Ottoman ironclad Hifz-ur Rahman

Hifz-ur Rahman in the Golden Horn in the 1890s
History
Ottoman Empire
NameHifz-ur Rahman
Namesake"Merciful Protector"
Ordered1867
BuilderForges et Chantiers de la Gironde
Laid down1868
Launched1869
CommissionedMarch 1870
Decommissioned1909
FateSold for scrap, 11 November 1909
General characteristics
Class & typeLütf-ü Celil class
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 men
Armament
  • 2 × 229 mm (9 in) Armstrong guns
  • 2 × 178 mm (7 in) Armstrong guns
Armor

Hifz-ur Rahman (Ottoman Turkish: Merciful Protector) was the second of two Lütf-ü Celil-class ironclads built for the Ottoman Navy in the late 1860s. Originally ordered by the Khedivate of Egypt, an autonomous vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, the central Ottoman government forced Egypt to surrender Hifz-ur Rahman while she was still under construction at the French Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde shipyard. The vessel was a turret ship, armed with two 229 mm (9 in) Armstrong guns and two 178 mm (7 in) Armstrong guns, both pairs in revolving gun turrets.

Hifz-ur Rahman saw action during the Russo-Turkish War in 18771878, where she operated on the Danube to try to prevent Russian forces from crossing the river. While defending the port of Sulina, she engaged Russian gunboats in an inconclusive action. She was laid up for twenty years, until the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, which highlighted the badly deteriorated state of the Ottoman fleet. A large-scale reconstruction program was put in place, and Hifz-ur Rahman was rebuilt in the Imperial Arsenal in the early 1890s. Nevertheless, she saw no further service of any significance, and she was sold for scrap in 1909.