Hacı Sami Bey’s Fleet: Two Ships, Changing Names and Coastal Routes

A small fleet in coastal trade

Hacı Sami Bey’s shipping business is taking shape through a mix of vessel registers, newspaper schedules and family recollections. The records point to a small operator whose ships carried passengers and cargo on Turkish coastal routes in the late 1920s, while the vessels’ longer histories link local trade to shipyards and owners across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Between 1926 and 1930, Hacı Sami Bey operated the İnönü and the Nusret, also known later in his ownership history as İnayet. Newspaper notices used the names “Hacı Sami Vapurları” and “Hacı Sami Vapur İdaresi.” The 1929 Turkish Maritime Trade Annual lists Hacı Sami Bey’s firm and two vessels, İnönü-II and Nusret. Those records offer a starting point, but the ships’ earlier names and later transfers require careful distinction.

One point is especially easy to confuse: the name Sami, which appeared in notices for another vessel, does not by itself establish a connection to Hacı Sami Bey. The article’s research says that the Sami vessel mentioned in Akşam and Cumhuriyet had no known link to him beyond the shared name.

The work behind this account began with research encouraged by Tunç Akyol, a great-grandson of Hacı Sami Bey on his father’s side and Group Purchasing Manager of Kibar Holding AŞ. Akyol has been tracing his family’s past through archives, newspaper notices and stories handed down by relatives. He says the subject remains open to further research.

İnönü II began as a British built fishing vessel

The vessel identified as İnönü-II began its working life under the name Reliance. Shipbuilding records place its construction at Cochrane & Sons in Selby, England, in 1903. The Bradford College archive’s list, compiled by Graham S. Abbey, identifies it as yard number 321. It was launched on September 12, 1903, for the Great Central Co-operative Engineering & Ship Building Co. Ltd. of Grimsby.

Reliance was originally built for fishing, described in the archive as a trawler-fishing vessel. Its listed dimensions were 110 feet overall, 21.1 feet in breadth and 11 feet in depth, with a gross tonnage of 198. Its three-expansion steam engine produced a maximum 59 indicated horsepower. The vessel was later adapted for general cargo work, a change that let an older working boat take on a different role in commercial service.

The ownership trail recorded in the source runs from C. Caley in 1903 to a French buyer in 1912, then to Hacı Sami Bey in 1920. Under his ownership it was renamed İnönü-II and converted into a general cargo ship. In 1929, it passed to Ahmet Yekta Bey, who used the name İnönü 2. Later names included Kenan, from 1933, and Kartaltepe, from 1950.

In 1958 the vessel passed through several changes. Fevzi Kalkavan acquired it and gave it his own name; that year it was lengthened and fitted with a renewed engine. Its gross tonnage rose from 198 to 437, and its deadweight was reported as 762 tons. It was also named Çanak Mehmet after Mehmet Oyar acquired it in 1958. The sequence of transactions and names in the source reflects a long service life in which the ship was repeatedly adapted and sold.

After 2000, the vessel moved among international operators and carried the names Phantoom, Spring, Asalah 1, Micha Star and, finally, Aya, under the North Korean flag. It was dismantled at Alang, India, on May 15, 2005. Built as a fishing vessel in 1903, it ended its career as a cargo ship 102 years later.

Newspaper notices help separate two İnönüs

Contemporary schedules help clarify why accounts of the ship can be confusing. A January 3, 1930, Cumhuriyet notice advertised a vessel named İnönü as part of Sadıkzade Vapurları’ Karadeniz Lüks ve Muntazam Postaları. It was scheduled to leave Sirkeci Pier on January 5 for Zonguldak, İnebolu, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon and Rize. The notice gave the company’s agency as being under Mesadet Han in Sirkeci and listed Istanbul telephone number 2134.

A separate notice described weekly İnönü 2 service operated by K.Z.A. Yekta Vapurları between Akçaşehir and Cide. Its listed calls were Akçaşehir, Alaplı, Ereğli, Zonguldak, Bartın, Amasra, Kurucaşile and Cide. Customers were directed to Ahmet Yekta Vapur İdaresi at İzmir Sokak No. 11 in Eminönü; the listed telephone number was Istanbul 1399.

