Mecidiye was the lead ship of four wooden-hulled Mecidiye-class paddle frigates built for the Ottoman Navy in the 1840s; they were the first Ottoman-built warships powered by steam.

[2] Mecidiye was ordered in 1845 as part of a modest naval expansion program aimed at building the first steam-powered ships of the Ottoman Navy.

She was laid down in 1846 at the Imperial Arsenal in Constantinople, and was launched that same year; during construction, the decision was made to complete her as another yacht for the sultan.

[4] The squadron was tasked with patrolling the eastern Black Sea coast of the Ottoman Empire, including Circassia and Georgia.

On 19 November, after the start of the war, Pasha took his squadron to Sinop to meet another squadron under Osman Pasha; while en route on 9 November, Mecidiye and the other frigates encountered the Russian frigate Flora off Pitsunda but were unable to defeat her in a seven-hour battle.

[1] During the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869; in early 1868, Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, boarded Mecidiye in Crete for the voyage back to Constantinople.

[8] In 1888, Mecidiye was towed to the Imperial Shipyard for a refit; two years later, she was reduced to serve as a coal hulk stationed in Ereğli.