Ottoman ironclad Mesûdiye
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''Mesudiye'' (
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
: Happiness) was a central-battery
ironclad An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
of the Ottoman Navy, one of the largest ships of that type ever built. She was built at the Thames Iron Works in Britain between 1871 and 1875. ''Mesudiye'' had one sister ship, though she was purchased by the Royal Navy and commissioned as . Her primary armament consisted of twelve guns in a central armored
battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
. ''Mesudiye'' was poorly maintained for most of her career, including a twenty-year long period between the Russo-Turkish War in 1877–1878 and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. As a result, she was in very poor condition by the late 1890s, which prompted a major reconstruction of her into a pre-dreadnought design type vessel in Genoa. The ship's armament was overhauled, though the gun turrets that were to have mounted guns never received the weapons. A new propulsion system was also installed, which significantly improved performance. The ship saw extensive action during the First Balkan War in 1912–1913, including the battles of Elli and Lemnos in December 1912 and January 1913, respectively. During the latter engagement, she was badly damaged by a Greek shell and forced to withdraw. Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, ''Mesudiye'' was moored at Nara to protect the minefields that blocked the entrance to the Dardanelles. On the morning of 13 December, the British
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
passed through the minefields and torpedoed ''Mesudiye'', which quickly sank. Most of the crew survived, however, and many of her guns were salvaged and used to strengthen the defenses of the Dardanelles. A battery of these guns, named Mesudiye in honor of the ship, helped to sink the French
battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...
in March 1915.


Design

In the aftermath of the Crimean War, where an entire Ottoman squadron was destroyed by a Russian fleet at Sinop, the Ottoman Empire began a naval construction program, limited primarily by the chronically weak Ottoman economy. Several ironclad warships were ordered in the 1860s and 1870s, primarily from British and French shipyards. Despite the shortage of funds, by the late 1870s, the Ottomans had acquired a fleet of thirteen large ironclads and nine smaller armored warships. ''Mesudiye'' was designed by Edward Reed, who based the design on the recently built British ironclad .


General characteristics and machinery

''Mesudiye'' was long, and she had a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a draft of . She displaced as originally built. Her
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
was constructed with iron, and was fitted with a ram bow. The ship had a minimal
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
that included a short forecastle deck and a poop deck. She had a crew of 700 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by a single horizontal, two-cylinder compound engine, with steam provided by eight coal-fired
box boiler There have been a vast number of designs of steam boiler, particularly towards the end of the 19th century when the technology was evolving rapidly. A great many of these took the names of their originators or primary manufacturers, rather than a m ...
s. The boilers were trunked into a pair of
funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...
located amidships. The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . By 1884 a decade of poor maintenance had reduced her top speed to . She carried of coal. Although intended to operate primarily via her steam engine, ''Mesudiye'' was also fitted with three masts and a barque sail rig.


Armament and armor

''Mesudiye'' was armed with a main battery of twelve
RML 10 inch 18 ton gun The RML 10-inch guns Mk I – Mk II were large rifled muzzle-loading guns designed for British battleships and monitors in the 1860s to 1880s. They were also fitted to the and flat-iron gunboats. They were also used for fixed coastal defences a ...
s, all mounted in a central battery firing through gun ports. Four were on each side, with four on the
broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...
, one angled forward and the other angled rearward to allow end-on fire during ramming attacks. She was also equipped with three RML 7 inch guns, all on the upper deck, with two forward and one aft; these also served as
chase gun A chase gun (or chaser), usually distinguished as bow chaser and stern chaser, was a cannon mounted in the bow (aiming forward) or stern (aiming backward) of a sailing ship. They were used to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing ( ...
s. In 1891, six quick-firing guns (QF) and six QF guns were installed to provide the ship with a defense against torpedo boats. Armor protection consisted of iron plate; the
armored belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal vehicle armor, armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from p ...
had a maximum thickness of in the central portion of the ship, where it protected machinery and ammunition magazines, and was reduced on either end, first to and then to 76 mm. The thickest part of the belt extended below the waterline and above the line, and was composed of three strakes. The middle strake was the thickest, the upper strake was reduced slightly to , and the lower one was and tapered to . The gun battery was protected by another two strakes of armor, the lower being 254 mm thick and the upper reduced to .