These notices identify the first İnönü with Sadıkzade and the İnönü 2 service with Kaptanzade Ahmet Yekta in 1930. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping also distinguishes the two in its 1927 yearbook: one entry names an İnönü belonging to Sadıkzade Brothers, while another records İnönü-II under Hacı Sami Bey. The source says the older İnönü was built in 1891 by Wingham-Richardson & Co. of Newcastle and originally named Lascar. İnönü-II, by contrast, was the former Reliance.

The 1926 Turkish Maritime Trade Annual’s old vessel names are described as incorrect and in need of review. Comparing those entries with later registers and newspaper schedules matters because a shared or recycled name can make a vessel’s ownership history look like a single continuous record when it describes different ships.

The source also reports that İnönü was acquired at a high price of 29,931 lira during the early 1930s, as part of efforts to bring maritime transport under Turkish ownership. It does not provide a date or further transaction detail for that figure. Separately, newspaper schedules show İnönü 2 operating under Ahmet Yekta’s company after its 1929 sale, a practical reminder that the vessel’s name and operator changed over time.

Nusret’s route from minesweeper to cargo carrier

The ship that became Nusret had a different origin. Built in 1918 at Forges & Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne, near Toulon, it was first named Engoulevent and built as a minesweeper. The source lists a steel hull, gross tonnage of 325, length of 133.4 feet, breadth of 24 feet and depth of 11 feet.

In 1920, the vessel was sold, converted to general cargo work and renamed Cité de Djerba. Two years later it went to Hydra Steamships Ltd. under G. M. Chrussachi. Though registered at Valletta, Malta, the owner is identified in the account as Greek. In 1927, Cie Franco-Orientale de Transport Maritime, based in Algeria, acquired it. That same year Hacı Sami Bey of Balıkesir bought the ship and renamed it Nusret.

Its time with Hacı Sami Bey was brief. In 1928, Hacı Şeref and Cemal Bey bought it and renamed it İnayet. It was sold again in 1929 and became Katina K. In 1930, Societe Misr pour les Pecheries, established in Suez, Egypt, acquired it and renamed it Mariout.

During the Second World War, the British Admiralty acquired the ship in 1940 and renamed it HMS Moonrice. It was sold to Norway’s AS Tveds Sldeksport in 1946 and became Arnulf. A Norwegian firm converted it to a herring trawler in 1948. In 1959, a Norwegian company acquired it and renamed it Branasund. The ship was dismantled in Stavanger in 1965.

The vessel’s changing roles—from minesweeper to general cargo ship, then to a fishing vessel—show how ships could move between owners and uses over decades. For Hacı Sami Bey’s business, the records place Nusret in the fleet for a short period before its 1928 transfer and renaming.

Routes, agencies and the business behind the names

Newspaper advertisements provide a view of how coastal services were sold and organized. In notices published in 1928, Hacı Sami Vapurları advertised the Bartın Ekspres Postası aboard İnönü 2. The scheduled departure was from Sirkeci Pier at 5 p.m. on February 7, with calls at Akçaşehir, Ereğli, Zonguldak, Bartın, Amasra and Cide. Passengers and cargo were directed to Hacızâde, the central agency opposite the Tobacco Customs, with Istanbul telephone number 3398.

The same page carried schedules from other operators, showing the crowded field in which Hacı Sami’s service ran. Ak Yıldız Vapur İdaresi advertised an Ayvalık–İzmir service from Sirkeci, calling at Çanakkale, Edremit, Burhaniye, Ayvalık and İzmir. The notice said the vessel carried first- and second-class cabins and a cabin for a Rize sulphur cargo. Yelkenci Vapurları listed a Black Sea express service to İnebolu, Samsun, Ordu, Giresun, Sürmene and Rize. Hattatzâde Tayyar Company advertised a route through Gelibolu, Çanakkale, Edremit, Burhaniye, Ayvalık and İzmir.

