Mecidiye (in older publications also spelled as Medjidiye) was a protected cruiser of the Ottoman Empire that saw action during the Balkan Wars and World War I. It was ordered by the Ottoman Navy in 1900 to the United States shipbuilding company William Cramp & Sons. It was laid down in Philadelphia on 7 November 1901; launched on 25 July 1903; its sea trials began in October 1903; and it was commissioned on 19 December 1903.

In October 1912, Mecidiye shelled Bulgarian forts near Varna and other military targets. On 9 December, she was attacked by the Greek submarine Delfin at 800 meters, but the torpedo missed. Mecidiye also participated in the two major naval battles of the war, against the Greek Navy, at Elli (16 December 1912) and Lemnos (18 January 1913), suffering slight damage in the first. On 18 February 1913, Mecidiye was part of the covering naval force for the Ottoman shore landing at Sarkoy.

During the First World War, Mecidiye operated in the Black Sea. In December 1914, the ship transported Hafiz Hakki Bey to Trebizond to deliver messages to the 3rd Army's Chief of Staff.

On 3 April 1915, while shelling the port of Odessa, the ship was sunk by hitting a Russian mine 15 nautical miles (28 km; 17 mi) off the coast of Vorokoskiy-Mayak near Odessa in the Russian Empire. 26 crewmen lost their lives.

The ship was raised by the Russians on 31 May 1915, and salvaged on 8 June 1915. The former cruiser Mecidiye was immediately put on the dock of the Russian Shipping and Trade Society. Already 26 on June 1915 of the year the ship under the name Prut was enlisted in the lists of the Black Sea Fleet.

After an initial survey of the drained compartments of the cruiser, he was sent to Nikolaev for repairs. At the same time, they contacted the American shipbuilding company William Cramp & Sons, in the shipyards of which the cruiser was built. American businessmen immediately agreed to transfer the drawings and other technical documentation for the appropriate amount. Documentation bought and started to repair. Also the ship, as stated above, was re-armed. All the old weapons were removed from the former Mecidiye. Considering that the gun locks were raised from the bottom by the efforts of Russian divers, the 120-mm Turkish guns that were shot were sent to Odessa to enhance the defense of the city. Instead, ten 130-mm naval guns (B-7) manufactured by the Obukhov Steel Plant were installed on the ship. In November of the 1915, the repaired new-born cruiser named Prut went to sea for sea trials. And in February of the following year, the Prut was commissioned by the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Empire.

The only combat campaign of the Prut cruiser was his participation in the Trapezund landing operation, more precisely, in one of its episodes.

On 1 May 1918 it was captured by the German forces at Sevastopol and was returned to the Ottoman Navy on 13 May 1918, which re-commissioned the ship as Mecidiye.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, Ottoman warships were to be handed over to the Allies, in particular the United Kingdom, as war compensation. However, the ensuing Turkish War of Independence culminated in the abrogation of the Treaty of Sevres; it was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which permitted the new Turkish Republic to retain the former Ottoman fleet, including Mecidiye. All warships of the former Ottoman Navy which survived World War I (they were interned at the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara under Allied control) were transferred to the Turkish Navy in 1925.

However, from 1925 to 1927, the cruiser was being repaired at the Golcuk Naval Shipyard in the town of Geljuk in Izmit Bay. He was re-armed. Russian 130-mm guns were replaced by Turkish.

The ship did not take part in any military campaigns. In 1940, the cruiser, having no combat value anymore, was retrained into a training ship. For seven more years, the ship that had lost its combat qualification was listed as part of the Turkish fleet, but in 1947 it was taken out of the brackets. The former cruiser was sold for scrap in 1952, and broken up between 1952 and 1956.