This work chronologically presents the lives of two ships. The elegant cruiser, called Midilli by Turks, was originally the German Breslau. While its life was cut short after a mere7 years, that of the powerful Yavuz, originally the German Goeben, was to last 64 years & included two World Wars, the demise of a spent Empirde and the birth of the young Turkish Republic. Since we focus mainly on the visual aspect of our story, we include over 90 photographs, some never seen before. We also include the technical specifications of each warship and copies of their original conceptual drawings.