Osmaniye-class ironclad

Line-drawing of the Osmaniye class
Class overview
Operators Ottoman Empire
Preceded byNone
Succeeded byAsar-i Tevfik
Built1863–1866
In commission1865–1909
Completed4
Scrapped4
General characteristics
Class and typeIronclad frigate
Displacement6,400 metric tons (6,300 long tons; 7,100 short tons)
Length91.4 m (299 ft 10 in) (loa)
Beam16.9 m (55 ft 5 in)
Draft7.9 m (25 ft 11 in)
Installed power6 × box boilers
Propulsion
Speed13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph)
Complement
  • 26 officers
  • 335 enlisted men
Armament
  • 1 × 229 mm (9 in) RML Armstrong gun
  • 14 × 203 mm (8 in) RML Armstrong guns
  • 10 × 36-pounder Armstrong guns
Armor
  • Belt: 140 mm (5.5 in)
  • Battery: 127 mm (5 in)

The Osmaniye class was a group of four ironclad warships built for the Ottoman Navy in the 1860s. The class comprised Osmaniye, the lead ship, Aziziye, Orhaniye, and Mahmudiye. They were the first vessels of the type to be built for the Ottoman Empire; all four were built in Great Britain, the first three by Robert Napier and Sons and the fourth by Thames Iron Works. The ships were broadside ironclads, carrying a battery of fourteen 203 mm (8 in) Armstrong guns and ten 36-pounder Armstrong guns in a bank of guns on each broadside.

The ships saw little active service, in part because they were considered too large and thus too valuable to risk during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The Ottoman fleet was placed in reserve for the following two decades, during which the four ships of the Osmaniye class were heavily rebuilt into more modern barbette ships. They were in poor condition by the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, like much of the rest of the fleet, and as a result saw no action during the war. The Navy considered rebuilding the ships for the second time in the early 1900s, but abandoned the idea due to their deteriorated state. As a result, the four ships were decommissioned in 1909 and Mahmudiye and Orhaniye were broken up in 1913, with Osmaniye and Aziziye remaining in the Navy's inventory until 1923, when they too were scrapped.