Service history

''Mesudiye'', meaning "Happiness", was ordered in 1871 and was laid down at the Thames Ironworks shipyard in London the following year. She was launched on 28 October 1874. On 15 September 1875, she ran aground in the
River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...
as she was being taken to
Chatham, Kent Chatham ( ) is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. The town developed around Chatham ...
to have her guns fitted. She was refloated and docked. ''Mesudiye'' was commissioned in December 1875 for sea trials. She had one
sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
, ''Mahmûdiye'', which was renamed ''Hamidiye'' while under construction. She was purchased by the Royal Navy before completion and commissioned as . ''Mesudiye'' and ''Superb'' were the largest casemate ironclads ever built. Early in the ship's career, the Ottoman ironclad fleet was activated every summer for short cruises from the Golden Horn to the Bosporus to ensure their propulsion systems were in operable condition. In September 1876, ''Mesudiye'' became the
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of the Ottoman Black Sea Squadron, though she did not see action in the Russo-Turkish War that broke out in April 1877. After the Ottoman defeat, the fleet was laid up at the Golden Horn and left largely unattended for the following twenty years. The annual summer cruises to the Bosporus ended. By the mid-1880s, the Ottoman ironclad fleet was in poor condition, and ''Mesudiye'' was unable to go to sea. Her engines were unusable, having seized up from rust, and her
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
was badly fouled. The British
naval attache A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
to the Ottoman Empire at the time estimated that the Imperial Arsenal would take six months to get just five of the ironclads ready to go to sea. Throughout this period, the ship's crew was limited to about one-third the normal figure. During a period of tension with Greece in 1886, the fleet was brought to full crews and the ships were prepared to go to sea, but none actually left the Golden Horn, and they were quickly laid up again. By that time, ''Mesudiye'' was probably capable of little more than , but her poorly-trained crew was likely unable to keep that pace for an extended period of time. During this period of inactivity, ''Mesudiye'' received a minor modernization at the Tersâne-i Âmire shipyard on the Golden Horn. At the start of the Greco-Turkish War in February 1897, ''Mesudiye'' was found to be unfit for combat, as were most of the other major warships of the fleet. On 15 May ''Mesudiye'' and several other warships attempted to hold a training exercise, which only highlighted the poor state of training of the ships' crews.


Reconstruction

Following the end of the war, the government decided to begin a naval reconstruction program. The first stage was to rebuild the older armored warships, including ''Mesudiye''. Requests for proposals were sent to foreign shipyards, and in October 1898 the Gio. Ansaldo & C. shipyard in Genoa requested permission to survey the ship and the ironclad . Both vessels were accordingly sent to Genoa in January 1899, arriving on the 28th, though Ansaldo only received the contract for ''Mesudiye''. ''Mesudiye'' was rebuilt into a pre-dreadnought type vessel. The modernization involved radical reconstruction of the hull; the bow and stern were cut down to make room for a pair of gun turrets, each mounting a single 40-
caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
gun manufactured by Vickers. The turrets had 230 mm thick armored faces, though they never received their guns; wooden dummy guns were installed in their place. A battery of twelve 45-caliber QF guns was installed in place of the old rifled muzzle-loaders, and sixteen 76 mm QF guns were added in an upper battery. ''Mesudiye'' also received ten guns and a pair of guns. A large superstructure was built amidships, with a new
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
, which was given of armor plating. Displacement rose to normally and at full load. The ship's propulsion system was also completely replaced. Two
triple-expansion engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up h ...
s were installed, along with sixteen coal-fired
Niclausse boiler A Field-tube boiler (also known as a bayonet tube) is a form of water-tube boiler where the water tubes are single-ended. The tubes are closed at one end, and they contain a concentric inner tube. Flow is thus separated into the colder inner flow ...
s. The two screw propellers overlapped, so the port side screw was placed slightly ahead of the starboard one. Performance improved to and . Her crew increased to 800 as a result of the modifications. On 15 March 1904, ''Mesudiye'' completed sea trials and thereafter returned to Constantinople.


