TCG Gayret Museum Ship

About this place

This destroyer slid into the water in Seattle in January 1946 as USS Eversole, earned seven battle stars off Korea, and was sold to Turkey in 1973 as TCG Gayret, serving another twenty-two years under the Turkish flag. When she was retired in 1995 she escaped the usual fate of the breaker's yard: instead she was tied up on the İzmit waterfront and opened in August 1997 as Turkey's first museum ship. Moored right beside her is the submarine TCG Hızırreis (ex-USS Gudgeon, 1952), retired in 2004 and opened to visitors that October; the small fast attack craft Pelikan has since joined them, and one ticket covers whatever is on the quay. This is not a wander-at-will museum. A member of the naval staff walks your group through the bridge, the combat information centre, the gun mounts, the engine room and the crew bunks, then takes you down into the submarine. The sub is what stays with you: a corridor two shoulders wide, near-vertical steel ladders and round hatches you fold yourself through. Anyone uneasy in tight spaces should stop at the destroyer, and pushchairs stay on the quay without exception. Children from about seven or eight, though, come out wide-eyed, which is exactly why the trip earns its place on a family itinerary. Photography may be restricted in parts of the ships, so ask the guide before you raise a phone. Getting there from Sapanca is simple: about 40 km west on the motorway, 40 to 45 minutes by car, with parking along the seafront. The nicer option is the Ada Ekspresi regional train from Sapanca station, which reaches İzmit in around half an hour with six departures a day each way; the museum sits directly across the road from the station. Pair it with a stroll in the adjacent Seka Park on the gulf, because the ships alone will not fill a day. From April to September hours are 11:00 to 19:00 (Sunday until 19:30); from October to March it is 09:00 to 17:30, and Monday is always closed. Adults pay 90 TL and non-Turkish children under eight go free. In August the steel decks bake by mid-afternoon, so come early; in winter the wind off the gulf bites on deck but everything below is enclosed and warm. The museum asks visitors to phone ahead for a slot, which is essential for groups and sensible for individuals so a guide is ready when you arrive.