Ottoman frigate Mecidiye

Mecidiye was ordered in 1845 as part of a modest naval expansion program aimed at building the first steam-powered ships of the Ottoman Navy. Several steam yachts had been built in the 1830s, but these were primarily used by government officials and were not proper warships. She was laid down in 1846 at the Imperial Arsenal in Constantinople, and was launched that same year; during construction, the decision was made to complete her as another yacht for the sultan. She was completed in 1847 and following sea trials, was commissioned into the fleet later that year. Since steam engines were still a novelty in the Ottoman fleet, the crew had no experience operating the machinery and so four skilled engineers were contracted to train the crew. In 1848, Mecidiye and her sister ship Taif had to be pressed into service as merchant steamers carrying passengers to Samsun, as the Ottoman state-owned passenger service was not large enough to handle the volume of passengers.^[3]

Mecidiye saw action during the Crimean War. In September 1853, the Ottoman fleet organized three squadrons in the Black Sea as tensions with Russia rose. Mecidiye was assigned to a squadron consisting of her three sister ships, under the command of Mustafa Pasha.^[4] The squadron was tasked with patrolling the eastern Black Sea coast of the Ottoman Empire, including Circassia and Georgia. On 19 November, after the start of the war, Pasha took his squadron to Sinop to meet another squadron under Osman Pasha; while en route on 9 November, Mecidiye and the other frigates encountered the Russian frigate Flora off Pitsunda but were unable to defeat her in a seven-hour battle. They scored only two hits on the Russian vessel, inflicting no damage, while the Ottoman frigates were hit several times.^[5][6]

After arriving in Sinop, Mustafa attempted to convince Osman to withdraw from the exposed position, but the latter refused and his squadron was subsequently annihilated at the Battle of Sinop on 30 November. Mustafa Pasha had already sent three of his ships, including Mecidiye, back to Constantinople on 22 November. The destruction of the fleet at Sinop drastically reduced the ability of the Ottoman Navy to take an active role in the war, and thereafter the Anglo-French fleets led the effort against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.^[4]

Mecidiye had her armament reduced to four 32-pdr guns on her main deck in 1857.^[1] During the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869; in early 1868, Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, boarded Mecidiye in Crete for the voyage back to Constantinople.^[7] By the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the ship had been assigned to the Black Sea Wooden Ship Division. The ships were sent to Batumi, but they saw no combat there.^[8] In 1888, Mecidiye was towed to the Imperial Shipyard for a refit; two years later, she was reduced to serve as a coal hulk stationed in Ereğli. Six years later, she was decommissioned and eventually sold to ship breakers in Ereğli in 1903.^[1]

• "Correspondence Regarding the Disturbances in Crete". Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons. London: Harrison & Sons. 1868.
• Badem, Candan (2010). The Ottoman Crimean War: (1853–1856). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18205-9.
• Langensiepen, Bernd & Güleryüz, Ahmet (1995). The Ottoman Steam Navy 1828–1923. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-610-1.
• Tredrea, John; Sozaev, Eduard (2010). Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696–1860: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84832-058-1.