Ottoman Navy

The fleet of the Ottoman Empire, a major Mediterranean naval power from the 15th to the early 20th century. Built on war galleys and the Imperial Arsenal (Tersane-i Amire) at Constantinople, it took Constantinople in 1453 and dominated the eastern Mediterranean until the Holy League shattered it at Lepanto on 7 October 1571, the last great galley battle. It rebuilt repeatedly, shifting to sail and then steam, and fought into the First World War with the German-built battlecruiser Yavuz (ex-Goeben) before the empire’s fall.