The Ottoman ironclad Mesudiye (Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman Turkish language

The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

: Mesudiye Zırhlı Firkateyn-i Hümayunu / "The Royal Armoured Frigate Mesudiye") was originally a central-battery

Centre-battery ship

The centre battery ship or casemate ship was a development of the broadside ironclad of the 1860s. The central battery ships had their main guns concentrated to the middle of the ship in an armoured citadel. The concentration of armament amidships meant the ship could be shorter and handier...

 ironclad

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

 of the Ottoman Navy

Ottoman Navy

The Ottoman Navy was established in the early 14th century. During its long existence it was involved in many conflicts; refer to list of Ottoman sieges and landings and list of Admirals in the Ottoman Empire for a brief chronology.- Pre-Ottoman:...

, first commissioned in 1875, rebuilt into a pre-dreadnaught type vessel in 1903, and serving until sunk by a British submarine in 1914.

History

As originally constructed, the Mesudiye was one of a number of armoured warships ordered by Sultan Abdülaziz

Abdülâziz

Abdülaziz I or Abd Al-Aziz, His Imperial Majesty was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 25 June 1861 and 30 May 1876...

 from Britain, Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. She was ordered from the Thames Iron Works in 1871, laid down in 1872, and launched in 1874. Designed by Edward James Reed

Edward James Reed

Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...

, she was the largest central battery warship ever constructed and had wrought iron

Wrought iron

thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...

 belt and battery armour up to 12 in (30.5 cm) thick. She was commissioned in December 1875 following completion of her trials, and at the time was considered one of the most powerful warships in the world. Her sister ship Hamidieh was bought by the Royal Navy before delivery as HMS Superb

HMS Superb (1875)

HMS Superb was an ironclad battleship designed by Sir Edward Reed for the Ottoman Navy, and was built in Britain by Thames Ironworks under the name of Hamidieh. She had both engines and sails....

.

In 1903 Mesudiye was sent to the Ansaldo

Gio. Ansaldo & C.

Ansaldo was one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.-From foundation to World War I:...

 shipyards in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, Italy, for a complete rebuild. Her three masts were replaced with a single mast, and two turrets were fitted. The 10 inch MLRs in her central battery were replaced with modern 6 inch (15 cm) guns, but as the heavy guns for the turrets were not ready at the time the refit ended, wooden guns were fitted in their place. This was still the case in 1914.

Balkan Wars

In the First Balkan War

First Balkan War

The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...

, Mesudiye participated in both naval battles with the Royal Hellenic Navy, at Elli

Naval Battle of Elli

The Battle of Elli , also known as the Battle of the Dardanelles, took place near the mouth of the Dardanelles on as part of the First Balkan War between the fleets of Greece and the Ottoman Empire...

 on 16 December 1912 and at Lemnos

Naval Battle of Lemnos

The Battle of Lemnos , fought on , was a naval battle during the First Balkan War, which defeated the second and last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles and reclaim supremacy over the Aegean Sea from Greece....

 on 18 January 1913. In both engagements, the Ottoman fleet was unable to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

. Mesudiye was not harmed in the first, but was damaged in the second.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 Mesudiye was ordered to anchor just south of the Dardanelles Narrows at Chanak, in Sarisiglar Bay as a floating battery to protect the minefields. Both the ship's captain, Besiktasli Arif Nebi, and several officers protested this order, but the opinions of the German naval advisors prevailed.

Sinking

On 13 December 1914 the British submarine B-11

HMS B11

HMS B11 was the last boat of the Royal Navy's B class of submarines. Launched in 1906 it is best known for carrying out a successful attack on the Turkish battleship Mesudiye in the Dardanelles. an action for which her captain received the Victoria cross...

 entered the Dardanelles, and torpedoed the Mesudiye from a range of 800 m (2,624.7 ft) exactly at noon, as the ship's crew gathered belowdecks for lunch. Lookouts saw the torpedo and B-11s periscope, and sounded the alarm, and the Mesudiye’s guns began to fire towards the point where the submarine had been sighted. The impact of the first torpedo caused the Mesudiye to heel severely. She capsized in 10 minutes, trapping most of the crew; however, as she was lying in shoal water, most of the hull was above the surface, so most of her crew were rescued by cutting through the hull. Thirty-seven men were killed in all, 10 officers and 27 men.

The Mesudiye’s guns were salvaged and mounted in a shore battery bearing her name, and later caused substantial damage to the French battleship Bouvet

French battleship Bouvet

The Bouvet was a French pre-dreadnought battleship, launched in 1896 and sunk by a mine in 1915 during World War I.Bouvet, named for the maritime family of Bouvet de Lozier, the most famous being French Admiral François Joseph Bouvet, belonged to the Jauréguiberry quasi-class which comprised...

on 18 March 1915.