Under Five Flags: Miguirditch Gumuchdjian, an Armenian shipowner of Constantinople and London 1900–1932

AbstractThe shipping interests of Miguirditch Gumuchdjian stemmed from a coal enterprise established in Constantinople in the mid-1890s. A local business partnership operating as coal-mine proprietors and ship owners acquired its first vessel around 1900. From 1902 Gumuchdjian focused on coal importing and shipping, further vessels being acquired or managed under different flags between 1910 and 1914. In the early twentieth century the Turkish coal industry and the prevailing geopolitical situations presented both opportunities and risks. These factors were shaped by external conflicts, demands for independence within the widespread territories of the Ottoman empire, rising Turkish nationalism and the empire’s decline, resulting in the declaration of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The First World War proved eventful, with vessels requisitioned for war service and sunk by Allied naval actions. As an Armenian Christian, Gumuchdjian’s personal situation became difficult, necessitating a temporary relocation to London between 1915 and 1919 and a permanent move in 1923. His London-based shipping and trading business continued until 1932, when financial and management problems led to its closure. These events are examined in relation to the external contexts and the changing fortunes of a small shipping enterprise over more than three decades.Key words: Balkan WarsFirst World WarOttoman empireTurkeyArmeniaBlack SeaAnatolian coastRussian Black Sea FleetBosphorusDardanellesSea of MarmoraRoyal NavyConstantinopleLondonshipping AcknowledgmentsThe author is grateful to Margaret and Paul Flavell for introducing him to the Gumuchdjian story and in encouraging further research. Thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers for their interest, comments and suggestions, and to Neil Datson for drawing attention to the RNAS aerial torpedo attack in the Sea of Marmora in August 1915 on a Gumuchdjian vessel in Ottoman service. Acknowledgments also to the archives and libraries whose records are referenced. The only published material located that focuses specifically on the Gumuchdjian and CICA shipping interests is a brief history and fleet list by F. Hermans in The Belgian Shiplover in 1961, which is acknowledged as framing the context and research for the article.Notes1 The Turkish Straits comprise the Bosphorus Strait, Sea of Marmora and Dardanelles Strait. The development of Constantinople (Istanbul) as a maritime centre is described by Harlaftis and Kardasis, International Shipping, 249–64. Maritime developments in the wider region are addressed in an EU- and Greek-funded collaborative research project: see the Black Sea Working Papers at: https://project.blacksea.gr/. Papers relevant as context to this article include Eldem and Laiou (eds), Istanbul and the Black Sea, and Mahmuzlu, ‘The Transformation of Merchant Shipping’, 123–56.2 Quataert, Miners and the State, 27–30. Geyikdaği, Foreign Investment, 108–11.3 The family name Gumuchdjian has variant spellings derived from Armenian, classical and modern Turkish, English or French versions of the name, together with transcription or reading errors from original documents. Variants include Geumeushian, Gumuchian, Gumusian, Gumushian, Gumuschian, Gumughdgian, Gumutchian, Gümçiyan, Gümüçiyan, Gümüșyan, Gümüșciyân and Gümüșçüyan. Variants in the given name Miguirditch arise in records with i/e transpositions or substitutions; Miguirditch Gumuchdjian is rendered as Mağridic Gumușciyan in some Turkish sources.4 Miguirditch Gumuchdjian is believed to have been born in 1864 or 1865. The first evidence found of his business activities is in the Annuaire Oriental directory (1895), 308, 526.5 The National Archives (hereafter TNA), BT31/32589/191835 M Gumuchdjian: Company Incorporated and Dissolved, Memorandum of Association, 10 Aug. 1923, para. 3.6 TNA: J13/13396 M Gumuchdjian: Winding-up Proceedings, Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 4–7.7 One also sailed under the flag of the Allied Maritime Transport Council (AMTC) used by former belligerent vessels after the First World War. This ensign (equal white-blue-white horizontal stripes) was flown at sea with the relevant national flag.8 Hermans, The Belgian Shiplover, 48–50.9 Quataert, Miners and the State, 39.10 Initially under the Ministry of Marine’s control, moving to the Ministry of Public Works in 1908 and the Ministry of Commerce, Agriculture and Mines in 1909: Quataert, Miners