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The Period of the Naval Ministry 1867-1922

During the reign of Abdülhamit II, the Ottoman Navy, which was regarded as one of the most powerful navies in the world at least in terms of quantity, was deactivated and kept at the Golden Horn for 33 years. On 14 July 1909, the Naval Association was founded with the help of the Ottoman people to stop the continuing loss of territory caused by the absence of a powerful navy.

In parallel with the efforts of creating the financial resources to support the Navy, a committee under the presidency of an English sailor, Admiral Gamble, was tasked with investigating the world's maritime innovations. This laid the foundations for the Ottoman Navy on contemporary and fundamental principles and developed a new doctrine for the education and training of its personnel. Just after the beginning of the World War I, in concert with the political inclination of the Empire, a committee from Germany was assigned to reorganize the Ottoman Navy.

That the ships of the Navy were held at the Golden Horn for a long time, paralyzed the maritime activities of the Ottoman Empire. The first and the most distressing sign of that period was the tragic episode of the Ertugrul. The frigate Ertugrul was constructed at the Istanbul Shipyard in 1864. She sailed to Japan to pay a goodwill visit after an inoperative period of 13 years. On 18 September 1890, on her return voyage, she ran aground and sank in Japanese territorial waters. In that period, the whole Empire mourned that tragedy which resulted in the martyring of 533 sailors.

On 3 April 1890, the Naval Petty Officer Preparatory School was founded by the Minister of the Navy, Hasan Hüsnü Pasha. The training and education of the petty officers started onboard the Selimiye on 15 June 1890.

Greece occupied Crete and the Ottoman-Greek War therefore started in 1897. The Ottoman Navy participated in the war with some of its components, but it failed to succeed due to its limited operational capabilities.

Immediately after the failure of the Ottoman Navy in the Ottoman-Greek War, the Ministry of the Navy was determined to repair some ships, which had served during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz and to add new ships to its inventory. Therefore, the Ministry of the Navy decided to procure a number of units. In 1903, a cruiser, named Hamidiye and 2 yachts named, the Ertugrul and the Sögütlü were brought from England and a cruiser named Mecidiye came from the US. In 1906, 2 torpedo cruisers named Berk-i Satvet and Peyk-i Sevket were brought from Germany, 4 destroyers named Tasoz, Basra, Samsun and Yarhisar.

Although it was an important attempt to strengthen the Navy, the newly transferred ships were kept at the Golden Horn.

For this reason, this large procurement project did not yield concrete results since combat readiness was not achieved. When the Second Constitutional Monarchy was proclaimed on 23 July 1908, the Ottoman Navy was suffering seriously from the lack of operational efficiency as well as combat readiness. Moreover, the training and education of the naval personnel was not at a sufficient level at the time.

After the dethroning of Abdulhamit II in 1909, some efforts were initiated to improve the standards of the Navy. On 14 July 1909, the Naval Association was founded with the help of the Ottoman people to stop the continuing loss of territory caused by the absence of a powerful navy. Thanks to the immense efforts of this Association, a considerable amount of money was collected and with those funds, the destroyers, Yadigar-i Millet, Gayret-i Vataniye, Nümune-i Hamiyet and Muavenet-i Milliye and the armored battleships Barbaros Hayrettin and Turgutreis were transferred from Germany in 1910.

In parallel with the efforts of creating the financial resources to support the Navy, a committee under the presidency of an English sailor, Admiral Gamble, was tasked with investigating the world's maritime innovations. This laid the foundations for the Ottoman Navy on contemporary and fundamental principles and developed a new doctrine for the education and training of its personnel. Just after the beginning of the World War I, in concert with the political inclination of the Empire, a committee from Germany was assigned to reorganize the Ottoman Navy.

The Ottoman Navy found itself in the middle of the Ottoman-Italian War (Tripoli, 1911-1912) while the restructuring efforts were underway. During this war, the main task of the Ottoman Navy was to defend the Çanakkale Strait as well as to project power by sea as the situation demanded.

The War of Tripoli was followed by the Balkan War (1912-1913), and in that war the Ottoman Navy provided logistic support to the Ottoman Army by naval shipping while continuing the maintenance of its ships, In addition, the Ottoman Navy contributed to the defense of the Çatalca Line in Thrace as well as supporting the Army's units with naval gunfire to interrupt the advance of the Bulgarian Army.

The cruiser Hamidiye, which under the command of Rauf Orbay, caused the Greek Navy and some military installations onshore heavy losses by conducting surprise tactical attacks for seven and a half months in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas, achieved some success. The cruiser Hamidiye and her commander, Rauf Orbay therefore took their places in the glorious history of the Turkish Navy. Although the extremely successful operations of Hamidiye did not affect the result of the Balkan War, her efforts were highly regarded around the world.

