This classic wooden sailing yacht
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Further information concerning charter cruising in Greece and Turkey may be obtained by clicking on
the gray links immediately above. Thank You. In 1878 John Brown Herreshoff, a blind boat
builder from Bristol, Rhode Island, went into partnership with his younger brother, Nathanael Green
Herreshoff, a naval architect and steam engineer. The partnership was an immediate and lasting
success. The same love of competition and technological innovation that had made the two almost
unbeatable when as boys they raced sailboats together on Narragansett Bay so brought them fame as
builders of some of the world's fastest racing and cruising yachts. Between 1893 and 1914 the
Herreshoffs designed and built seven of the most powerful racing sloops the world had known, five
selected to defend the America's Cup. All five were victorious. The company also launched hundreds
of custom-designed yachts and a number of one-design classes. Among the one-designs was a group of
thirteen New York 40's (with a waterline length of 40 ft) including Vixen II now charter
cruising in Greece and Turkey. You may be searching for such a yacht. You are almost certainly
searching for a charter yacht cruising Greece and Turkey or you would not have been directed to this
web page. Greece and Turkey sit on the crossroads of history, including the maritime crossroads. The
Greek and Turkish Aegean and eastern Mediterranean have seen empires come and go, and the people
living here have watched the empires' sea captains make history. Among earlier sea captains of note
was Dionysius of Phocaea, now Foca, in the Gulf of Izmir. |
Phocaea during the millennium before the Christian era was a Greek maritime capital,
a principal city of Ionia sitting on the border with Aeolia. Seaman from Phocaea explored the entire
Mediterranean and founded distant colonies. Among these was Massalia, now Marseilles. Such a people
naturally took unkindly to arrival in 544 BC of the Persian Empire then supplanting the Lydian Empire.
They resisted for a full fifty years until the 494 BC Battle of Lade. Lade was an island off of
Ionian Miletus, then under Persian siege. Dionysius had command of the Ionian fleet which, according
to Herodotus, was 353 triremes strong. Unfortunately, the Persians had 600 Phoenician and Cypriot
triremes and a besieging army, as well. Many Ionian contingents, such as the Samians with 60 ships
and the Lesbians with 70 simply fled the scene. The Chians with 100 triremes, on the other hand,
fought until almost all were lost. Dionysius with three Phocaean triremes and three captured triremes
was the last to depart. He sailed not for Phocaea which he knew to be lost but rather for Phoenicia,
carrying the battle to the enemy. There he laid waste to merchant shipping before seeking haven in
Greek Sicily where, again according to Herodotus, he set up as a pirate plundering Carthaginians and
Etruscans but never Greeks. One small chapter at the crossroads of history. Come charter cruise Greece
and Turkey aboard Vixen II. While you holiday at the crossroads of history! While you 
island hop from Samos to Chios to Lesbos as did
Lesbians fleeing the Battle of Lade. And two millennia later as did Aruj, eldest of four Barbarossa
brothers, and as did Khizr, youngest. Or might you prefer to charter cruise the Turquoise Coast of
Turkey as did a third brother, Ilias, all three taking to the sea during the latter years of the
fifteenth century? First the Turquoise Coast and then the coasts of Pamphylia and Cilicia. The
offspring of a Greek Orthodox mother and a formerly Orthodox father living on Lesbos, these corsair
brothers grew to despise Latin Christians and were for the rest of their lives to take revenge for the
Fourth Crusade sacking of Greek Constantinople and attendant Latin occupation of Greek Aegean islands.
They did it not aboard charter yachts proceeding leisurely from clear-blue-sea locale to clear-blue-sea
locale, but rather aboard lateen-rigged galleys and galliots worked by free men and not by slaves.
Would you like to charter Vixen II for more relaxed purposes? There are no oars. Would you like to
charter Vixen II in Gocek? Are you searching for Gocek in Turkey? Well, Gocek is 42 nautical miles ENE
of Rhodes Town and 25 minutes by road from the international airport at Dalaman. In Gocek or elsewhere
we can put you aboard a crewed charter yacht for the holiday of a lifetime. We can put you aboard a
classic charter yacht and show you the tracks of Ionian triremes up and down the Aegean coast of Turkey
and among Aegean islands of Greece. And we can show you Ilias Barbarossa's path down the coast of Turkish
Lycia to Turkish Cilicia. Vixen II, a superb staysail schooner available for charter cruising in Greece
and Turkey. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at