Turkish Ottoman Navy 1914: Nımet, Peleng-i Derya 1890-1915 The Namet (or Nimet) or Peleng-i Deryâ class were two torpedo cruisers (in other sources gunboats) built for the Ottoman Navy in Germany at Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft A. G in 1899-1890. Designed for coastal defense and strike roles at a time destroyers were not a thing, the … Read more
Ottoman Navy: Unprotected cruiser (commissioned 1896) Lütf-ü Hümayun, also orthographed “Lufti Humayun” in western publications, is probably the worst case of shipbuilding failure in the entire Turkish Naval construction. It also reflected on the sorry state of the Ottoman Navy at the eve of the 1897 war with Greece. And the cruiser here, despite being … Read more
Ottoman Empire/Turkey – 1901-1952 (1903) If Hamidiye and Mecidiye are often paired by most authors as the cornerstone of Turkish Ottoman cruiser force, later reinforced in 1914 by Midilli, ex-Breslau). Both cruisers were often compared, Mecidiye was ordered from the US, Hamidiye in UK, resulting in diverging appearance, size, tonnage, armament and capabilities. In 1901 … Read more
Turkish Ottoman Cruiser Mecidiye Turkey – 1901-1952 (1903) A “Magnificient Century” in service of Turkey The Ottoman Navy Mecidiye (also spelled as Medjidiye, or Medjidie), was named after the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid. She was a protected cruiser ordered as part of the 1900 large naval modernization program, and built in the US not after a … Read more
Barbarossa class battleships (1892) Barbaros Hayreddin, Turgut Reis (1910) The Barbarossa class battleships were the first modern pre-dreadnoughts, capital ships of the Ottoman Navy, named respectively Hayrediin Barbarossa and Turgut Reis. These were the ex-Weissenburg and Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm, which after years of service were no longer relevant and considered obsolete in 1910. The Turkish … Read more
Yavuz (1914) Germany/Turkey – 1911 (1914) An unexpected Turkish flagship – The Yavuz Sultan Selim, aka “Yavuz” became in August 1914 the new flagship of the Turkish Ottoman Navy, until then a motley collection of inoffensive museum pieces with a few modern vessels. Basically the German African squadron, based in Dar-es-Salaam, took refuge in Constantinople, … Read more
