a testament to the quality of Harland &Wolff's construction.  In that time she served the Dominion Line, sailing to Canada and found her way to the Mediterranean, spending her last years as a store ship and floating hotel in Constantinople.

Frank O. Braynard and William H. Miller, Fifty Famous Liners 3 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), 16-17. SOURCE 

The Ottoman - America Line made four transatlantic passenger voyages in 1920-21 to New York from Constantinople and also made some calls at Varna, Constanza and Odessa. They only operated one ship on this service and she was the first Turkish passenger steamer to cross the North Atlantic. 

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, she became a ship of Turkey. It was one of the ships responsible in transporting Turks from Crete, Greece to Turkey during the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey after the Turkish War of Independence. After this mission it began its regular navigation services in the Black Sea . 


Library of Congress Link to Other Newspaper PDFs for Gulcemal

See Case Law: THE GUL DJEMAL. HUSSEIN LUTFI BEY v. CAMPBELL & STUART, inc. No. 83. Argued: Jan. 4, 1924. Decided: Feb. 18, 1924.

United States Supreme Court

THE GUL DJEMAL(1924)

No. 83

"...'Third. That at all the times mentioned in the libel herein, and at the time of the arrest of the Gul Djemal, the Gul Djemal was engaged in commercial trade, under charter for one round voyage to George Dedeoglou, who engaged to carry passengers and goods for hire, and in such trade the Gul Djemal was not functioning in a naval or military capacity, nor was there anything of a naval or military character connected with the voyage of the Gul Djemal from Constantinople to New York and return.

'Fourth. That the Turkish government, prior to the time mentioned in the libel herein, had several diplomatic relations with the United States of America, advising its peoples by proclamation, however, that American institutions should not be molested, but should be treated as heretofore; that said diplomatic relations have not been resumed, although the United States of America maintains unofficial relations with the Turkish government by American consular representatives, and through the medium of a high commissioner; that during said period of the severed relations, the Spanish Ambassador to the United States has represented, and still represents, Turkish interests in the United States, and has been recognized as such representative by the Department of State of the United States of America.

'Fifth. That the Turkish or Ottoman government and the government of the United States of America are sovereign governments, and were at all the times mentioned herein at peace with each other, although the Turkish or Ottoman government was and is an ally of the enemy of the United States in the World War.' "

For the curious | ITEM 1

SEE: Sultan Mehmet V's visit to Kosovo in June 1911 The Sultan travelled aboard the battleship Barbaros Hayreddin with part of his entourage, escorted by the cruiser Turgut Reis and the steamer Gülcemal and the Sultan made a critical stop over in Selanik.

Link to Mavi Boncuk Posting

For the curious | ITEM 2

Armenian patriarch Zaven Efendi and his entourage arrive from Trabzon to Istanbul on board SS Gülcemal and the ship company 'Osmanlı Seyr i Sefâ’in İdâresi" pays for their expenses on Rumi 1330. It was the year Aram Andonian chose to date his forgeries of the Talat pasha telegrames (1915) in support of Armenian massacres.

Transcription:
1196_26
MV. 186/32
Meclis i Vükelâ müzâkerâtına mahsûs zabıt varakasıdır
Zabıtnâme rakamı: 14
Târîh Arabî: 24 Rebî‘ü’l âhir sene [1]332 Rûmî: 9 Mart sene [1]330
Hulâsa i me’âli: Gülcemal vapuruyla Trabzon’dan Dersa‘âdet’e gelen Ermeni Patriği Zaven Efendi ile ma‘iyyetinde bulunanların yemek ve masârif i sâ’iresine mahsûben verilen kırk liradan mâ‘adâ bin dokuz yüz yirmi sekiz guruş otuz iki paranın daha lüzûm ı tesviyesi Osmanlı Seyr i Sefâ’in İdâresi Müdîriyeti’nden bildirildiğine dâ’ir Mâliye Nezâreti’nin 5 Mart sene [1]330 târîh ve 5 numaralu tezkiresi mütâla‘a olundu.
Karârı
Meblağ ı mezkûrun üç yüz yirmi dokuz senesi masârif i gayr ı melhûza tertîbindeki bakıyyeden tesviyesi husûsunun nezâret i müşârun ileyhâya teblîği tezekkür kılındı.
Meclis i Vükelâ a‘zâlarının imzâları.