Ottoman ironclad Avnillah

Avnillah, c. 1885
History
Ottoman Empire
NameAvnillah
Namesake"Divine Assistance"
Ordered1867
BuilderThames Iron Works
Laid down1868
Launched21 April 1869
Commissioned1870
FateSunk, 24 February 1912
General characteristics
Class and typeAvnillah-class ironclad
Displacement2,362 metric tons (2,325 long tons)
Length68.9 m (226 ft 1 in) (lpp)
Beam10.9 m (35 ft 9 in)
Draft5 m (16 ft 5 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement
  • 15 officers
  • 130 enlisted men
Armament4 × 228 mm (9 in) guns
Armor

Avnillah (Ottoman Turkish: Divine Assistance)[1] was an ironclad warship built for the Ottoman Navy in the late 1860s. The lead ship of the Avnillah class, she was built by the Thames Iron Works in Britain. The ship was laid down in 1868, launched in 1869, and she was commissioned into the fleet the following year. A central battery ship, she was armed with a battery of four 228 mm (9 in) guns in a central casemate, and was capable of a top speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

Avnillah saw action during the Russo-Turkish War in 1877–1878, where she supported Ottoman forces in the Caucasus. After the war, she was placed in reserve and allowed to deteriorate; by the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, she was in unserviceable condition. Avnillah was modernized in 1903–1906 during a major reconstruction program begun after the war. She became a harbor defense ship stationed in Beirut. She was sunk by the Italian armored cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Battle of Beirut during the Italo-Turkish War in February 1912.

  1. ^ Langensiepen & Güleryüz, p. 197