Nusret in Tarsus
History
Ottoman Empire
Name	Nusret
Builder	Schiffs & Maschinenbau AG Germania, Kiel, German Empire
Laid down	1911
Launched	4 December 1911
Commissioned	1913
Decommissioned	October 1918 and laid up
Turkey
Name	Nusret (1922), Yardım (1937), Nusret (1939), Kaptan Nusret (1966)
Decommissioned	1955 and laid up at Gölcük, for conversion to museum ship
Reclassified	Diver vessel (1937), tender (1939)
Refit	Sold 1962 to commercial interests and rebuilt 1962-1966 to general cargo motorship
Fate	April 1989 capsized near Mersin, 1999 salvaged, 2003 memorial/museum ship
General characteristics
Type	Minelayer
Displacement	365 t
Length	40.20 m (131 ft 11 in) (LPP)
Beam	7.50 m (24 ft 7 in)
Depth	3.40 m (11 ft 2 in)
Installed power	1200ihp
Propulsion	2 triple 3 cyl. vertical engines 2 Schultz water-tube boilers
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) (trials) 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) (1914)
Armament	1913: 2 × 47mm SK L/45 C/99 Krupp quick-firing guns 40 mines 1927: 2 × 57mm SK L/45 C/99 quick-firing guns 60 mines

Nusret (Eng. 'the help of God') was a naval ship of the Ottoman Navy, which served as a minelayer during the Gallipoli Campaign, and later fulfilled various roles in the Turkish Navy; as minelayer (1927–1937), diver vessel (1937–1939) and tender (1939–1955). She was laid down in 1911 and launched from Schiff & Maschinenbau AG 'Germania' at Kiel, Germany on 4 December of that year.^[1]

Characteristics

Nusret was 40.2 meters long and displaced 365 tons. Her beam was 7.57 meters and her draught was 3.4 meters. Her propulsion was two vertical triple expansion steam engines powered by two Schultz boilers, driving twin screws. This system was designed to propel her at 15 knots, but when she arrived at Istanbul in 1913 she could only make 13 knots. She was designed on the basis of a tugboat, but with mine rails for forty mines on the stern instead of bollards and winches. A crane was mounted on the back end of her superstructure, aft of the funnel, to assist in loading the mines. Aside from the mines, her armament consisted of two 47mm SK L/45 C/99 quick-firing guns mounted on platforms on either side of the bridge, manufactured by Krupp in Germany. In 1927 these guns were replaced by 57mm variants of the same weapon; also in 1927 her mine rails were extended to hold twenty extra mines.

Service history

Nusret was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy in 1913, captained by Lieutenant Tophaneli Hakki (Güverte Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Tophaneli İbrahim oğlu Hakkı) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Geehl.^{[citation needed]} Nusret played a pivotal role in the Dardanelles Campaign, laying 26 mines in an unexpected position in February 1915 just prior to the ill-fated invasion which sank HMS Irresistible, HMS Ocean and the French battleship Bouvet, and left the British battlecruiser HMS Inflexible badly damaged.^[2]

After World War I Nusret was laid up in Istanbul until 1926/7 when she was refitted at Gölcük. In 1937 she became the diving vessel Yardin and in 1939 reverted to Nusret as a tender. In 1955 she was decommissioned and again laid up, with the intention to convert her to a museum ship. However, in 1962 she was sold to commercial buyers who had her converted to a cargo motorship, unrecognisable as the former minelayer, entering service as Kaptan Nusret in 1966. In April 1989 she sank near Mersin Harbour, and lay submerged for 10 years.^[1]

Wreck discovery

In 2002 the wreck of Nusret was acquired by the Municipality of Tarsus, Mersin Province for reconstruction ashore as a museum ship, opened in 2008.^[3]

A replica Nusret has been built by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard to be displayed in Çanakkale by the shore of the Narrows of the Dardanelles along with the types of mines that it laid in World War I. In March 2011 this Nusret was commissioned into the Turkish Navy as the museum ship N-16.^[4][5]