Le Vapeur Magique - TDİ Karakoy Pier
The year 1828... Istanbul is introduced to a vessel without oars and sails. Artemis Efendi, a silk merchant, buys a ship named Swift, a steam-powered vessel with two paddle wheels, as a gift for Sultan Mahmut II and brings it to Istanbul. The ship is named the Steamship. The French word “bateau à vapeur” (steamship) becomes “vapeur” and the smaller of these ships are called istimbot, adapted from the English “steamboat”, and the others are called steamboats. This is how our relationship with the word and ship “vapur” begins during the Ottoman period. Years pass and Turkey starts to produce its own “steamboats” and other boats, big and small. It advances. With new technologies, city passenger ships are built with the comforts of their age.
