Wooden boats of all sizes; rowing boats and fishing boats, an Istanbul steam ferry and a British-made tug. What they have in common is that they were all made by the same person, none of them go to sea, and they are small. That is because they are models, the result of months and years of painstaking work. Originals that have long since disappeared live on in these scale replicas of Istanbul's ships and boats. For anyone interested in Istanbul's maritime history they are a fascinating source of information.
The man who made them is Mehmet Özkasim, who spent years with boats before beginning to construct models of them. He has lived in Istanbul since he was one year old and is now 76. For half of his life he lived on the Bosphorus, which he has sailed in boats of every kind, gone fishing in them and out rowing.

'In those days boat owners used to compete to see whose was the best,' he says. 'I love the sea and boats. I was in the timber trade, and in the course of my job I got to know all the boat builders and learnt the finer details of boat building. I began to make models, and the more I made the more I loved doing it.'
Mehmet Özkasim does not just make models that look like the originals, but uses the identical materials. If the keel of a real alamana (a kind of fishing smack) was made of oak and the ribs of ash, so are those of his models. Oak, beech, ash and pitch pine are the timbers used in boat building. 'These woods were used by builders for specific reasons,' he explains. 'Ash, for instance, is extremely strong. It does not break easily and stretches. Fir and linden, on the other hand, snap immediately. Builders have tried all kinds of woods and arrived at the most suitable.'

Mehmet Özkasim was left with only the photographs, but he was not deterred. He sought out master boat builders in Ayvansaray, a centre of wooden boat building on the Golden Horn, and armed with the details he needed drew his design and built the model.
Until the 1970s Istanbul's fishermen continued to use the traditional alamana, which was 13-14 m in length and 2.5 m wide. Then boats with diesel engines and sheet metal hulls took over. Halis and Hüseyin Turgut, two brothers and boat builders of Ayvansaray, were the last to make an alamana. Other types of boats in Özkasim's collection which are no longer being built are the mavna (a type of lighter), the çektirme (a wooden cargo vessel), taka (a small Black Sea cargo vessel) and yalý sandalý (a type of rowing boat used on the Bosphorus).

Since he never sells any of his models, he has accumulated a large collection, and regrets not having a gallery where he could put them on permanent show. However, thanks to a website set up by a friend at least it is possible to view them on the Internet.

* Erdem Kabadayi is a freelance writer.