Foreign Warships On Bosphorus – Nostalgia Edition

On Saturday I have found these old 4 photos in an antique shop in Istanbul and bought them. I have removed the photos from their old and deteriorated frames.

The first photo shows the British submarine HMS M-1 in Istanbul. Though I have no date on the back of the photo or on the frame I can see snow on the roof of the submarine and on the roofs of the buildings in the back ground. A quick search on the internet provided me with a couple of photos from the same submarine in Istanbul in February 1919. Thus I believe my photo was taken around that time. It can be pretty cold in Istanbul in February.

The second photo shows either an Admiralty Modified R class or a S class Royal Navy destroyer. The next photo was taken on board of this ship with her crew and the mascot dog posing. Again this photo has to be taken during the Allied occupation of Istanbul between 1918 and 1923

The last photo is the only one that had a note on the back: “German battleship ‘Goeben’ at Ismid Nr Constantinople 1918” . I do not need any notes to identify this beautiful ship, which shaped the history of this nation it was nice to know that the photo was not taken in Istanbul. Some ships of the Ottoman Navy were interned in the Golden Horn in Istanbul while the Goeben / Yavuz was interned in a place near Izmit. This place is know today as the Gölcük Naval Base and is the main base of Turkish Navy.