Giresun

Giresun, which is located in the eastern Black Sea region of Anatolia, became a popular anchorage for ships because it is partially secluded and had a natural landing stage from stone since antiquity.[1] Lying on a peninsula, Giresun possessed two ports including Demirkapı to the east, and Lonca to the west.[2] Despite the limited connections of Giresun Port with the hinterland,  it was  a commercial port with limited trade.[3]

It is inferred from the repairs and some documents that the port was actually not very busy, hence its small size. It was generally not possible to see ships bigger than three-masted schooners in this port.[4] The fact that J. de Tournefort, who paid a visit Giresun in the 18^th century, described Giresun Port as very convenient for small warships and sailboats [5] indicates that it had always been a small port for small sailing craft. It was only in the last quarter of the 19^th century that the construction of a higher capacity port was started. These efforts came as a result of the wars and the necessity to use Giresun port in order to facilitate the flow of ship traffic, to serve exports and military transfer operations. [6] In order to develop the port and its usage port infrastructure had to be ameliorated. In a correspondence between the Provincial Administration of Trabzon and the Ministry of Navy in 1873, it is mentioned that there is no pier in the district of Giresun, and it is demanded that a stone pier be built at the area in front of the customs house and adjacent to the quarantine building, and an allowance be made for meeting the costs. [7] The efforts for expanding the port became successful, and Giresun became one of the important ports of the region. Within the province of Trabzon, it became one of the ports regularly visited by steamships, [8] and frequented by Russian, Austrian and French steamship lines. [9] One of the important reasons for this development was the fact that hazelnuts became a prime export commodity to international markets from there. An annual production of 2 to 3 million kilograms of hazelnuts, and an annual export value of 4 to 5 million francs increased the importance of the port. [10]

Consequently, Giresun Port, which is understood to be denied the value it deserved despite having been an important port since the antiquity, began to boom from the second half of the 19^th century, and, as a result, got a new landing stage with a higher capacity.

[1] Feridun Emecen, “XV. ve XVI. Yüzyıllarda Giresun ve Yöresine Ait Bilgiler”, Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi / Journal of Faculty of Education, Ondokuz Mayıs University, December 1989, issue 4, p. 157.

[2] İbrahim Güner-Ünsal Bekdemir; “Giresun Limanı ve Hinterlandı”, Türk Coğrafya Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Geography, issue: 34, 1999, p. 600.

[3] Güner-Bekdemir; “Giresun Limanı…”, p. 599; Emecen, “XV. ve XVI. Yüzyıllarda Giresun…”, p. 161.

[4] Özgür Yılmaz, “19. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında İngiliz Konsolos Belgelerine Göre Giresun (1856-1900)”, Uluslararası Giresun ve Doğu Karadeniz Sosyal Bilimler Sempozyumu, Papers I, Giresun Municipality, 2008, pp. 529-530.

[5] Joseph de Tournefort, Tournefort Seyahatnamesi, vol. 2, (Ed.: Stefanos Yerasimos; Transl.: T. Tunç Doğan), Kitap Yayınevi, Istanbul, 2013, p. 118.

[6] Selahattin Tozlu, “Giresun Şehrinin Kara ve Deniz Ulaşımı (XIX. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında)”, Yeşil Giresun Gazetesine Göre Cumhuriyetin İlk Yılları Sempozyumu, Papers, Giresun, 2003, p. 185.

[7] Doğan Yavaş, “Arşiv Belgelerine Göre 19. Yüzyılda Giresun Şehri ve Kalesindeki İmar Faaliyetleri”, Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi / Journal of Social Sciences, Faculty of Science and Letters, Uludağ University, issue: 26, 2014/1, p. 41-42.

[8] Trabzon Vilayet Salnamesi 1311 (1893), p. 114.

[9] Trabzon Vilayet Salnamesi 1287 (1870), p. 76.

[10] Louis Rambert, Gizli Notlar, (Transl.: N. Ahmet Banoğlu), Tercüman 1001 Temel Eser, Undated, p. 124.