Greek ironclad Spetsai The Spetsai ( Greek : Θ / Κ Σπέτσαι ) was a Greek ironclad battleship of the that served in the Royal Hellenic Navy from 1890 until 1920 . She was named after the Saronic Gulf island of Spetses , which played a key role in the war at sea during the Greek War of Independence . " Spetsai " she was ordered in 1885 in response to a crisis in the Balkans and Ottoman naval expansion . The ship was launched in 1889 and delivered to Greece by 1902 . She was armed with a main battery of three guns and five guns , and had a top speed of . " Spetsai " and her sisters saw extensive service with the Greek Navy . They participated in the Greco – Turkish War in 1897 until the Great Powers intervened and prevented the Greek Navy from capitalizing on their superiority over the Ottoman Navy . " Psara " saw action in the First Balkan War at the Naval Battle of Elli and was present at the Naval Battle of Lemnos , but was too slow to actively engage the Ottoman forces . She did not see action during World War I , and was used as a naval communications school until 1929 , when she was sold for scrapping . Construction . In 1885 , Greece ordered three new ironclads of the . " Spetsai " was ordered from the " Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée " shipyard in Le Havre , France during the premiership of Charilaos Trikoupis . The ship , named for the island of Spetsai , was launched on 26 October 1889 , and by 1892 , she and her sister - ships " Hydra " and " Psara " were delivered to the Greek fleet . The ship was long between perpendiculars and had a beam of and a mean draft of . She displaced as built . She was powered by a pair of steam engines of unknown type ; they were rated at and provided a top speed of . Coal storage amounted to . " Spetsai " s main battery consisted of three guns . Two guns were mounted forward in barbette s on either side of the forward superstructure ; these were L / 34 guns . The third gun , a L / 28 gun , was placed in a turret aft . The secondary battery consisted of four L / 36 guns in casemate s were mounted below the forward main battery , and a fifth 5 . 9 - inch gun was placed on the centerline on the same deck as the main battery . A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boat s . These included four L / 22 guns , four 3 - pounder guns , four 1 - pounder guns , and six 1 - pounder revolver cannons . The ship was also armed with three torpedo tube s . The ship was armored with a mix of Creusot and compound steel . The main belt was thick and the main battery was protected by up to of armor . Service history . " Spetsai " saw limited action in the Greco – Turkish War in 1897 , as the Royal Hellenic Navy was unable to make use of its superiority over the Ottoman Navy . The Ottoman Navy had remained in port during the conflict , but a major naval intervention of the Great Powers prevented the Greeks from capitalizing on their superiority . The conflict was centered on the island of Crete , which was the object of an international naval demonstration in 1897 – 1898 ; the Great Powers mediated a solution to the conflict that saw Crete returned to Ottoman control , but with a Greek prince . In 1897 – 1900 , " Spetsai " and her sister - ships were partially rearmed ; " Spetsai " was modified at the La Seyne shipyard . Their small - caliber guns were replaced with one gun forward , eight 9 - pounder guns , four 3 - pounders , and ten 1 - pounder revolver cannons . One of the 14 - inch torpedo tubes was replaced with a weapon . In 1908 – 1910 , the old 5 . 9 in guns were replaced with new , longer L / 45 models . The Balkan League , of which Greece was a member , declared war on the Ottoman Empire in October 1912 . Two months later , the Ottoman fleet attacked the Greek navy , in an attempt to disrupt the naval blockade surrounding the Dardanelles . The Ottoman fleet , which included the pre - dreadnought battleship s " Turgut Reis " , " Barbaros Hayreddin " , the outdated ironclad battleships " Mesudiye " and " Assar - i Tewfik " , nine destroyers , and six torpedo boats , sortied from the Dardanelles in the morning , at 09 : 30 . The smaller ships remained at the mouth of the straits while the battleships sailed north , remaining near to the coast . The Greek flotilla , which included the armored cruiser " Georgios Averof " and " Spetsai " and her sisters , had been sailing from the island of Imbros to the patrol line outside the straits . When the Ottomans were sighted , the Greeks altered course to the northeast in order to block the advance of their opponents . In the ensuing Naval Battle of Elli , the Ottoman ships opened fire first , at 09 : 50 , from a range of about 15 , 000 yards ; the Greeks returned fire ten minutes later , by which time the range had decreased significantly to 8 , 500 yards . At 10 : 04 , the Ottoman ships completed a 16 - point turn , which reversed their course , and steamed for the safety of the straits in a disorganized withdrawal . Within an hour , the rout ed Ottoman ships had withdrawn into the Dardanelles . The Naval Battle of Lemnos resulted from an Ottoman plan to lure the faster " Georgios Averof " away from the Dardanelles . The protected cruiser " Hamidiye " evaded the Greek blockade and broke out into the Aegean sea ; the assumption was that the Greeks would dispatch " Georgios Averof " to hunt down " Hamidiye " . Despite the threat to Greek lines of communication posed by the cruiser , the Greek commander refused to detach " Georgios Averof " from her position . " Georgios Averof " , " Spetsai " , and her two sisters appeared approximately 12 miles from Lemnos ; when the powerful Greek cruiser was spotted , the Ottomans turned to retreat with " Georgios Averof " in pursuit . She scored several hits on the fleeing Ottoman ships before breaking off the chase . " Spetsai " and her sisters were too slow to keep up with " Georgios Averof " , and played no active part in the engagement . At the outbreak of World War I at the end of July 1914 , Greece ' s pro - German monarch , Constantine I , decided to remain neutral . The Entente powers landed troops in Salonika in 1915 , which was a source of tension between France and Greece . Ultimately , the French seized the Greek Navy on 19 October 1916 ; the heavy units of the Greek fleet were disarmed and placed in reserve for the remainder of the war . " Spetsai " was decommissioned in 1920 and used as a naval communications school until 1929 , when she was broken up for scrap .