Bosphorus mansions narrowly escape another ship incident

ISTANBUL

Historical mansions by Istanbul’s Bosphorus narrowly escaped an accident on Aug. 13 when a Maltese cargo vessel broke off the Çengelköy neighborhood on the Anatolian side city.

The ship managed to stopped in the last minute before touching mansions on the shore, according to reports.

Eyewitnesses filmed the incident with their mobile phones.

Another malfunctioned vessel, Nissos Therassia, had been safely escorted through Bosporus on Aug. 3, causing the sea traffic to be interrupted.

The incidents come months after another Maltese flagged cargo vessel, Vitaspirit, crossing Bosphorus, crushed into a historical waterside mansion on April 7 due to a technical fault.

The ship had completely destroyed the mansion named Hekimbaşı Salih Efendi, which was built in the 19th century.

The damaged mansion had no permanent residents, but it was rented out for marriage ceremonies or concerts.

Vitaspirit had been seized against the costs by the court, specifying that the lien shall continue until the mansion’s owners are paid $50 million.

Such waterside mansions, known as yalis in Turkish, are among the most historic and expensive properties on the waterway that runs through Istanbul and divides Europe and Asia.

The Bosphorus is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and in 2017 it was transited by some 42,000 military, naval and commercial vessels.

The government says the risk of such accidents shows the need to build its planned and hugely controversial new canal for Istanbul that would take the shipping traffic and lessen the pressure on the Bosphorus.