Gölcük celebrates its ship museum

KOCAELİ - Doğan News Agency

Ship museum is one and only museum of Gölcük district of Kocaeli. The Yarhisar ship museum celebrates its sixth year with events and gatherings. DHA Photo

Officials and locals have gathered to celebrate the sixth anniversary of a ship museum in the northwestern province of Kocaeli’s Gölcük district.

The Yarhisar Ship Museum, which was restored in 2006 by Naval Force officials, features pictures of the Ottoman fleet command, as well as other photographs and objects, and has welcomed thousands of visitors since it was opened six years ago.

Gölcük District Gov. Adem Yazıcı, Gölcük Mayor Mehmet Ellibeş, Fleet Command Adm. Muhittin Elgin and museum officials all attended the celebrations, which featured a cake in honor of the ship. Officials also signed a guestbook at the end of the event.

The ship was built in the United States in 1964; between 1965 and 2005, it served as an anti-submarine ship. During the 1970s, it also saw duty in Turkey’s intervention in Cyprus following a coup aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece.

The ship came to Gölcük after it was decommissioned in 2005, at which point the local municipality decided to convert the vessel into a museum. An attraction for both local and foreign tourists, the ship museum also provides a valuable research aid to students and museum study experts, while also opening a new dimension in terms of museum history in Turkey. The dormitories and other quarters of the ship have been maintained as they were in the original, while items used in war are close approximations of their originals.