The rebuilt Messudiyeh

The Ottoman Empire thought that you should be able to modernize old ships so that they could have some of the capability of more modern ships. The old ironclad Messudiyeh was rebuilt in Genoa in 1902. The rebuilt ship had one military mast behind two funnels. The photograph indicates that the hull was black with a thin white stripe over a red lower hull. The upperworks, turrets, and funnels appear to be white. The ship carried 2-9.2in Vickers guns, 12-6in/45 QF guns, 14-14pdr (3in) QF guns, 10-6pdr (57mm) QF guns, and 2-3pdr (47mm) QF guns. The armour was still mostly the original iron. The belt was 12in, but that was useless against modern guns. The turrets and barbettes were Terni steel. The Messudiyeh was 331ft long, so it was about the size of the older British and French battleships. There was a great deal of interest in this sort of rebuilding, but Admiral Fisher disagreed and sold off old the old ships from the British navy, starting in 1904.