The “Beylerbeyi,” a 1955-built ferry operated by Şehir Hatları with a capacity of 789 passengers, was pulling up to the Beşiktaş pier around late afternoon… The silhouette of Üsküdar on the opposite shore was clearly visible. Near the tobacco warehouses… The ferry’s bow is facing north. At this hour, there would never be any village-style ferries returning toward Eminönü. They all carried their evening passengers one after another toward the Bosphorus.
The shadow of the anchor is cast downward. This means the sun has moved behind the ferry’s left side and is casting its rays diagonally, so that the anchor’s shadow falls at a steep angle, gently touching the ground. It was the afternoon, but the sun had not yet begun to set. The reflections of sunlight on the ferry’s hull were proof of this. So, it must have been around 4:00–5:00 p.m….
This steamship was definitely one of the regular Bosphorus ferries. At that time, only one ferry departed from Eminönü Pier No. 3 for the Bosphorus: the 4:05 p.m. “Eminönü–Yeniköy” service. After this ferry, there were no more ferries heading toward the Bosphorus from the Bridge side until exactly 5:25 p.m.—all the way to the Çengelköy shuttle. The 4:05 p.m. ferry did not return and docked at Yeniköy at exactly 6:00 p.m. It was, so to speak, a true “Beggar’s Ferry.” It stopped at nearly every pier along the Bosphorus. After resting in Yeniköy for about half an hour, it would join the “Yeniköy-Beykoz” loop, picking up rush-hour passengers while making a few round trips between the two shores… In the morning, it would depart from Beykoz around 6:30 and head toward the Köprü return route, returning to Istanbul.
At exactly 4:05 p.m., the steamship would depart from Eminönü with a sharp whistle loud enough to echo through the neighborhoods of Yemiş, Fermeneciler, Rüstempaşa, Kemankeş, and Sirkeci, and, proceeding parallel to the Beyoğlu shore, pass Tophane and Fındıklı, Kabataş, and Dolmabahçe, passing about eighty to ninety meters off the Dolmabahçe pier at a moderate speed, and docked at “Beşiktaş” in exactly 13 minutes without a single delay. So, the time was 4:18 p.m. the moment the “Beylerbeyi” came into view… It would wait at the pier for just two minutes, pick up any additional passengers, and cast off at exactly 4:20 p.m. Following the coastline, it would reach Ortaköy; after departing from there at 4:30 p.m., it would then turn its course toward the opposite shore, to Kuzguncuk…
The green awnings—intended to shield passengers from the sun, even if only slightly, by covering the long wooden benches on the lower deck—would be retracted on this particular voyage. Because the people of Istanbul love the sun after four o’clock; it neither burns nor chills. The pungent smell of iodine that stings the throat and the occasional droplets of cool, salty water that rise from the sea’s surface and land on your cheeks and forehead only add to the pleasure of this special journey, one of the steaming cups of tea on the tray carried by the waiter in his snow-white uniform is purchased with cash paid in advance, and accompanied by the fragrant, smoke-rising teacup, one wishes this beautiful journey would never end.
Judging by the fact that some people on the ferry are in short sleeves while others are wearing jackets and coats, we can say it’s spring. But it can’t be spring, because if it were, the hundreds of Judas trees on the slopes of Üsküdar across the strait would be in bloom, and their leaves would be turning a light green. Yet the trees have turned dark green—so it must be fall!…
16:05 I’ve taken the Yeniköy ferry from Eminönü quite a few times… Admittedly, as I mentioned, there was no way back to the Bridge, but to get down to the Eminönü-Karaköy side, we’d take the municipal buses running parallel to the shore. Of course, no journey could be as enjoyable or delightful as a ferry ride. Coming back in those 1975-model İETT buses—stacked one on top of the other, sweaty, swaying back and forth as they struggled through traffic, and without air conditioning—was, unfortunately, the thorny part of the experience.
“Beylerbeyi” was a regular stop on that route back then. Who knows—maybe we, too, were hidden somewhere in that picture, standing on the open edge of the ferry’s lower deck with tea, simit, and cigarettes in hand, together with my school friends. Nowadays, both the Beylerbeyi ferry and the 16:05 mail boat are nothing but a memory…