Ottoman battleship Abdül Kadir
Plan and side views of the rearmed ship
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Abdül Kadir |
| Operators: |
 Ottoman Navy
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| Planned: | 1 |
| Cancelled: | 1 |
| History | |
| Namesake: | Abdul Qadir |
| Ordered: | 1890 |
| Builder: | Tersane-i Amire, Constantinople |
| Laid down: | 1892 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1909 |
| General characteristics (as designed) | |
| Type: | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: | 8,100 long tons (8,230 t) |
| Length: | 340 ft (103.6 m) |
| Beam: | 65 ft (19.8 m) |
| Draft: | 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shafts, 12,000 ihp (8,948 kW) (estimated) |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) (estimated) |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | |
Abdül Kadir was a pre-dreadnought battleship laid down in 1892 at the Constantinople imperial dockyard for the Ottoman Navy, the first vessel of this type to be ordered by the Ottoman Empire. The ship was the first capital ship to be laid down by the Ottomans in more than a decade. She was to have a main armament of four 28-centimetre (11 in) guns, with an armoured belt that was 230 mm (9.1 in) thick. Work proceeded on the ship very slowly, primarily the result of a lack of funds; after two years, only the frames for the hull had been erected, and by the time work stopped in 1906, the hull had been only partially plated. The unfinished ship was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1909.
Abdül Kadir was to have been the Ottoman Navy's first pre-dreadnought battleship. She followed a series of ironclad warships built in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1876, Sultan Murad V was deposed; the Ottoman Navy had played a role in the coup, which installed Abdul Hamid II on the throne. The new sultan was as a result suspicious of the navy, and attempted to reduce its power by withholding funding and ordering no new capital ships over the course of the following decade. By the late 1880s, however, the ships built by his predecessors were rapidly becoming obsolescent, especially compared to foreign designs like the British Royal Sovereign-class battleships.
More importantly, the Greek Navy—a major rival of the Ottoman fleet—had ordered three Hydra class ironclad battleships in 1885. These ships, though smaller than the older Ottoman ironclads, were kept in a much better state of readiness than the Ottoman vessels, which were left idle in the Sea of Marmara, with little maintenance done. In 1890, the Ottoman government authorized a large construction program that included two battleships based on the 12,500-metric-ton (12,300-long-ton; 13,800-short-ton) French Hoche, along with several cruisers and smaller vessels. The two Hoche-class battleships were not built; instead, a smaller design, to be named Abdül Kadir, was ordered that year. Along with the elderly central battery ironclad Mesudiye, she would have been one of the largest ships in the Ottoman Navy.
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Wikipedia