Italo-Turkish and Balkan Wars

In 1909, she participated in the first fleet maneuver conducted by the Ottoman Navy in twenty years, part of a reform program initiated by a British naval mission to the Ottoman Empire. Starting in July 1911, ''Mesudiye'' joined the two pre-dreadnoughts and , four
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s, and a torpedo boat for a series of exercises that culminated in the routine summer cruise to Beirut. The fleet was returning to Constantinople when Italy declared war, starting the Italo-Turkish War on 29 September 1911. ''Mesudiye'' and the rest of the fleet moored at
Nagara Point Nara Burnu ( Turkish "Cape Nara"), formerly Nağara Burnu, in English Nagara Point, and in older sources Point Pesquies, is a headland on the Anatolian side of the Dardanelles Straits, north of Çanakkale. It is the narrowest and, with , the deepes ...
on 2 October and returned to Constantinople the following day. ''Mesudiye'' was thereafter assigned to the Reserve Division, which also included the rebuilt ironclad ''Asar-i Tevfik'' and the torpedo cruiser . She did not see action during the conflict, since the Ottoman fleet spent the war in port. This was in part due to the rising tensions in the Balkans that presaged the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
; the Ottomans kept their fleet in port so it could be prepared for the inevitable conflict. In October 1912, the Balkan League declared war on the Ottomans, a month before the Italo-Turkish War ended. At the time, ''Mesudiye'' was moored off Büyükdere, a neighborhood in Constantinople, with the torpedo boats and , stationed as a guard ship. In December, the Ottoman fleet was reorganized, with ''Mesudiye'' joining the newly formed Battleship Division, under the command of Ramiz Naman Bey. The division also included ''Barbaros Hayreddin'', ''Turgut Reis'', and ''Asar-i Tevfik''. The ship was moved to Büyükçekmece on 15 November, where she joined the rest of the fleet. Two days later, ''Mesudiye'' and ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' conducted shore bombardments in support of the Ottoman troops holding the
Çatalca Çatalca (Metrae; ) is a city and a rural district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the largest district in Istanbul by area. It is in East Thrace, on the ridge between the Marmara and the Black Sea. Most people living in Çatalca are either farmers or ...
Line; the bombardments did not cause particularly significant material damage to the attacking Bulgarians, but it did boost Ottoman morale.


Battle of Elli

The ships took part in the Battle of Elli, the first Ottoman surface action involving major warships since the Russo-Turkish War, on 16 December 1912. The Ottoman fleet sortied from the Dardanelles at 9:30; the smaller craft remained at the mouth of the straits while the battleships sailed north, hugging the coast. The Greek flotilla, which included the armored cruiser and three s, sailing from the island of Lemnos, altered course to the northeast to block the advance of the Ottoman battleships. The Ottoman ships opened fire on the Greeks at 9:40, from a range of about . Five minutes later, ''Georgios Averof'' crossed over to the other side of the Ottoman fleet, placing the Ottomans in the unfavorable position of being under fire from both sides. At 9:50 and under heavy pressure from the Greek fleet, the Ottoman ships completed a 16-point turn (180°), which reversed their course, and headed for the safety of the straits. The turn was poorly executed, and the ships fell out of formation, blocking each other's fields of fire. ''Barbaros Hayreddin'', ''Turgut Reis'', and ''Mesudiye'' took several hits during the battle, though only ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' was significantly damaged. By 10:17, both sides had ceased firing and the Ottoman fleet withdrew into the Dardanelles. When they approached the straits, ''Mesudiye'' and ''Asar-i Tevfik'' took up positions to cover the withdrawal of the damaged pre-dreadnoughts. The ships reached port by 13:00 and transferred their casualties to the hospital ship ''Resit Paşa''.


