 Hamidiye in the Golden Horn
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hamidiye class |
| Operators |  Ottoman Navy |
| Preceded by | Mesudiye |
| Succeeded by | None |
| History | |
 Ottoman Empire | |
| Name | Hamidiye |
| Namesake | Abdul Hamid I |
| Ordered | 1871 |
| Builder | Imperial Arsenal, Constantinople |
| Laid down | December 1874 |
| Launched | February 1885 |
| Commissioned | 1894 |
| Decommissioned | 1903 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1913 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Central battery ship |
| Displacement | 6,594 metric tons (6,490 long tons) |
| Length | |
| Beam | 16.9 m (55 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 7.5 m (24 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement | 350 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Hamidiye was a unique ironclad warship built for the Ottoman Navy in the 1870s, the last vessel of the type completed for the Ottomans. She was a central battery ship, mounting most of her armament in a central casemate. The ship, built by the Ottoman Imperial Arsenal took nearly twenty years to complete; she was laid down in December 1874, launched in 1885, and completed in 1894. Due to her lengthy construction period, she was already obsolete by the time she was launched. Her poor handling and low quality armor contributed to a short career, spent almost entirely as a stationary training ship. She was briefly activated in 1897 during the Greco-Turkish War, but she was already in bad condition just three years after she entered service, as was the rest of the ancient Ottoman fleet. The Ottomans embarked on a reconstruction program after the incident humiliated the government, but Hamidiye was in too poor a state by 1903 to warrant rebuilding, and she was accordingly decommissioned that year, placed for sale in 1909, and sold to ship breakers in 1913.