Khidr Head Submarine Museum

As one of the first submarines with high maneuverability and striking power after World War II, the USS Gudgeon (SS 567) was launched on June 11, 1952, in Portsmouth, USA. After serving in the US Navy for 30 years, the TCG Hızır Reis, which was hoisted under the Turkish flag in California on September 30, 1983, was handed over to the Turkish Navy and became part of the Submarine Fleet Command.

After its active service in the Turkish Navy ended on February 9, 2004, it was converted into a museum ship by the Naval Command and Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality and has been on display in İzmit, Kocaeli since October 29, 2004. With its 87-meter length and approximately 2,000-ton weight, alongside the TCG Gayret destroyer, the TCG Hızır Reis is considered a member of the Turkish navy, just like Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, after whom it is named.

The living spaces for the crew of the submarine, which has an average of 85 personnel, are extremely cramped. Seeing these narrow spaces, where even one person struggles to move around, once again reveals the harsh living conditions of the soldiers serving on the submarine. Their bunks are called "warm beds," so named because when one soldier goes on duty, another would lie down on the same bunk to rest, preventing the bunks from cooling down.

This submarine, which traveled miles and miles under the seas, opened its doors as Turkey's first submarine museum on October 29, 2004, 6.5 years after the TCG Gayret. We learned that this submarine consists of 7 separate watertight compartments, and its "sinking buoy" and propellers greet visitors at the museum's entrance alongside those of the TCG Gayret.