Ottoman ironclad Lütf-ü Celil

Illustration of Lütf-ü Celil
History
Ottoman Empire
NameLütf-ü Celil
Namesake"Divine Grace"
Ordered1867
BuilderForges et Chantiers de la Gironde
Laid down1868
Launched1869
CommissionedMarch 1870
FateSunk by Russian artillery, 11 May 1877
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

Lütf-ü Celil (Ottoman Turkish: Divine Grace) was an ironclad warship of the Ottoman Navy, the lead ship of the Lütf-ü Celil class. Originally ordered by the Khedivate of Egypt, an autonomous vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, the central Ottoman government forced Egypt to surrender Lütf-ü Celil while she was still under construction at the French Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde shipyard. Lütf-ü Celil saw action during the first weeks of the Russo-Turkish War in 1877, where she operated on the Danube to try to prevent Russian forces from crossing the river. While on patrol on 11 May, she engaged a Russian artillery battery that scored a hit on the ship's boiler room, causing an explosion that destroyed the ship and killed most of her crew.