- Ottoman cruiser Mecidiye
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Mecidiye (Istanbul, 1932)Career (Ottoman Empire) 
Name: Mecidiye Launched: July 25, 1903 Commissioned: December 19, 1903 Fate: Struck mine and sank April 3, 1915 General characteristics Mecidiye Type: Protected Cruiser Displacement: 3,250 tons Length: 102.4 m (336 ft) Beam: 12.8 m (42 ft) Draught: 4.8 m (16 ft) Propulsion: 2 VQE; 12,500 hp Speed: 18 knots Armament: 2 x 152 mm L/45 guns
2 x 120 mm L/45 guns
2 torpedo tubes, 457 mmCareer (Russian Empire) 
Name: Prut Yard number: Ropit Yard, Odessa Acquired: Raised May 31, 1915[1] Commissioned: June 8, 1915 Fate: Captured by Germany returned to Ottoman Empire, May 1918[1] General characteristics Prut Type: Protected Cruiser Displacement: 3,250 tons Length: 102.4 m (336 ft) Beam: 12.8 m (42 ft) Draught: 4.8 m (16 ft) Propulsion: 2 VQE; 12,500 hp Speed: 17.9 knots Armament: 6 x 130 mm guns
4 x 130 mm guns
4 x 75 mm AA guns[1]Career (Ottoman Empire/Turkey) 
Name: Mecidiye Acquired: May 13, 1918[1] Decommissioned: 1947 Fate: Used as cadet training ship, scrapped in 1952 The protected cruiser Mecidiye (in older publications also found as Medjidiye) served in the Ottoman Navy in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Sunk by a mine, it was salvaged and commissioned by the Russian Navy, before being returned to the Ottomans in 1918. It continued to be used as a training ship of the Turkish Navy until scrapped in 1952.
Contents
History
The Mecidiye, named after Sultan Abdülmecid I, was launched July 25, 1903 and commissioned December 19, 1903.
Balkan Wars
For more details on this topic, see Balkan Wars.In October 1912, Mecidiye shelled Bulgarian forts near Varna and other military targets.[2] On 9 December, she was attacked by the Greek submarine Delfin at 800 meters, but the torpedo missed.[3] Mecidiye also participated in the two major naval battles of the war, against the Greek Navy, at Elli (16 December 1912) and Lemnos (18 January 1913), suffering slight damage in the first. On 18 February 1913, Mecidiye was part of the covering naval force for the Ottoman shore landing at Şarköy.[4]
World War I
Ottoman cruiser Mecidiye in Odesa, 3 April 1915.
In December 1914, the ship transported Hafiz Hakki Bey to Trebizond to deliver messages to the 3rd Army's Chief of Staff.[5]
On April 3, 1915, while attacking the Russian port of Odessa, Mecidiye struck a mine and sank, losing 26 men. She was later raised by the Russians, refitted at Ropit Yard, Odessa and renamed Prut ("Pruth"). Captured by the Germans at Sevastopol in May 1918, she was returned to the Ottoman Empire and renamed Mecidiye.
Joined the Turkish Navy in 1925 and was used as a cadet training ship until 1947. She was scrapped in 1952.
Notes
Bibliography
- Erickson, Edward J., Defeat in detail: the Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913, Greenwood Publishing, 2003.
- Erickson, Edward J., Ordered to die: a history of the Ottoman army in the First World War, Greenwood Press, 2001.
- Gardiner, Robert, Randal Gray and Przemyslaw Budzbon, Conway's all the world's fighting ships, 1906-1921, Naval Institute Press, 1985.
- Sondhaus, Lawrence, Naval warfare, 1815-1914, Routledge, 2001.
External links
Categories:- 1903 ships
- Ships built in Pennsylvania
- Cruisers of the Ottoman Navy
- Naval ships of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Wars
- World War I cruisers of the Ottoman Empire
- World War I shipwrecks in the Black Sea
- Ships sunk by mines
- Ships of the Imperial Russian Navy
- Ships of the Turkish Navy
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