Type Military facility | In use 1926 - present | |
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Pastcommanders Associate Prof. Dr. Eng. Rear Admiral Nurhan Kahyaoğlu | ||
Gölcük Naval Shipyard (Turkish: Gölcük Donanma Tersanesi) is a naval shipyard of the Turkish Navy within the Gölcük Naval Base on the east coast of the Sea of Marmara in Gölcük, Kocaeli. Established in 1926, the shipyard serves for the building and the maintenance of military vessels. A total of 3,221 personnel are employed at the shipyard stretching over an area of 255,526 m2 (2,750,460 sq ft) with covered structures of 121,466 m2 (1,307,450 sq ft).
Contents
History
To repair the war damages of the Turkish battlecruiser TCG Yavuz after World War I, a floating drydock, large enough to hold the big vessel, was needed. The site chosen was Gölcük on the southern shore of the Gulf of İzmit. With the construction of the floating drydock and the housing barracks by the German shipbuilding company Flender Werke, Gölcük Naval Shipyard was established in 1926.
The maintenance facilities were extended in 1942 with various other buildings, such as machine plant and foundry, stretching over a big swampland, a small lake and hazelnut orchard fields in Gölcük. The Convention on the Turkish straits, part of the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923, banned military facilities in the Turkish Straits. So, Turkish Navy's infrastructure, like shipyards and naval facilities, at the Golden Horn and İstinye in Istanbul were systematically relocated to Gölcük.
The principal development of the shipyard took place after 1947 within the frame of NATO subsidies. Gölcük Naval Shipyard is today capable of building ships like submarines, corvettes, frigates, landing ships and commercial vessels up to 30.000 DWT. It is the second biggest shipbuilding facility in Turkey after Pendik Naval Shipyard in Tuzla, Istanbul.
Milestones
Following the completion of repair works on TCG Yavuz, the shipyard started with the building of its first ship. On July 26, 1934, an oil tanker was laid down. The 58.60 m (192.3 ft) long vessel was constructed in 16 months, named MT Gölcük after the shipyard and launched on November 1, 1935, being also the first ship built in the Republican era. MT Gölcük served until 1983.
In 1980, an Ay class submarine of 1,000 tons was constructed at the Gölcük Naval Shipyard marking an important turning point in the Turkish shipbuilding history. Also, the building of a modern frigate, the TCG Fatih (F 242), in 1988 earned the naval shipyard international prestige.
As of January 4, 2008, a total of 454 vessels were built at Gölcük Naval Shipyard.