With the beginning of World War I, the Ottoman Government declared its neutrality. Two German warships, Goeben and Breslau, which happened to be at the Mediterranean at this time, sailed to the Çanakkale Strait on 10 August 1914 as a result of pressure from the British Navy which was deployed to the Adriatic and off the coast of Peloponnesus. Since the Ottoman Navy wanted to remain neutral, it was declared that these two warships were purchased. On 16 August 1914, these ships were commissioned into the Turkish Navy with a transfer and delivery ceremony and they were named Yavuz and Midilli. On 27 September 1914, the Ottoman Government laid mines to the Çanakkale Strait and its Aegean exit. On 1 October 1914, it was declared to the world that the Strait was closed.

During the World War I, the Ottoman Navy served at the Black Sea, in the Çanakkale Strait and waters close to it.The Ottoman Navy protected the maritime shipping in the Black Sea, destined for the Turkish Forces located in Eastern Anatolia and conducted surprise offensive action against some Russian cities at the Black Sea coast: as well as secured coal transportation between Istanbul and Zonguldak. The speed advantage and firepower of the Yavuz Battle Cruiser considerably blocked the activities of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea. The Ottoman Navy units, deployed to the Black Sea, kept the Russian Navy away from the Istanbul Strait, thus preventing the Ottoman Forces stationed at Çanakkale from being threatened from the East.

Due to the presence of the powerful English and French Navies in the Aegean Sea, the activities of the Ottoman Navy were limited.The English and French were aiming to reach Istanbul through the Çanakkale Strait with their powerful navy, which was known as the "Invincible Armada." This way they were going to be able to support their ally, Russia, and weaken the will power and determination of the Ottoman Government. These events constituted the beginning of a series of events, which would lead to the magnificent and renowned Çanakkale Naval Victory, which took its glorious place in the pages of the noble and majestic Turkish History.

To counter the preparations of the strategic strike by the Allied Navy, the Turkish Navy increased its activities and mobilized all of its remaining capabilities. On the night of 7 March 1915, Nusret secretly sailed to the Karanlik Port, off the coast Erenköy, and laid the 26 mines parallel to the shoreline.

On 18 March 1915, the English Armoured Battleships Irresistible and Ocean, and the French Bouvet armoured battleship sank. The Gaulois, Suffren, Inflexible Armored Battleships suffered major damage and many of the other Armored Battleships inflicted serious damage due to heavy gunfire from our Shore Batteries. The Allied Navy not only suffered major losses when their ships hit mines laid by Nusret, but also lost a considerable amount of prestige in their countries. Having failed in penetrating the Çanakkale Strait, the Entente Powers attempted to reach their target through Gelibolu with an amphibious operation followed by a land operation between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916.

In this context, the Entente Powers planned a special naval operation and secretly transferred a large number of submarines to the Sea of Marmara in order to prevent the Ottoman Government from reinforcing the Çanakkale Front. With submarine nets and mine barriers that were set up at the narrow passes of the Çanakkale Strait, and the ships in the Sea of Marmara, the Ottoman Navy paralyzed the submarine operations of the Entente Powers.

At the end of World War I, 7 English, 1 Australian and 5 French submarines were destroyed in the Sea of Marmara and the Çanakkale Strait, within the context of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Operation.

The Sultanhisar Torpedo Boat which neutralised the Australian AE-2 Submarine with its gun and torpedo attacks; the Muavenet-i Milliye Destroyer which sank the English Goliath Armored Battleship on the night of 13 May 1915; the success and heroism of Corporal Gunner Müstecip who shot the French Turquoise Submarine's periscope on 30 October 1915; all created great repercussions among the Turkish people and positively affected the overall morale and motivation of the Nation. Unfortunately though, during the battles, the Barbaros Hayrettin Armored Battleship and Yarhisar Torpedo Boat were sunken by the English E-11 Submarine.

Since the Entente Powers were not able to obtain the results that they wanted, they decided to sustain the war from other fronts. As a result of an itelligence report, Yavuz and Midilli Battle Cruisers together with Muavenet-i Milliye, Basra and Samsun Destroyers sailed to the Aegean Sea through the Çanakkale Strait on 20 January 1918 to interrupt the Allied Convoy's cruise from Thessaloníki to Palestine. Yavuz hit a mine off the coast of Gökçeada and was damaged. Following that, she was attacked by the British aircraft. While trying to avoid the attacks by evasive manoeuvres, she received further damage. At the same time, Midilli, which was passing through a mined area, received 5 mine wounds and sank. While Yavuz was on her way back to Istanbul, her homeport, in the Çanakkale Strait, off the coast Nara, she hit a third mine and ran aground, where she lay for six days and was constantly bombarded by the British aircraft. She was later rescued and towed to Istinye, Istanbul.

Throughout the World War I, which lasted 4 years, the relatively weak Ottoman Navy encountered great losses and came out of war extremely worn out. The control of the remaining ships was passed on to the Control Commission founded by the Entente Powers in accordance with the provisions of the Mondoros Armistice, signed on 30 October 1918.