BOATS AND BOATMEN IN OLD ISTANBUL
Before the arrival of paddle steamers in Istanbul,
ferry services on the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus were provided
by the long narrow rowing boats of various types known as kayik.
These graceful swift boats and their boatmen were a characteristic
part of life in Istanbul.
The largest and most magnificent of all these vessels were the royal
barges used by the sultans and members of their families. Measuring
30-32 metres in length and 3 metres wide, they had a pavilion in
the bow where the sultan sat. The royal barges used when the naval
fleet set out to war were known as filika, and those used when he
intended to pay incognito visits to the city as tebdil kayik.
Market kayiks were used to carry both goods and passengers. They
were heavy and broad, with rudders at the stern. They could take
nearly 40 passengers, and each oar weighed 80 kilos.Sometimes they
were privately owned and sometimes the property of a charitable
foundation, in which case the proceeds were used to pay for diverse
requirements of the village to which it was endowed and food for
the poor. The boatmen leased these boats from the Department of
Charitable Foundations for a specific number of years.
Another type was the fireboats, which carried the
teams of firemen rapidly to the nearest point on the shore in the
event of fire. They were always moored up at the Galata Bridge over
the Golden Horn. Then there were the fishing kayiks, distinguished
by upcurving prows and sterns, and sturdily built to withstand bad
weather.
The slender futa kayiks had rudders in the stern
and seats covered in rich cloths for their passengers. These were
originally inspired by English skiffs, but modified in time to suit
Turkish tastes and traditions of boat building.
Kayiks known as piyade were usually privately owned
by wealthy families, but some could also be hired out for excursions.
Peremes had higher and flatter prows than the piyades, and like
the market kayiks were used to carry goods and passengers. These
were equipped with sails for use when the wind permitted so that
they could make quicker progress.
Mavnas were heavy barges which carried goods between the city and
the villages of the Bosphorus. A special type of kayik known as
saz kayik carried groups of musicians who played music to moonlight
parties held on the Bosphorus during the summer months.
Most of Istanbul's kayiks were made of linden wood.
They were varnished below the water line, and the part below the
gunwale was painted in various colours. The narrow boards on the
inside were painted white and kept spotlessly clean. The gunwales
were decorated so that the boats skimming across the water made
a pretty sight.
Istanbul's boats and boatmen was strictly regulated,
and every boat had a specific mooring. The main routes linked Üsküdar
on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, Galata on the European shore,
and the quays along the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus.
Those wishing to work as boatmen had to find someone
to act as guarantor, and they were supervised by stewards known
as peremeciler kethüdasi.
The steward of Üsküdar, for instance,
was usually a janissary, since most of the boatmen at this quay
were former janissaries.
Payment received by the boatmen was based on the
number of oars. The boatmen had a distinctive form of dress, varying
only in quality, that of the piyade boatmen being the finest.
They were provided with suits of clothes which consisted
of two pairs of breeches made of broadcloth and calico respectively,
long white socks, a broadcloth waistcoat and jacket embroidered
in silk, a crèpe shirt, a headscarf with a patent leather
rose bow, and fez. Rich families had their boatm'ses liveries made
by tailors known as mir and kotero who had shops in Beyoglu.
The boatmen were noted for their courtesy and fine
physique, and plied the oars with such speed and skill that from
a distance it seemed as if a single oar was moving. When women were
embarking and disembarking, the oarsman at the front stood so that
the women could steady themselves by holding onto his shoulder.
Istanbul's boats and boatmen formed an integral
part of the city's life, as voiced in Turkish literature by Abdülhak
Sinasi Hisar,
who describes in poetic language the role of boats
and boatmen in the moonlit excursions which were once one of the greatest
pleasures of the upper classes. These outings, accompanied by musicians
in their saz kayik, took place in the fairytale atmosphere of the
Bosphorus. Classical Ottoman poets like Nedim, Enderunlu Vasif and
Enderunlu Fazil also wrote many odes about kayiks, and novels by nineteenth
century writers like Halit Ziya Usakligil and Mehmet Rauf, who was
a seaman, have left us vivid accounts of the boats and boatmen which
were once so important a part of daily life l
* Ugur Göktas is a researcher and writer.
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