Sailing Through the Dardanelles

Entering the Aegean Sea, we sailed between Crete and the Greek island of Rhodes and other small Greek islands that looked uninhabited. At some point, a fighter jet flew close overhead. The captain announced that it was a NATO jet doing surveillance of the area, or perhaps it was a U.K. or U.S. jet coming close to say hello.

Over the past two months or so, the seas have been very mild, in fact, pretty placid. The seas were beautiful, but after awhile somewhat boring. In comparison, the Mediterranean Sea was much more energetic and dramatic, showing movement with white cap waves. One afternoon I went to a classical piano concert in the Queen’s Room. I sat next to the window where I could see the rolling seas while pianist Domenic John played Gershwin’s vibrant Rhapsody in Blue. It was a fabulous afternoon.

After a day of sailing through the Aegean Sea and into the Dardanelles, the captain announced that we would be passing Gallipoli in Turkey, a major battle site during WWI. The Dardanelles is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey that connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, which leads into the Black Sea. We stood on the decks waiting to see the place we had heard so much about and the site of such tragedy.

Gallipoli

During our travels to multiple cities in Australia, we stopped to see the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) War Memorials in each city we visited. These memorials were erected following the tremendous loss of so many ANZAC soldiers during WWI and especially at the Battle of Gallipoli. I wrote before about the high percentage of the Australian and New Zealand populations these soldiers represented. As we sailed through the Dardanelle Straits and actually got to see Gallipoli, those memorials became even more meaningful to us.

Coincidentally, just a few days earlier on April 25, ANZAC Day, a ceremony had been held on the ship. ANZAC Day is similar to Memorial Day in the U.S. or Remembrance Sunday in the U.K.

At 5:00 p.m. we approached Gallipoli, where British RN and RMs and ANZAC military personnel had attempted to gain a foothold on the peninsula to fight the Turks, who were aligned with Germany during WWI. The military commanders at the time, which included Winston Churchill, decided that going over land was the only way they could get into the area. The British had previously sent 18 battleships to fight their way into the Dardanelles and the Black Sea, without success because the seas were heavily mined.

The peninsula consisted of high cliffs, which the soldiers tried to scale without success. As we slowly sailed by the peninsula, we could see two memorials on the hill, one honoring the Allied fallen, and the other honoring the Turks, who lost an equally high number of troops.

Allied Memorial

Turkish Memorial

Amanda Reid, the entertainment manager, provided commentary describing the military campaign, which lasted for months and resulted in the loss of over 270,000 allied soldiers. Six months or so after the campaign began, Britain withdrew.

At the end of the commentary, a bugler played The Last Post, the equivalent of Taps. There was complete silence on the decks.

Ancient Fort on the Peninsula