Saik-i Şadi was one 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] Saik-i Şadi was ordered in 1845 as part of a modest naval expansion program aimed at building the first steam-powered ships of the Ottoman Navy.

In September 1853, the Ottoman fleet organized three squadrons in the Black Sea as tensions with Russia rose.

Saik-i Şadi was assigned to a squadron consisting of her three sister ships, under the command of Mustafa Pasha.

[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, Saik-i Şadi and the other frigates encountered the Russian frigate Flora off Pitsunda but were unable to defeat her in a seven-hour battle.