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List of battleships of the Ottoman Empire

For ships of the line of the Ottoman Navy, see List of sailing ships of the Ottoman Empire.
A large, light gray warship sits in harbor, the two forward gun barrels are turned slightly to the left.
SMS Goeben, in port in 1911. It became Yavûz Sultân Selîm in 1914, and served the Ottoman and Turkish navies for over half a century.

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.[1] The poor condition of the fleet was clearly visible in the Ottoman Naval Parade of 1910. Attempts to construct Ottoman-made battleships such as Abdül Kadir had ended in failure,[2] 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.[3]

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 Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel, and ordered three planned Reşadiye-class battleships, including the purchase of one that had already been built, the Reşadiye. The United Kingdom confiscated the ships at the outbreak of World War I though only two were nearing completion, Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel and Reşadiye. Upon confiscation, Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel was renamed HMS Agincourt while Reşadiye was renamed HMS Erin.[4] 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 Yavûz Sultân Selîm 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.[5][6]

During World War I, many of the Ottoman battleships saw little or no action.[Note 1] 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. Abdül Kadir was scrapped in 1914,[2] while Barbaros Hayreddin was sunk in 1915.[7] Turgut Reis survived the conflict and was scrapped in the 1950s.[7] Of the three planned Reşadiye-class ships, only one, Reşadiye, was ever built, with the rest being cancelled just before the war. Reşadiye was one of the ships seized by the British in August 1914.[4] Sultân Osmân-ı Evvel, which had been bought from Brazil in 1913, was also seized by Britain in August 1914.[6][8] The last battleship in the Ottoman Navy, Yavûz Sultân Selîm, survived the war and was scrapped in 1973.[9][10]

  1. ^ Langensiepen, Güleryüz, and Cooper, p. 14
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference G309 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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