Those schedules make the operating model tangible: ships left from Sirkeci, followed named coastal calls and relied on city agencies to handle booking and cargo inquiries. Hacı Sami Vapur İdaresi was one of several small or medium family shipping firms serving domestic routes alongside larger names such as Sadıkzadeler, Yelkencizadeler and Kalkavanzadeler. The article places these businesses in a period when Turkish maritime transport was being reorganized after the Republic’s establishment.

The firm’s flag and funnel markings are reconstructed with reference to Lloyd’s of London’s House Flags & Funnels catalogue. The Ottoman letters on the flag are interpreted as elements of Hacı Sami’s name: the right-hand character is ayn, associated in the source with the first sound of Hacı; the central shape is a crescent; and the left-hand character is sin, the first letter of Sami. This reading gives the company’s flag a personal mark tied to its owner.

Family accounts add detail, with some uncertainty

Akyol’s research also reaches back to Hacı Sami Bey’s father, Ali Rıza Bezzaz. The family account describes Ali Rıza as a fabric trader who was born in Ahyolu, Bulgaria, and later settled with his family in Bandırma, in the area now known as Bentbaşı. He came from a wealthy family and owned shops and stores; his trade was said to extend to shipments by sea. The title Bezzaz is linked in the source to the fabric trade.

The account portrays Ali Rıza as a prosperous merchant who placed religious devotion ahead of wealth. His mother, Şerife Hanım, is remembered as charitable, and two fountains she built for public use are said to remain active. Ali Rıza is described as part of the Nakşibendiyye tradition and as a spiritual guide. He died in Bandırma in 1330 AH, and his grave is at the cemetery of the mosque now called Tekke Mosque. A story about an encounter at the grave is presented as a local narration; it is not independently verified in the material provided.

Akyol says relatives told him that Ali Rıza was well loved in Bandırma and buried at Tekke Mosque. He has visited the grave while trying to piece together the family’s history. He also recounts that Hacı Sami later settled in Istanbul, first in Vaniköy and then in Beylerbeyi. The family associated a mansion there with Sermet Paşa, though Akyol says he could not find a trace of that name and wonders whether it may instead have been Servet Paşa.

In Akyol’s account, his grandfather Hacı Sami owned a shipping company known as Hacı Sami Vapur İdaresi or Sami Vapur İdaresi. He says he has found references to İnayet and İnönü in old newspaper archives, including Bartın Postası and Bandırma Postası. After Akyol’s father died when he was a month old, contact with the paternal family diminished, prompting his research into family history.

Akyol also shares family stories about the ships being lost and Hacı Sami declining help during difficult times for the country. He says his grandfather lived modestly and later served as an imam. These recollections add character to the archival record, though the source does not provide independent documentation for every detail. The reported sale of İnönü 2 to the Yekta family is consistent with the ship’s later appearance under Ahmet Yekta’s service, while the family’s account of the house passing to the Kalkavan family remains a separate recollection.

Another family story concerns Ali Rıza Akyol, Akyol’s grandfather, who worked at Metrohan in Karaköy. According to what his grandmother told him, Ali Rıza suffered a heart attack at work in his forties. A doctor advised him to rest, but with his son newly born and his wife recovering after childbirth, he walked home to the family’s hillside house in Beylerbeyi. He died that evening, on June 17, 1956, when Akyol’s father was one month old. The family has a few photographs, including images with his grandmother, but few other pictures of him.

The final question is where Hacı Sami Bey was buried. A source cited from Adalar Postası places his grave at Heybeliada Cemetery and says a street on the island was named Hacı Sami Bey Street in his memory. The same account says he spent his last period there and died in August 1932. The grave location has not been confirmed by the sources described in the article, so the claim remains provisional.

For now, the clearest picture comes from matching ship registers with dated schedules and treating family testimony as a separate, valuable layer of evidence. That approach distinguishes the two İnönü records, follows Nusret through its brief service under Hacı Sami Bey, and leaves open the family questions that the surviving documentation has yet to settle.

Source: SeaNews Türkiye