Mehemet Ali was built circa 1860, probably in England. She was named after Muhammad Ali of Egypt who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848. Mehemet Ali displaced 1,735 tons and was propelled by three masts and a steam engine of 800 nominal horsepower. She was 290 feet (88.4 m) long, with a beam of 36 feet (11.0 m) and a depth in the hold of 16 feet (4.9 m). She was armed with 20x Krupp 4.7 inch guns and 10x 40-pounder breech loading guns and was iron hulled.[1][2]
Service
In October 1864 Mehemet Ali carried the wife of Isma'il Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, from the Bosphorus to Alexandria.[3]Mehemet Ali was posted to Port Said in April 1874 to support forces, under General Charles Pomeroy Stone of the Egyptian Army, mobilised because of a dispute over tolls between the Khedive and the Suez Canal Company. The affair ended with the company accepting the new, lower toll rates.[4]
On 19 January 1877 Mehemet Ali was in harbour at Constantinople when the British merchant steamship Joseph Love was driven onto her by the wind. The Joseph Love sank with the loss of one of her crew drowned. Some 12 crewmen scrambled onto the Mehemet Ali and were aided by her crew; the remaining eight crew of the Joseph Love, including her captain, escaped by ship's boat. The Egyptians provided dinner to the shipwrecked men before they were handed over to a Royal Navy ship. Mehemet Ali was damaged badly at her bow and, having taken on a large quantity of water, was beached on the Kourou-tehesmé Shoal to save her from sinking.[5]
The Mehemet Ali helped escort transports carrying Egyptian forces to the Russo-Turkish War in 1877. By this time she was described by one former navy officer as "as much good as a cardboard box".[6]Mehemet Ali was laid up in December 1880.[1]
Fate
Mehemet Ali had her machinery removed from her in around 1890 and was employed as a stationary guardship at Alexandria. She was discarded in around 1898.[2]
