Elisabeta carried 130 Romanian marines to Istanbul, assigning fifteen to the legation, fifteen to the consulate, and one hundred to the sector allotted to Romania. Her naval party also helped fight a major fire and attended the funeral of an Ottoman statesman. She remained in Istanbul until July 1913. The mission let one cruiser move personnel, protect national interests, and make a small state's presence visible during a regional crisis. The 1,351-ton Elisabeta was tiny beside Greece's roughly 10,000-ton armoured cruiser Georgios Averof and the Ottoman battleship Barbaros Hayreddin, formerly the German Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm. The landing party could be re-embarked whenever Romania needed to withdraw, making the deployment economical and reversible.
Chapter · 21:10-23:47
Putting Romanian marines ashore in Istanbul
During the First Balkan War, the cruiser delivered Romanian marines to Istanbul, turning a small ship into a flexible diplomatic and security instrument.