[4] The modern name commemorates Kara Mürsel who founded the Ottoman navy and designed distinctive galley ships, called kadırgas, for it.

[6] According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82-1893, the kaza of Karamürsel had a total population of 25,322, consisting of 11,023 Greeks, 10,732 Muslims, 3,549 Armenians and 18 foreign citizens.

Some of these immigrants arrived from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, Lazistan, Georgia, Circassia and Crimea during and after the fall of Ottoman Empire; a particularly large number of Bosniaks settled in the area after the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish war.

[8] Many Muslim refugees from all around the Ottoman Empire settled in the region and this ethnic structure has resulted in a culture influenced by that of the Balkans and Caucasus.

Karamürsel was badly damaged on 17 August 1999 during the devastating İzmit earthquake, which rocked the eastern part of the Marmara Region.

Due to its strategic and naturally protected location, Karamürsel has been used as a naval base to help control access to the Black Sea.

The station, containing a 500-foot-diameter antenna array AN/FLR-9, called Elephant Cage, was in place from 1957 until 1979; this huge landmark was visible from everywhere in Karamürsel, from villages on the hills surrounding the town and even from the shores across the Bay of Izmit.