and the State, 38.11 Quataert, Miners and the State, 29, 39.12 Ibid., 29, 43.13 Ibid., 27, 29.14 SOH is Ereğli Şirketi Osmaniyesi in Turkish.15 Quataert, Miners and the State, 29.16 Ibid., 29. SOH is cited as producing two thirds of output from the Zonguldak coalfields by Geyikdaği, Foreign Investment, 120.17 Quataert, Miners and the State, 28–9.18 Geyikdaği, Foreign Investment, 114.19 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (hereafter HCPP), Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Annual Series no. 2650: Turkey – Report for the Years 1899–1900 on the Trade of Constantinople, C. 429–108 (Jul. 1901), 12.20 Quataert, Miners and the State, 25–6 and 36. Distances calculated from searoutes.com.21 Ibid., 28, 30.22 Ibid., 29–30.23 Geyikdaği, Foreign Investment, 108–11. HCPP, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Annual Series No. 2650: Turkey – Report for the Years 1899–1900 on the Trade of Constantinople, C. 429–108 (Jul. 1901), 3–4.24 The underlying causes of the 1912–13 Balkan Wars are noted by Hall, The Balkan Wars, 21.25 The politics of the period 1908–13 are described by Gingeras, Fall of the Sultanate, 54–100 and Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, 1–28.26 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping: Annual Statistics Summary 1914–15 lists the Turkish merchant fleet tonnage comprising 142 steamships of 68,096 net, 116,317 gross and 60 sail vessels of 16,841 net.27 Annuaire Oriental (1895), 308, 526.28 Annuaire Oriental (1900), 382, 660.29 Annuaire Oriental (1901), 396, 651, 679. Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index, 30 Nov. 1900, listed as Seyar; first listed in Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1900–1.30 Annuaire Oriental (1902), 444, 765.31 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1902–3. The owner of the Seyyar (I) was listed as Mme ‘J’ Gumuchdjian or simply ‘J’ Gumuchdjian until the 1908–9 edition; from her signature on bank records, this is assessed as a misprint of the initial ‘I’ for Isgouhi Gumuchdjian, known from census and family history records to be the wife of Miguirditch Gumuchdjian: SALT Research, Ottoman Bank, Depôts de Titre, Gumuchdjian Isgouhi, 12 Jun. 1915.32 Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index, 21 and 28 Nov., 3 Dec. 1907 (including Salvage Association telegrams). Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1908–9.33 Annuaire Oriental (1909), 602, 1090.34 Mütercimler, Development of Turkish Shipping, 2004 web version (subsequently offline).35 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1911–12. All three vessels had been laid up or inactive before their purchase in Jun. 1910 (Seyyar (II)), Aug./Sep. 1910 (Mahmoud Chefket Pasha) and Oct. 1910 (On Temmuz) (dates from Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index).36 Voyage particulars from Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index, issues 1910 and 1911.37 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1913–14. Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, app. 12, 195. Öndeș, Ferry Owners and Agency History, 56–7. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1911–12 and 1912–13 cite the first three vessels purchased as being owned by Gumuchdjian. Langensiepen and Güleryüz cite the owner of the Mahmoud Chefket Pasha as the state-owned Osmanli SSI, which may relate to a charter in the wars of that period or a later period of direct state ownership. Voyage details reported in Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index are incomplete owing to non-reporting and/or military censorship. The poor availability of Ottoman shipping in mobilizing for the Balkan Wars is noted also by Yasamee, Armies Defeated, 253.38 La Jeune Turquie, 1 Feb. 1911. HCPP, Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Annual Series no. 2950: Turkey – Report for the Year 1902 on the Trade of Constantinople, Cd. 1386–27 (Apr. 1903), 30.39 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1914–15.40 Annuaire Oriental (1913), 490, 790, 1205.41 Sözer, Marine Trade Structure, 117, lists ‘Gümüșciyân’ (i.e. Gumuchdjian) agencies in Rize, Trabzon, Ordu, Giresun, Samsun and Inebolu.42 Ibid., 24–5, 121. Some translations from Turkish of the funnel markings as ‘beyaz ay yildiz’ refer to ‘white moon [and] stars’ in the plural, while others suggest a ‘white star and crescent’; both forms, with single or multiple stars, are found in various cultural and historical contexts.43 Murayiev, St Andrew Against the Kaiser, 79; the German warships were Goeben (Ottoman Yavuz Sultan Selim) and Breslau (Ottoman Medilli).44 UK Board of Trade, Wreck Report no. 7666 ‘Belgian King’, 29 Dec. 1914. