Just off the main street, Cevat Şakir Caddesi, the museum is dedicated to Bodrum’s seafaring past, particularly as a centre of sponge diving. There are many fine models of typical tirhandil boats as well as portraits and memorabilia of the sailors. A section is devoted to the life of Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, the writer known as The Fisherman of Halicarnassus, who came to Bodrum as an exile and made the town famous with his tales about the lives of the locals. The first-floor gallery has an exhibition of the Hasan Gulesci collecion of some 5,000 sea shells from around the world.