Hello again
With special permission of Weisman (and using his beautiful bow and stern decoration from Hamidiye): The Ottoman protected cruiser Mecidiye, one of two similar ships acquired by the Ottoman Empire at the start of the 20th century and employed until after the Second World War. With less than 3.500 tons and a speed of 21 knots, these were powerfully armed ships for their size (2 152mm and 8 120mm guns plus a collection of smaller pieces and two above-water 450mm TT just below the bridge). Mecidiye was built in the USA to the same specifications as the British-built Hamidiye; she was visibly shorter and looked far less elegant, featuring a built-up bridge and massive funnels.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/f52efjtixp5tczc/CL%20Medjidieh%201904.png?dl=0)
She served in the Balkan wars and the first world war without significant alterations; in 1915 she hit a mine of the Crimean coast and sank on an even keel.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/umwdt5tnnsnz2b0/CL%20Medjidieh%201912.png?dl=0)
The Russians, desperately short on cruisers in the Black sea, salvaged the wreck and repaired and rearmed her. She was commissioned in 1917 as Prut, with most of her bridge structure removed and her Turkish armament replaced by eight 130mm L/55 guns and four 63mm guns, an even more powerful armament than before. The TTs seem to have been landed. In Russian service, she was only good for 18 knots at best. She was recaptured by the Germans in 1918 and handed back to the Ottomans; sources conflict on whether they kept the Russian armament or stripped it and mounted only two 152mm and two 120mm guns. Unfortunately, I found no photographs of her after being handed back to the Turks, so I can only show her Russian layout.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/p7ew8ocdtmtxxdn/CL%20Prut%201917.png?dl=0)
She was used as a training vessel till 1924, then modernized and again used operationally; she and her half-sister Hamidiye were scrapped in the mid-1950s.
Greetings
GD
![[ img ]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyvgxzsbr8ckrv2/Mecidye-1932.PNG?dl=1)