 The ships were designed by a Turkish naval architect, Ahmed Pasha, as small ironclad rams of limited size and endurance for use in the eastern Mediterranean.They required considerable dockyard work after purchase to bring them up to anything near British standards in armament and equipment, but were never comparable in military value to other contemporary Royal Naval battleships.They were poorly armed and of low speed, and their meagre coal supply prevented their being used on blockade work or at any distance from a home port.