Turkish Navy to re-enact goodwill voyage to Japan

The Turkish Navy will launch an expedition to commemorate the sinking of an Ottoman frigate on a goodwill voyage to Japan in 1890.

The expedition will follow a route through the Indian Ocean to reach Japan, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Jan. 3.

"Turkey will once again carry the flag of friendship which the Ertuğrul Frigate took with it 125 years ago," said Davutoğlu in the southern province of Osmaniye during the ground-breaking ceremony of an iron and steel production facility under a Turkish-Japanese joint enterprise.

The prime minister said the decision to revive the voyage came during an earlier meeting with Gen. Necdet Özel, the chief of the general staff.     

More than 580 sailors died while only 69 survived when the frigate was caught in a typhoon off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture, and subsequently drifted into a reef and sank off Kushimoto.    

The people of Kushimoto helped the stranded sailors, an event seen as a milestone in the historic friendly ties between Turkey and Japan.