Battle of Lemnos

In late December, the Ottomans began a campaign of raids and patrols in the Aegean Sea against the islands that had been recently conquered by the Greeks. The Ottoman Army began planning to make a landing on Tenedos in late December, which had been captured by Greece earlier in the war. ''Mesudiye'' and the rest of the Battleship Division sortied from the Dardanelles on the morning of 4 January 1913, but the operation was called off after the Greek fleet appeared. On 10 January, the fleet embarked on another offensive operation, this time to raid the island of Imbros. After a brief, inconclusive clash with Greek destroyers, the fleet again withdrew to the safety of the Dardanelles. Eight days later, another fleet operation began, which produced the Battle of Lemnos, the second major naval engagement of the war. The Ottoman plan was to lure the faster ''Georgios Averof'' away from the Dardanelles. The protected cruiser evaded the Greek blockade and broke out into the Aegean Sea in an attempt to draw the Greek cruiser into pursuit. Despite the threat posed by the cruiser, the Greek commander refused to detach ''Georgios Averof''. The Ottoman fleet departed the Dardanelles at 8:20 on the morning of 18 January, and sailed toward the island of Lemnos at a speed of . ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' led the line of battleships, with a flotilla of torpedo boats on either side of the formation. A long range artillery duel that lasted for two hours began at around 11:55, when the Ottoman fleet opened fire at a range of . They concentrated their fire on the Greek ''Georgios Averof'', which returned fire at 12:00. At 12:50, the Greeks attempted to
cross the T Crossing the ''T'' or capping the ''T'' is a classic naval warfare tactic used from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries in which a line of warships crosses in front of a line of enemy ships to allow the crossing line to bring all their guns ...
of the Ottoman fleet, but ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' turned north to block the Greek maneuver. At around that time, ''Mesudiye'' took a serious hit that disabled three of her 150 mm guns; this damage, coupled with boiler trouble, led the Ottoman commander to detach the ship and send her back to port. On 5 February, ''Mesudiye'' supported operations off
Şarköy Şarköy, previously known by its Greek name Περίσταση (Peristasi), is a seaside town and district of Tekirdağ Province situated on the north coast of the Marmara Sea in Thrace in Turkey. Şarköy is 86 km west of the town of Tek ...
in the Sea of Marmara, bombarding Bulgarian troops that had occupied the town. This was the last wartime operation conducted by the ship; she did not participate in the amphibious assault on Şarköy three days later. The Ottoman fleet then spent the remaining months of the war in port, until the armistice ended the conflict in April.


World War I

In late July 1914, World War I broke out in Europe, though the Ottomans initially remained neutral. On 6 September 1914, ''Mesudiye'' was sent to Nara to protect the minefields guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles. She was supported by the minelayer and the
tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
. Tensions between the Ottomans and a British fleet patrolling the entrance to the Dardanelles increased until 5 November, when Britain and France declared war on the Ottoman Empire. On the morning of 13 December, the British submarine , commanded by Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, entered the Dardanelles. At around 11:30, she spotted ''Mesudiye'' at anchor and fired a single torpedo from a distance of . The torpedo hit the ship's stern and caused serious damage; ''Mesudiye''s guns briefly fired at ''B11''s periscope before the ship capsized and sank in shallow water. Casualties were light, with only 10 officers and 27 enlisted men killed in the attack. A salvage effort removed the 150 mm and 76 mm guns, which were used to strengthen the defenses of the Dardanelles. In the meantime, ''B11'' successfully passed back through the Dardanelles and returned to port; Holbrook was awarded the Victoria Cross for sinking ''Mesudiye''. ''Mesudiye''s salvaged 150 mm guns were installed as "Battery Mesudiye" in the Dardanelles. These guns played a role in the sinking of the French battleship on 18 March 1915, having hit the ship eight times—one of which disabled her forward turret—before she struck a mine and sank with very heavy loss of life.


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mesudiye Battleships of the Ottoman Navy Ships built in Leamouth 1874 ships Ironclad warships of the Ottoman Navy Maritime incidents in September 1875 Naval ships of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars World War I naval ships of the Ottoman Empire Ships sunk by British submarines World War I shipwrecks in the Dardanelles Maritime incidents in December 1914