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1914–15. TNA: BT110/251/27 Ship ‘Belgian King’, Official Number 94663, 1914. Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index noted that the British-flagged vessel was ‘really owned and managed by an Armenian firm’ (5 Nov. 1914).45 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1914–15.46 Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1914–15. At the outbreak of war, the vessel is stated by some sources as marooned in the Black Sea by the closure of the Turkish Straits, but Lloyd’s Weekly Shipping Index reports it over a long period at the Mediterranean port of Alexandretta. Hermans, The Belgian Shiplover, suggests that the vessel was bought by Gumuchdjian in 1913–14, rather than 1914 specifically.47 The Djeyhun (ex-Ella) and Mahmoud Chefket Pasha were sunk in the Sea of Marmora by the Royal Navy and the On Temmuz, Zonguldak and Seyyar (II) in the Black Sea by Russian naval forces: Lloyd’s Official Report, Prizes of War, War Casualties and Vessels and Cargoes Detained, corrected to 28 Feb. 1917, 34–6.48 TNA: HO45/11265 Petitions of Rights: M Gumuchdjian, Claim Against War Office, 1922–3, 1, para. 1.49 Murayiev, St Andrew Against the Kaiser, 77.50 The Kerch Strait, the Crimea with its naval base at Sevastopol, and Odessa. Murayiev, St Andrew Against the Kaiser, 78.51 Ibid.52 Ibid., 81–2. Halpern, Naval History, 226.53 Ibid., 85. Halpern, Naval History, 233.54 Russian State Naval Archives, St Petersburg (hereafter RGAVMF): Pervaya Mirovaya voyna. Deystviya na Chernom more [Первая Мировая война. Действия на Черном море] [First World War: Actions on the Black Sea 1914–1917], period 5–8 Mar. 1915. TNA: ADM137/1389 Russia: Phillimore Reports, Oct. 1915–Nov. 1916, fo. 112. Halpern, Naval History, 230. Greger, Russian Fleet, 48, 68. Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 47. Nekrasov, North of Gallipoli, 48.55 RGAVMF, Actions on the Black Sea, 10 Aug. 1915. TNA, ADM137/1389 Russia: Phillimore Reports, Oct. 1915–Nov. 1916, fo. 113. Halpern, Naval History, 234. Greger, Russian Fleet, 50, 69. Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 49. Nekrasov, North of Gallipoli, 63. Some sources suggest that the Zonguldak was torpedoed, rather than sunk by the submarine’s gunfire.56 RGAVMF: Actions on the Black Sea, 13 Mar. 1916. Greger, Russian Fleet, 53, 68. Nekrasov, North of Gallipoli, 87. Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 50.57 Halpern, Naval History, 109–24. See also, for example, Bell, Churchill and Sea Power, 59–75.58 Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 36–7.59 London Gazette, 25 Jun. 1915. Lt Cmdr Nasmith subsequently became known as Dunbar-Nasmith.60 TNA: ADM137/382 Sea of Marmora, Report of Proceedings of HM Submarines 1915, 62 (asbound, page ix in original report). A similar account without identifying the target by name is inthe E11 war log (Imperial War Museum, catalogue ref. LBY K. 15/928, May–Jun. 1915, 13). Otheraccounts record the vessel sunk as Djahun (Lorey, War in Turkish Waters, vol. 2, 137) and Ceyhan(Lambert, Submarine Service, 313; Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 37).61 Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 39.62 TNA: ADM137/382 Sea of Marmora, Report of Proceedings of HM Submarines 1915, 133 (asbound, page 9 in original report).63 TNA: ADM137/382 Sea of Marmora, Report of Proceedings of HM Submarines 1915, 148 (as bound, page 4 in original report). A similar account without identifying the target by name is in the E11 war log (Imperial War Museum, catalogue ref. LBY K. 15/928, Aug.-Sep. 1915, 4).64 TNA: AIR1/665/17/122/716 Report of Seaplane Attack with Torpedoes, 1915. Jones, The War in the Air, vol. 2, 64. Accounts of the air attack by an RNAS Short Type 184 seaplane differ. Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 33 suggest that ‘Although the pilot . . . reports hitting the ship, the torpedo fails to explode’. The flight report (TNA: AIR1/2393/238/1 Memo by W/Cdr Edmonds on Torpedo Attack on Enemy Shipping, Dardanelles, 14 Aug. 1915) states, ‘The explosion sent a column of water and large fragments of the ship almost as high as her masthead’. The flight report refers to a vessel with one funnel and four masts, whereas the submarine logs state that the ship is a ‘two-masted, one-funnelled’ vessel; earlier and contemporary photographs of the ship suggest the latter description is correct.65 The subsequent wartime role of this vessel was noted in an agent’s report (CX813) dated 14 Aug. 1915: TNA: ADM137/4068 Naval Operations Against Turkey: Reports Received in NID, 1914–16, fo. 63.66 Halpern, Naval History, 250–1. Murayiev, St Andrew Against the Kaiser, 91.67 Halpern, Naval History, 238.68 TNA: HO45/11265 Petitions of Right: M Gumuchdjian, Claim Against War Office, 28 Aug. 1922, 1, para. 1.69 Nemlioğlu Koca, ‘Maritime Policies and Cabotage Enforcements’, 851, citing 1923 Istanbul Chamber of Commerce sources, suggests that Turkey lost 164 ships, 48 tugs and 200 sailing ships in the conflict. