This association was founded on the initiative of a merchant named Yağcızade Şefik Bey in July 1909, followed shortly afterwards by a wider participation including the more modest layers of the society.

Muavenet-i Milliye and her sister ships, Yadigar-i Millet, Numune-i Hamiyet, and Gayret-i Vataniye, were originally laid down as the German torpedo boats S165-S168.

In the first months of the Ottoman entry into World War I, the ship was assigned to missions in the Black Sea, from where she was re-directed towards Çanakkale with the start of the Dardanelles Campaign.

HMS Goliath was part of the Allied fleet in the naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, supporting the landing at Cape Helles on 25 April 1915.

On the night of 12–13 May 1915 Goliath was stationed, along with HMS Cornwallis and screened by five destroyers, in Morto Bay off Cape Helles, in an effort to relieve the pressure on the French flank of the landing.

During the day, the German captain lieutenant Rudolph Firle[2][3] and two other officers, who had carried out a reconnaissance mission near Morto Bay earlier, had embarked on Muâvenet-i Millîye to manage the torpedo operations.

The subsequent loss of battleships Triumph at Anzac and Majestic at Cape Helles, both torpedoed by U-21, resulted in a further reduction in naval support for the Allied land troops.

The ship captain, Kıdemli Yüzbaşı Ayasofyali Ahmed Saffed, the German lieutenant Rudolph Firle and his two deputies and the over 90 Ottoman crew were greeted as heroes in Istanbul, all lights along the Bosphorus having been lit specially to their honor, and were rewarded with medals and decorations.