Abstract:

The bitter experience of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897 revealed the operational inadequacy of the Ottoman Navy that focused on coastal defence after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The Ottoman decision-makers tried to deal with this problem by carrying out a challenging naval program. Apart from the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers to be purchased from abroad, there was also a battleship project, which was to be built in the Imperial Arsenal (Tersâne-i Âmire) with the empire’s means and resources. This naval platform with a weight of 8.100 tons and a length of 103 meters, which would be named Abdulkadir, was a challenging project because it would be the most powerful battleship in the Ottoman navy. As the first battleship to be built in the Imperial Arsenal after a long time, the Abdulkadir could not be completed because of technical and financial inadequacies, as well as administrative problems. It remained on the dry dock for years. After all, the construction program had to be stopped in 1906, and the ship was scrapped in 1909. If the construction of the Abdulkadir could be completed, it would have made a significant contribution to the deterrence of the Ottoman navy. The construction process of Abdulkadir, which resulted in a fiasco, is the embodiment of the military and economic conditions of the mentioned period.

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