List of Battleships of The Ottoman Empire

List Of Battleships Of The Ottoman Empire

In the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress that had taken control of the Ottoman Empire began to draw up plans to strengthen the Ottoman Navy. The poor condition of the fleet was clearly visible in the Ottoman Naval Parade of 1910. Attempts to construct Ottoman-made battleships such as Abdul Kadir had ended in failure, so the Ottoman Navy Foundation was established with the aim of purchasing new ships through public donations rather than having them built locally. Despite these efforts, the fleet remained in a poor state. Its inability to respond to naval threats was evident in the First Balkan War (1913), when the Ottoman Navy was defeated in two separate engagements by the Greek Navy, during the battles of Elli and Lemnos.

Following the conclusion of the Balkan Wars, a naval race began in the Balkans between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. In order to update the fleet, the Ottoman Navy Foundation purchased larger battleships such as Sultan Osman I, and ordered three planned Reshadieh-class battleships, including the purchase of one that had already been built, the Reshadieh. The United Kingdom confiscated the ships at the outbreak of World War I though only two were nearing completion, Sultan Osman I and Reshadieh. Upon confiscation, Sultan Osman I was renamed HMS Agincourt while Reshadieh was renamed HMS Erin. The seizure of these battleships by the Royal Navy outraged the Ottoman people, since public donations had been the source of most of the funds for the ships. The German Empire took advantage of the situation by sending the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople in 1914, and handing them over to the Ottoman Navy. These two ships entered service as Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midilli respectively. The British seizure of these ships as well as the transfer of German ships to the Ottoman Navy significantly contributed to the Ottoman Empire's decision to enter World War I on the side of Germany and the Central Powers a few months later.

During World War I, many of the Ottoman battleships saw little or no action. Since many were in a poor condition, they simply remained at their moorings for most of the war. Out of all the battleships legally owned by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the war, half were either scrapped or were seized by the British in the early days of the conflict. Abdul Kadir was scrapped in 1914, while Barbaros Hayreddin was sunk in 1915. Turgut Reis survived the conflict and was scrapped in the 1950s. Of the three planned Reshadieh-class ships, only one, Reshadieh, was ever built, with the rest being cancelled just before the war. Reshadieh was one of the ships seized by the British in August 1914. Sultan Osman I, which had been bought from Brazil in 1913, was also seized by Britain in August 1914. The last battleship in the Ottoman Navy, Yavuz Sultan Selim, survived the war and was scrapped in 1973.