City of Countless Names- Water Ways

The brilliant blue Bosporus and the natural harbor of the Golden Horn split Constantinople into the three distinct cites of Stambul, Pera-Galata, and Scutari. Fleets of fishing boats, warships, steamers, and other water-bound transports connect the city’s shores and inhabitants.

Caiques

The most ubiquitous watercraft of Constantinople is the caique. Although the people of Constantinople use “caique” for any number of small passenger boats, caique properly describes the long and narrow rowboats commonly used for transport on the Bosporus. The caique's sleek hull (15-20 feet long and 3 feet wide) cuts smoothly and silently through the waves. Their ornamentation and ostentation varies widely, from the simple unadorned caique with one rower to the grandly embellished caiques of the Sultan’s household propelled by three powerful rowers, and adorned with delicate awnings protecting their passengers from the sun during pleasure trips.

Much like the gondolas of Venice, thousands of caiques line Constantinople’s piers and harbors all day long, their caiquejees (rowers) ready to ferry travelers across the water. Caique ferries only stop when the waves of the Bosporus grow too rough to transport passengers. Because caiquejees work in the sun all day, they wear thin white long-sleeved shirts, and drawers tied at the knees over their deeply tanned muscular frames. The caiquejees row seated on wooden benches, but their 1-5 passengers sit on the bottom of the boat cushioned by a Persian rug.  Although caiques provide safe trips for their passengers on the whole, first-time passengers should take care to step directly into the middle of the boat or risk of the caique tipping. 

Caiquejees always haggle over the price of their services but the following are a reasonable guide.

Caique Ferry Fares

To briefly visit a vessel and return-               1½-3 piastres

To transport luggage from a ship-   3-5 piastres

Emin Eunou to Tophane-                  2 piastres

Across the Golden Horn-                                   1/2 piastre

Scutari to Tophane-                                            5 piastres

Scutari to Tophane- round trip-                       7-8 piastres

Seraglio Point to Scutari-                                   6 piastres

Tophane to Seraglio Point-                                2-3 piastres

Tophane to Beshiktas-                                       5 piastres

To travel up the Bosporus                                2 piastres per mile

Steamers

As more and more European steamships transport troops and passengers into Constantinople, the city’s need for modern efficient transport across its waterways increases. With the enthusiastic encouragement of the Ottoman government, a Galata banker named Manolaki Baltazzi and the Turkish reformer and scholar Ahmet Cevdet Pasha started Sirket-i Hayriye, the first Turkish steamship transport company. In 1851, Sirket-i Hayriye ordered 6 paddle steamships from England. After three years of complicated shipping and assembly, their small fleet began ferrying passengers from Emin Eunou to the villages along the Bosporus, and across the Bosporus to Scutari. Although the ships carry passengers from all neighborhoods and ethnicities, all their ship captains are all Greek.

Traveling by steamer costs less than traveling by caique, but steamship captains stick to their company’s strict timetables, leaving a specific harbor on thier scheduled course.  A caiquejee takes his fares wherever and whenever they want to go, as long as they can pay. Because of their cheaper rates, Constantinople’s lower classes take regular passage on steamers to run errands, commute to lucrative jobs away from home, or visit relatives on the opposite side of the Bosporus.

Steamer Ferry Fares

Emin Eunou to Scutari                                       1 piastre

Emin Eunou to Tophane-                                  1 piastre

Emin Eunou to Orta Kui                                    2 piastres

Fares to the northerly villages along the Bosporus cost 2-4 piastres, depending on distance.                        

In addition to caiques and steamer ferries, the Bosporus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara teem with Ottoman, French, English, and Italian warships, fishing boats dragging nets full of fish, and barges carrying cargo, any of which may also provide transport if a traveler is headed their way and can persuade the crew to provide them with passage.

Bridges

While boat passage is the only transportation between the European shore and the Asian shore, anyone can cross the Golden Horn on foot. Throughout history, many bridges connected Stambul and Pera-Galata, but only two remain inside Constantinople: Hayratiye Bridge and Galata Bridge. Crowds of pedestrians, pack animals, even mule-drawn carts constantly cross to the opposite shore amid the performers, fishermen, and merchants set up on the bridges. The Golden Horn occasionally freezes over during winter allowing pedestrians to cross on frozen paths until laborers smash through the ice to free ships.

Hayratiye Bridge (Also Called The Bridge, or Jewish Bridge)

Sultan Mahmud II, reportedly at the urging of his favored wife, Bezmialem Valide Sultan, ordered the construction of a boat bridge spanning the Golden Horn. After its completion in 1837, the people of Constantinople dubbed it “Hayratiye Bridge”, meaning charity bridge.

Hayratiye Bridge has no piles driven into the waterbed. Instead, the bridge floats on buoyant pontoons made of iron, which replaced the original wooden pontoons in 1853. Two wooden drawbridges break up Hayratiye’s 1,300 foot length; their ascension lets ships sail up the Golden Horn.

Galata Bridge (also called the New Bridge, or the Valide Bridge)

In 1845, Sultan Abdulmejid, at the urging of his mother, Bezmialem Valide Sultan, ordered another bridge built downriver, connecting Galata’s southern shores with Emin Eunou. Much like Hayratiye Bridge, Galata Bridge floats on the Golden Horns waves on pontoons and raises its drawbridges for passing ships. Galata Bridge serves as the disembarkation point for steamers traveling up the Bosporus, across to Scutari, or south to the Sea of Marmora. The entire bridge received a complete overhaul in 1853,

Bridge tolls (Only Turkish Money Accepted)

Herd animal (goats, sheep, etc)                       3 paras

Pedestrians                                                           5 paras

Porters and others carrying good across       10 paras

Horses and riders                                               20 paras

Load bearing animals                                         20 paras

Horse-drawn carriages                                      2 ½ piastres

Although the tolls collected on the bridges fund the Ottoman Navy, rumors suggest Bezmialem Valide Sultan also collects a healthy income.