The manufacture of the Mesudiye Battleship was ordered in 1871 from the British shipyard of Thames Iron Works. The Ironclad was laid down in 1872, launched in 1874, and entered into service in the Ottoman Navy in December 1875. It was repaired and refitted at Istanbul Shipyard and the Genoa/Ansaldo Shipbuilding Yard in 1893 and 1898-1903, respectively. 
The ship, which was idle in the early days of the First World War, was positioned at Sarısığlar/Çanakkale as a battery for defense to protect the mine-clearing lines in the strait. The Mesudiye Ironclad was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS B11 , which entered the strait by crossing the mine-clearing lines on December 13, 1914 at 11:58.

This casualty of the early First World War was actually the first battleship to be lost by the Ottoman Navy. From a crew of 661, 35 sailors (10 officers and 25 seamen) working in the engine room and boiler room of the ship were martyred. In December 1914, 5 officers and 3 seamen were rescued after being trapped for 36 hours by cutting off the keel of the capsized ship. 
Guns removed from the Mesudiye Ironclad were used for the fortification of the strait at the Baykuş (Mesudiye) battery, and shells from this battery were instrumental in the victorious outcome of the Dardanelles Campaign naval operations on March 18, 1915.