The War: Russian Officers Taking Down the Ottoman Flag from the Lütfi Djelil, Turkish Gun-Boat, Sunk near Braila

Description

This engraving, published in the June 2, 1877, issue of The Illustrated London News, depicts a dramatic aftermath of a battle on the Danube River on May 11, 1877, during the War of '93. While patrolling the Izmail-Braila line, the modern Ottoman armored river monitor Lütf-i Celil came under intense fire from Russian field batteries. A massive explosion caused by a shell hitting its boiler room caused it to sink within minutes. The incident was witnessed by war correspondents of the time, and the moment the ship sank was reported in an engraving in the newspaper. The British press reported that the force of the explosion killed almost all of the ship's approximately 160 crew, with only about twenty survivors. The engraving depicts the moment immediately after the ship sank when Russian river troops reached the still-visible remains of the mast and retrieved the Ottoman flag from the water. In the foreground, the crescent and star flag still fluttering on the submerged mast serves as a dramatic and sorrowful symbol of the ship's last trace. In the background, Russian officers survey the wreckage, transport the wounded, and conduct rescue and search operations along the river. The sinking of the Lütf-i Celil not only represented the loss of a valuable battleship for the Ottoman army in terms of engineering, but also affected the military balance of power along the Danube defenses.