Winston Churchill, the British Navy Minister, said "None of the more than five thousand warships operating in the world's seas is as effective as Nusret. Nusret stated that there is no other ship that affects the course of the war as much as the mines dumped by the warship.

The success of the Nusret Mine Ship

The Nusret minelayer was built in Germany. Malatya Arapgirli became one of the first mine laying ships to enter service in the Ottoman navy with the initiative of Cevat Pasha.

The real name of the ship is Nusrat. But over time it was used as Nusret. The shipyard maintenance of this ship, which has an important place among the historical ships, was carried out in 1911. After completing the maintenance, he took his place in the Ottoman Navy in 1913.

In the spring of 1915, Allied ships started counting the days for the attack on Anatolia. On the other hand, they bombarded the Turkish bastions at the entrance of the Dardanelles with ship cannons. It was also known that they would undergo a major attack with the activities of their reconnaissance flights and mine clearing ships.

Recognizing this situation, the Fortified Area Command decided to lay 26 remaining mines in the Dark Harbor. The Nusret minelayer laid mines at the said port on the Anatolian side. Although British minesweepers and planes continued to work, they could not find these mines dumped by the Ottoman navy.

The mines dumped by Nusret sent their armored Bouvet and Bolva ships to the depths of the sea with a crew of 641 people.

After this successful move, the Nusret minelayer made another move that would change the course of the war. The famous minelayer caused irreparable damage to the battleship HMS Inflexible, leaving the ship out of the war.

The mines laid by Nusret changed the fate of the Dardanelles War on 18 March 1915. Thanks to this success, he has been awarded the title of the world's most famous minelaying ship.

Nusret After the War

The Nusret minelayer was purchased for freight transport in 1962. The ship, called Kaptan Nusret, continued to serve as a dry cargo ship. It capsized in 1990 in Mersin offshore. However, it was resurfaced by volunteers in 1999.

The Nusret minelayer was turned into a monument in 2003 after the works of the Tarsus municipality gave results.