Ottoman minelayer Nusret

Type

Minelayer

Period

20th Century

Nation

Ottoman Empire

Overview: Nusret was a small Ottoman Navy minelayer famous for a single night's work that changed the course of World War I. Built in Germany and commissioned in 1913, she is celebrated in Turkey for laying the minefield that helped defeat the Allied naval assault on the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. Specifications: The ship displaced 365 tons and was 40.2 meters long with a 7.5 meter beam and 3.4 meter draught, driven by two triple-expansion steam engines on twin screws for a trial speed of about 15 knots. She was essentially built on a tugboat hull form but fitted with mine rails for forty mines on her stern and a stern crane for handling them, and armed with two 47mm Krupp quick-firing guns; by 1927 refits she carried 57mm guns and up to 60 mines. Service History: Under Lieutenant Hakkı Bey, Nusret secretly laid a new line of 26 mines across Erenköy Bay on the night of 7–8 March 1915, in an area the Allied fleet was using as a turning circle rather than an area already swept. When the Allied fleet attempted to force the Strait on 18 March 1915, several battleships struck these mines: the British battleships Ocean and Irresistible and the French battleship Bouvet sank. After the war she continued in Turkish naval service in various roles as minelayer, diving vessel, and tender until 1955, was then sold commercially and rebuilt beyond recognition as the cargo ship Kaptan Nusret in 1966, and finally sank near Mersin Harbour in 1989. Notable Facts: In 2002 the wreck of Nusret was acquired by the Municipality of Tarsus, Mersin Province for reconstruction ashore as a museum ship, opened in about 2008. Separately, a replica Nusret was built by the Gölcük Naval Shipyard for display in Çanakkale by the shore of the Narrows of the Dardanelles, and in March 2011 this replica was commissioned into the Turkish Navy as the museum ship N-16 (TCG Nusret), described by the Naval Museum as one of the few sailing museum ships in the world fitted with modern navigation instruments. For modelers, her tugboat-derived hull, stern mine rails, and single mine-handling crane aft of the funnel are the most distinctive recognition features.