The Algésiras class consisted of five second-rank, 90-gun, steam-powered ships of the line built for the French Navy in the 1850s. Most of the ships participated in the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 or the Second French intervention in Mexico in the 1860s. Beginning in the mid-1860s, they were decommissioned or converted into troopships before being scrapped beginning in the early 1870s.
Description The Algésiras-class ships were repeats of the pioneering ship of the line and were also designed by naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme. They had a length at the waterline of , a beam of and a depth of hold of . The ships displaced and had a draught of at deep load. Their crew numbered 913 officers and ratings.Winfield & Roberts, p. 70
The primary difference between Napoléon and the Algésiras class was that the boilers of the latter ships were moved forward of the engines. They were powered by a pair of either horizontal-return connecting-rod or trunk steam engine that drove the single propeller shaft using steam provided by eight boilers. The engines were rated at 900 nominal horsepower and produced around . During their sea trials, they reached speeds of . The ships could carry of coal. They were fitted with three masts and ship rigged with a sail area of .Roche, p. 258
The armament of the Algésiras-class ships generally consisted of eighteen 36-pounder () smoothbore cannon and sixteen Paixhans guns on the lower gundeck and thirty-four 30-pounder cannon on the upper gundeck. On the quarterdeck and forecastle were twenty Paixhans guns and a pair of 163 mm rifled muzzle-loading guns. , converted into a troopship while still under construction, was armed only with four 30-pounder cannon.Winfield & Roberts, p. 71
Ships Name Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned FateWinfield & Roberts, pp. 70–71 Arsenal de Toulon April 1853 4 October 1855 10 April 1856 Destroyed by fire, 25 November 1906 Arsenal de Cherbourg 4 March 1853 20 March 1855 8 May 1856 Scrapped, 1872 Arsenal de Brest 19 August 1853 15 September 1856 20 February 1858 Scrapped, 1897 Arsenal de Rochefort 2 September 1853 17 September 1864 8 May 1865 Sank by accident, May 1913 11 April 1853 25 October 1855 24 November 1856 Scrapped, 1873–1874
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