Seyit Onbaşı (Seyit Ali Çabuk)

Seyit Ali Çabuk, also known as Seyit Onbaşı (September 1889 - 1 December 1939), was a Turkish soldier who fought on the Çanakkale Front in World War I.

During World War I, while he was on duty at the Rumeli Mecidiye Bastion on the Çanakkale front, he managed to place allegedly very heavy artillery shells into his mount and hit the British Battleship Ocean from the rudder, causing it to go out of control and hit a mine and sink. The narrative of this real event experienced by Corporal Seyit has turned into a legendary narrative in the public imagination.

His Life

He was born in September 1889 in the village of Manastır (later known as Çamlık, now known as Koca Seyit village) in the Havran district of Balıkesir. His father was Abdurrahman and his mother was Emine. He joined the Ottoman Army in 1909. He fought in the Balkan War. With the start of World War I, he started working as an artilleryman on the Çanakkale Front in 1914. He was on duty at the Rumeli Mecidiye Bastion when the Allied fleet, which wanted to pass through the Dardanelles and go to Istanbul, intensively bombarded the redoubts on the Anatolian and Rumelian lines on March 18, 1915. During the bombardment, a bullet fired from enemy ships hit the ammunition depot in Seyit Ali's battery and blew it up; Fourteen of the men in the battery lost their lives and twenty-four were injured. Only Seyit Ali and his friend named Niğdeli Ali escaped unhurt. Only one of the battery's guns was usable. The intense counterfire of Turkish artillery and the mines previously placed by the Nusret minelayer repelled the attack. Admiral De Robeck, the head of the Allied fleet, asked the fleet to slowly move towards the strait at 17.50. During the bombardment, the lever part of the only remaining working gun on the redoubt, which lifted the bullet, broke down, so Seyit Ali, with the help of his friend Niğdeli Ali, loaded a bullet onto his back and fired at the ship opposite him. With his third shot, he hit HMS Ocean, one of the largest warships of the British, from its steering gear (rear propeller). The cannon hit the bottom of the waterline of the ship, causing it to tilt sideways. As the ship became uncontrollable, it hit one of the mines laid by the Nusret minelayer. The battleship Ocean sank in the water opposite the area where the Çanakkale Martyrs' Monument is located today, known as Eskihisarlık, in some sources around 18:00, in some sources around 22:00, and the Allied navy left Çanakkale. Seyit Ali was given the title of corporal as a reward.
Various sources contain different information about the weight of the cannonballs that Corporal Seyit lifted that day. The cannonball, which is reported to be 276 kg in some research, actually weighs 215 kg. However, due to the difference in weight units with Germany during the Ottoman period, the weight of the bullet, which was mistakenly 215 kg, was recorded as 215 okka (approximately 276 kg). [citation needed] From the battle on display at the Mecidiye Bastion. Researchers, who weighed the artillery shell with a precision scale, determined that the net mass carried by Corporal Seyit was 215 kilograms. After that shot, the Fortified Position Commander asked Corporal Seyit Ali to take a photo on the back of the cannonball, but Corporal Seyit Ali could not lift the cannonball no matter how hard he tried. Thereupon, only a wooden bullet model could be taken for the Harp Magazine. It was published in the second issue of Harp Magazine. In early April, 19th Squadron Division Commander Mustafa Kemal hosted him at his headquarters in Bigalı village.
Seyit Ali, who was discharged in 1918 and returned to his village, continued his work in forestry and coal mining. His first daughter, named Ayşe (1911), from his first wife, Emine, was born before the war. His second daughter, Fatma, was born in 1922. He was called to the army again during the War of Independence and participated in the Great Offensive that started on August 26, 1922. After losing his first wife, Emine Hanım, Seyit Ali made his second marriage with Hatice Hanım. From this marriage, he had three sons named Ramazan, Osman and Abdurrahman. While traveling from Balıkesir to Çanakkale in 1934, he met with President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who stayed in Havran. He took the surname Çabuk with the Surname Law. In the last years of his life, he earned his living as a porter in an olive oil factory and later by mending shoes. He died of pneumonia on December 1, 1939.

Monuments

After his death, the name of his village was changed to "Kocaseyit". The Koca Seyit Monument was built in 2006 to represent all the martyrs at the place where his grave is located. The Monument Area includes the Koca Seyit statue, Atatürk statue, monument, museum and cannon. The monument was designed by Tankut Öktem and completed by Pınar Öktem Doğan and Oylum Öktem İşözen from his family, due to Öktem's death. To symbolize the heroism of Seyit Ali, a statue made of bronze and salt by sculptor Hüseyin Anka Özkan was erected in 1996 on the border of Kilitbahir village, where the Rumeli Mecidiye Bastion, which is identified with him, is located. The statue was removed in 2006 on the grounds that it showed Seyit Ali carrying a cannonball in his arms rather than on his back. It was re-installed in Mecidiye Bastion in November 2010. A 4-meter statue depicting Seyit Ali in military clothes, wearing a skullcap called kabalak, and carrying the bullet on his back, and made by sculptor Eray Okkan with a combination of fiber epoxy, polyester and tile material, to be coated in bronze later, was placed in a park in Eceabat district