A floating shelter for the displaced

The dinner theater is now a daycare center where children search through boxes of donated toys. The beauty salon has become a one-man barbershop.

On a recent afternoon, young lads were racing across the wide decks that run the length of it Twins, a cruise ship floating off the coast of southern Turkey. Families sipped tea and looked out at an amphitheater of mountains embracing the lives lost under the rubble of two earthquakes that decimated much of Turkey and western Syria.

Earthquake survivors aboard the cruise ship Gemini watch TV coverage of the quake at Iskenderun Port. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

“We’re in a strange dream — it’s haunting,” said Basak Atay, a 30-year-old nurse. She has spent the last few days with her family on the 164-metre luxury ship, which has become a haven for some of the estimated 1.7 million Turks displaced by the tremors and their aftershocks.

“I never thought I would be on a cruise to nowhere at a moment like this,” said Ms Atay, who lost family and friends in the tremors.

The ship, which used to carry holidaymakers from Turkey to the Greek islands, is harboring more than 1,000 survivors at the port of Iskenderun in the hard-hit Hatay province.

At least 650,000 residents have fled the region since the first quake struck on February 6, according to the province’s mayor. The residents of Twins are a happy fraction of those who stay.

A buffet will be served on board the ‘Gemini’. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

The government in Turkey, struggling with a housing crisis prior to the earthquake, has resorted to a patchwork of impromptu solutions to help the displaced.

The Twins is one of at least five floating solutions that are shaping the Hatay coast and helping thousands of people. A military ship at a nearby port has been converted into a hospital where doctors have performed dozens of surgeries, including a childbirth, since the first tremors.

Local ferries provide housing and bring families across the Mediterranean to northern cities like Istanbul and Mersin, where the population has grown nearly 21% in the last three weeks.

In December, the Turkish Ministry of Energy leased the Twins, with its 400 cabins to temporarily house its employees off the coast of Filiyos in the Black Sea. When the earthquake struck, the ship was sent to Iskenderun Harbor to be repurposed for survivors. Local officials processed boarding requests and allocated cabins to people who were disabled, elderly, pregnant or had young children.

Like many passengers, Ms Atay said it was her first time on a luxury liner.

People relax on an open aft deck of the cruise ship “Gemini” in Iskenderun, Turkey. Photos: Sergey Ponomarev/nyt

“We’re talking about how happy people probably made fun memories on this ship,” Ms Atay said, adding that she could imagine people dancing on the deck below, where strings of lights swayed across a wooden floor. “But we’re broken.”

Before landing on the TwinsShe said her family of eight sprinted through an obstacle course made of makeshift shelters — a car, a tent, a hotel — while continuing to work as a nurse in the emergency room at a private hospital about 20 minutes away from Port.

“I feel like I was walking on my tiptoes,” she said, recalling her relief when she got on the boat and had her first night of uninterrupted sleep, a day after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck nearby of Iskenderun and caused other buildings to collapse.

On Deck 6, Ayse Acikgoz, 72, sat on a white leather bench knitting warm clothes for her 15 grandchildren, who she said were still living in tents. Upstairs, in the Eclipse Lounge, a dozen people were watching TV news from the quake area. At the front of the ship, a group of men pressed prayer beads while surrounding a backgammon match.

The Gemini cruise ship, one of at least four floating solutions in Hatay Province, is hosting some of the residents displaced by the earthquake at the port of Iskenderun, Turkey. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

At lunchtime, diners at the Aegean Restaurant tucked into lentils, lamb’s liver and rice in plastic bowls at the buffet. Children eyed a range of desserts, including orange slices and syrupy balls of fried dough.

“The food is hot and the options change every day,” said Ayse Simsek, 33, who said she and her two daughters survived nine days in their car with cups of soup provided by aid groups before boarding Twins.

Gul Seker, 34, was preparing for the birth while living in a shipping container camp in Iskenderun when a neighbor called urging her to apply for a place on the ship.

People in a lounge area on board the ‘Gemini’ in Iskenederun. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

Within hours she was on the Twins with her husband and son. Days later the contractions started. “I thought I was going to die,” said Ms. Seker, who suffers from high blood pressure. “I called my husband to say goodbye,” she said, telling the story in her seventh-floor cabin overlooking a blue expanse.

A ship’s receptionist arranged to take her to the hospital on the nearby military ship, she said. Her birth ended in a public hospital in Iskenderun.

People relax on board the cruise ship “Gemini” in the port of Iskenederun. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

“We call it our miracle,” Ms. Seker said, reaching into a stroller to arrange the lace on her daughter’s hood. Baby bottles and diapers were stacked on a shelf along with clothes and stuffed animals – gifts from passengers and crew.

The baby is named after the cruise line Miray, written in soft blue letters on the walls of the hotel Twins.

Yunus Kutuku, a barber who lost his business in the February 6 earthquake, cuts hair. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

People on board the cruise ship “Gemini” in Iskenederun. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

A woman reads a Koran aboard the “Gemini,” one of at least four floating solutions in Hatay province, in Iskenederun Port, housing residents displaced by the earthquake. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times

A view of another boat from the cruise ship “Gemini”. Sergey Ponomarev / The New York Times