Goeben

a German battle cruiser. It had a displacement of 23,000 tons and a speed of 27 knots (50 km/hr); an armament of ten 280-mm, 12 150-mm, and eight 88-mm guns, and two torpedo tubes; and a crew of 1,013. It was sold to Turkey in the beginning of World War I.

In August 1914 the Goeben and the cruiser Breslau, with the obvious complicity of the British fleet, broke through from the western to the eastern Mediterranean and then into Constantinople. To avoid a return of the ships to the Mediterranean or their internment, the German ambassador “proposed” to the Turkish government that it settle the question of the purchase within 24 hours. On Aug. 3 (16), 1914, Turkish flags were hoisted on the ships and the Goeben received the name Yavuz Sultan Selim. On Oct. 16 (29), 1914, it made a piratical attack on Sevastopol’, firing about 60 shells at the city. Subsequently it repeatedly fired on the Russian coast and transports but avoided a decisive battle with Russian ships. In January 1918 it was damaged by mines and deactivated in the Bosporus. In 1938 it was modernized and was part of the Turkish fleet until the late 1940’s; then it was a training ship until 1960.