Initially named Abdül Hamid, it was ordered by the Ottoman Navy in 1900 from the British shipbuilding company Armstrong Whitworth.

[1] Hamidiye was powered by two sets of four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines providing a top speed of 22.2 knots and carried a nominal complement of 400 (in 1904) and 355 (in 1915).

The largest of these were two 6 in (15 cm) /45 Armstrong quick-firing guns each on a centre-pivot mounting with an open-backed gunshield, one forward and one aft.

[4] Eight 4.7 in (12 cm) /50 Armstrong quick-firing guns rounded out the primary armament; these were placed in single shielded centre-pivot mounts on broadside amidships, four on either side.

Hamidiye also carried a pair of 18 in (46 cm) torpedo tubes; these were emplaced in two aim-able mounts underneath the forebridge.

Hamidiye fought in the Balkan Wars under the command of Captain Rauf Orbay, and was the only Ottoman ship to distinguish itself in the conflict.

The next day, at Syros, it sank the Greek armed merchant cruiser Macedonia and shelled the town of Ermoupoli.

On 12 March 1913 Hamidiye attacked 13 Greek merchant ships offloading Serbian troops (bound from Salonika) in the port of San Giovanni di Medua, Albania.

The whole incident sparked a furious complaint from the Serbs about a lack of protection by the Hellenic Navy of their chartered transports, compelling the Greeks to escort further convoys with the ironclad Psara.

The recently repaired Yavûz steamed out of the Bosporus to cover the arrival of Hamidiye and Midilli and force off the pursuing Russians.

[1] For a short while between 1949 and 1951, it was a museum ship anchored at the port of the Kabataş quarter in Istanbul, on the European shoreline of the Bosphorus.

[1] It was then towed to the Paşabahçe quarter in the Beykoz district of Istanbul, on the Anatolian shoreline of the Bosphorus, and its breaking-up was completed there in 1966.