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, Annual Statistical Summary 1919-20 listed the Turkish merchant fleet as comprising only 102 steamships of 98,817 grt and 59 sailing vessels of 17,432 grt.70 Nemlioğlu Koca, ‘Maritime Policies and Cabotage Enforcements’, 851, cites four Gümüșciyan (i.e. Gumuchdjian) vessels being lost during the war; this figure likely refers to Ottoman-flagged vessels at the start of the war, thus excluding the Belgian-flagged managed vessel Ella (later Djeyhun) seized at the outbreak of war. Various British Admiralty reports also list Gumuchdjian vessels, with numbers and names varying according to the purpose and date of the report: one from Athens dated 4 Sep. 1915 (no. 232) mentions the Mahmoud Chefket Pasha (3,000 tons), On Temmuz (2,000 tons) and Ella (3,000 tons) (as Djeyhun) as ‘owned by Mr Gumushian’ (author’s quote marks): TNA: ADM137/4068 Naval Operations Against Turkey: Reports Received in NID, 1914–16, fo. 91. Some sources list ‘Om Temuz’ being sunk in the Sea of Marmora: Ibid., fo. 97 (from Messagero Egiziano, undated, but Oct./Nov. 1915).71 Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 178. Movements derived from Lloyd’s Daily Index. The First Armenian Republic lasted from 1918 to 1920.72 Allied Maritime Transport Council, 1918.73 TNA: HO45/11265 Petitions of Right: M Gumuchdjian etc., 1922–3, 1, paras 2–3. TNA: MT25/23 Allied Maritime Transport Council House Flag, 1918.74 TNA: HO45/11265 Petitions of Right: M Gumuchdjian etc., 1922–3, 1–2, paras 4–6.75 Ibid., 2–3, paras 7–9.76 Ibid., 4.77 TNA: BT31/32589/191835 M Gumuchdjian: Company Incorporated and Dissolved, Memorandum of Association and Certificate of Incorporation, 10 Aug. 1923.78 TNA: BT31/32589/191835 M Gumuchdjian: Company Incorporated and Dissolved, Purchase Agreement, 14 Aug. 1923, 1–2, preamble and paras 1–2. The assets included two steamships (Constantin and Ararat), two small tugs (named Bebek and Fener), together with leases on offices, stores depot and warehouse and stores in Galata, Constantinople, cash and securities. The salepurchase consideration was £39,998 in shares and a £20,000 debenture at £6 per cent per annum.79 Ibid., 1–2, paras 1–2. TNA: J13/13396 Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 3, para. 7.80 Langensiepen and Güleryüz, Ottoman Steam Navy, 178. HCPP, Department of Overseas Trade, General Report on the Trade and Economic Conditions of Turkey for the Year 1919, Cmd. 942 (1920), 181.81 TNA: BT110/607/22 Ship ‘River Tyne’, Official Number 98081, 1921–30.82 Ibid. TNA: J13/13396 M Gumuchdjian: Winding-up Proceedings, Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 4–5, paras 10–12.83 Ibid., Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 5, paras 12–13. Details for the Ani at Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank.84 Ibid., Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 6, para. 14.85 Ibid., Receiver’s Observations, 8 May 1933, 6–7, paras 15–19; also, Receiver’s Working Papers, Deficiency Account List.86 TNA: J13/13396 M Gumuchdjian: Winding-up Proceedings, High Court of Justice, Chancery Division submissions: 24 Mar. 1932, 8 May, 12 Oct. and 10 Nov. 1933. London Gazette, 13 May 1932, 3215; 13 Feb. 1934, 1068; and 29 May 1936, 3450.87 TNA: J13/13396 M Gumuchdjian: Winding-up Proceedings, Receiver’s Report, 10 Nov. 1933, 2 pp.88 Hermans, The Belgian Shiplover, 50. The Stichting Maritiem-Historische Databank listing for the Ani suggests that the ship was broken up at Genoa, not Trieste.89 Annuaire Oriental entries 1900–9.Additional informationNotes on contributorsRoger DenceRoger Dence is an independent maritime history researcher and a member of the Society for Nautical Research. He studied for an MA in the History of War at King’s College, London, UK. Previously he worked in technical journalism, in high-technology fields in public relations, marketing and management roles, and as a lecturer in management education.