Accommodations:
A Larger Gulet Cruising The Turkish Coast Another Gulet Cruising The Turkish Coast A Four-Cabin Bareboat Cruising The Turkish Coast This page last updated on 04/26/2012 Dear Homo Sapiens, There is no need to continue reading this page. What follows
is intended for search engine robots and spiders and not necessarily for human beings. Further information about
cruising the Greek Aegean and Turkish coast may be obtained by clicking on the maroon links immediately above.
Thank You. Are you searching for a sailing yacht cruising the Greek Aegean or Turkish coast? Perhaps for
a sailing gulet on Blue Cruise in the eastern Mediterranean? Are you thinking of a gulet charter in Turkey? Or
of a gulet charter in Greece? Or both? How about a crewed charter gulet with accommodations for eight in four
private guest cabins. Like the motor/sailing gulet Albatros F. What would you think about chartering
Greece and Turkey at the crossroads of history? Charter cruising, for example, in the wake of Aruj Reis? Cruising
the coast of Asia Minor and among neighboring Greek islands aboard Albatros F. Aruj Reis was the eldest of six
children born on the Aegean island of Lesbos to a Greek mother, the father a former Ottoman janissary born Greek
or Albanian. Of the four sons two were later known as Barbarossa, Aruj the first. He got his sea legs fishing the
waters off Lesbos and his habit of command as a corsair in service to Prince Korkut, the eldest son of Ottoman
Sultan Beyazid II. He learned even more as a slave in the galleys of the Knights of Rhodes. Ransomed for far too
little, by 1516 Aruj had deposed the Emir of Algiers and made himself master of what is now Algeria, the youngest
brother Khizr his principal lieutenant. By that year the Barbarossa brothers commanded squadrons of galleys and
galliots sporadically controlling the Middle Sea, and at about the same time had come |
under the aegis
of the Ottoman Empire. Thus began a half-century of Ottoman maritime dominance in the Mediterranean, the Barbarossas
succeeded by a line of extraordinary Ottoman admirals including Dragut, the Drawn Sword of Islam, Piali Pasha of
Croatia, and Uluch Ali the former Dominican novice. The line also included Ali Pasha. Known as Muezzinzade Ali and
depicted at left, he was born to a Muslim dervish ministering at a mosque outside the sultan's palace in Edirne
(Adrianople). From the mosque's minaret Ali would as a young man recite the call to prayer, his cantor's voice
soon attracting palace attention, so much attention that at a young age he had been wedded to a daughter of
Suleiman The Magnificent, obviously with the sultan's blessing. With that springboard he made a name for himself
at a time when former Christians dominated the Ottoman civil service and army, rising through military ranks as
an exceptional archer, commander, and then minister to a position as Fourth Vizier in the court of his
brother-in-law Selim II. In 1568 he succeeded Piali Pasha as Kapudan Pasha or Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman
Navy, and it was as commander-in-chief that he led the largest Ottoman fleet in history to the Battle of Lepanto.
Reportedly a sensitive and humane individual as well as a patron of the arts, he promised the fleet's Christian
oarsmen freedom should he prevail. Don Juan, the opposing Holy League commander, also promised freedom to his
oarsmen should the Holy League prevail, but Don Juan went one step further and armed his convict oarsmen for
combat. As this bloodiest of all naval engagements was one of hand-to-hand combat, and therefore of numbers, the
armed oarsmen making up two-thirds of each galley's crew were certainly a factor. Ali Pasha's flagship was at the
center of the slaughter, and he with bow in hand took a fatal musket ball in the forehead at a critical moment. He
had with him his two sons aged 13 and 17, captured, as well as 150,000 Venetian gold sequins believed by some to
have been his personal fortune. Come chartering with us in Greece and Turkey while we speculate on the reasons
Muezzinzade Ali Pasha took with him to the Battle of Lepanto both his male offspring and his wealth. The younger
son died in captivity, but the elder was released by Don Juan himself upon a plea from Ali's daughter the sultan's
niece. What would you think about chartering Greece and Turkey in his wake? The wake of Ali's son Mehmet? While
you holiday. While you proceed from pine-encircled cove to remote island. What would you think about an
extended-family holiday aboard a crewed sailing gulet cruising these waters? You might reach out to cousins to
fill all four cabins. Or would you be more likely to have a group of friends holiday with you aboard a charter gulet proceeding leisurely from fascinating locale to fascinating locale? Perhaps cruising all the way to Lepanto,
now known as Navpaktos. Cruising from Turkey into and beyond the central Aegean. Starting in Fethiye. Are you
searching for Fethiye in Turkey? Well, it is located on the southwestern corner of Turkey 45 nautical miles ENE
of the city of Rhodes on the Greek island of the same name. There or elsewhere we can put you aboard a charter gulet with an
experienced crew able to show you tracks left by the Barbarossa brothers, able to show you tracks left by other
Ottoman commanders, able to show you Muezzinzade Ali Pasha's 1571 path down the coasts of ancient Caria and Lycia
to Cyprus as well as his path from Cyprus to Lepanto, and able to show you tracks through the Aegean of Ali's son
Mehmet. Albatros F, a new crewed gulet cruising the Turkish coast and Greek Aegean and knowledgeable of local history.
Contact Charter Yachts Turkey today at