Lütf-ü Celil-class ironclad

Illustration of Lütf-ü Celil
Class overview
Operators Ottoman Empire
Preceded byAsar-i Şevket-class ironclad
Succeeded byAvnillah-class ironclad
Built18681870
In commission18701909
Completed2
Lost1
Scrapped1
General characteristics
TypeMonitor
Displacement2,540 t (2,500 long tons)
Length64.4 m (211 ft 3 in) (loa)
Beam13.6 m (44 ft 7 in)
Draft4.4 m (14 ft 5 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement
  • 12 officers
  • 110 enlisted
Armament
  • 2 × 225 mm (8.9 in) Armstrong guns
  • 2 × 178 mm (7 in) Armstrong guns
Armor

The Lütf-ü Celil class was a pair of ironclad warships built for the Ottoman Navy by a French shipyard in the late 1860s. Originally ordered by the Eyalet of Egypt but confiscated by the Ottoman Empire while under construction, the class comprised the vessels Lütf-ü Celil and Hifz-ur Rahman. The ships were sea-going monitors that mounted their main battery of two 225 mm (8.9 in) Armstrong guns and two 178 mm (7 in) Armstrong guns in two revolving gun turrets.

Both vessels saw action during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, where Lütf-ü Celil was sunk by a Russian artillery battery on the Danube. Hifz-ur Rahman engaged Russian minelayers at the mouth of the Danube but otherwise saw little action. She survived the war and was laid up for the following twenty years. She was mobilized at the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, but like the rest of the Ottoman fleet, was in poor condition. The ship was eventually sold in 1909 and broken up.