or its allies. The takeover caused considerable ill will in the Ottoman Empire, where public subscriptions had partially funded the ships. When the Ottoman government had been in a financial deadlock over the budget of the battleships, donations for the Ottoman Navy had come in from taverns, cafés, schools and markets, and large donations were rewarded with a "Navy Donation Medal". The seizure, and the gift of the German battlecruiser to the Ottomans, influenced public opinion in the Empire to turn away from Britain. Although there is no evidence that the seizure played any part in the Ottoman government declaring war on Britain and the Triple Entente, historian David Fromkin has speculated that the Turks promised to transfer Sultan Osman I to the Germans in exchange for signing a secret defensive alliance on 1 August. Despite this, the Ottoman government was intent on remaining neutral until Russian disasters during the invasion of East Prussia in September persuaded Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha, the Ministers of War and of the Marine, respectively, that the time was ripe to exploit Russian weakness. Unbeknownst to any of the other members of the government, Enver and Djemal authorized Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon, the German commander-in-chief of the Ottoman Navy, to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea in late October under the pretext of defending its warships from Russian attacks. Souchon, frustrated with Ottoman neutrality, took matters into his own hands and bombarded Russian ports in the Black Sea on 29 October as unambiguous evidence of an Ottoman attack and forced the government's hand into joining the war on Germany's side. 1914–1915 Captain Victor Stanley was appointed as Erins first captain. On 5 September, she joined the Grand Fleet, commanded by Admiral John Jellicoe, at Scapa Flow in Orkney and was assigned to the Fourth Battle Squadron (4th BS). Erin steamed with the ships of the Grand Fleet as they departed from Loch Ewe in Scotland on 17 September for gunnery practice west of the Orkney Islands the following day. After the exercise, they began a fruitless search for German ships in the North Sea that were hampered by bad weather. The Grand Fleet arrived at Scapa Flow on 24 September to refuel before departing the next day for more target practice west of Orkney. In early October the Grand Fleet sortied into the North Sea to provide distant cover for a large convoy