was an ironclad coastal defense ship built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and 1880s. She was ordered under the fleet plan of 1872 that was intended to strengthen the French fleet after the Franco-Prussian War. Originally intended to be similar to the , was re-designed after the German s had begun construction, as the earlier French coastal defense ships were too weak to defeat the s. Instead of carrying her main armament of two guns in a single gun turret like and other French coastal defense ships, mounted a pair of guns in two barbettes that allowed her to fire one ahead or astern at any angle. Her guns were significantly larger than the earlier vessels as well, increasing from the guns of her predecessors to weapons. Her design suffered from several problems, including insufficient freeboard and poor stability, both of which reduced her ability to operate in open water. She was also badly overweight, which submerged her belt armor, greatly reducing her defensive characteristics.
served in the Northern Division (later Squadron) in the English Channel for the duration of her career, the active period of which was brief. She was initially assigned as a guard ship for the port of Cherbourg in 2nd reserve. In 1890, she was commissioned for service with the Northern Division and in early 1891, she embarked on a cruise to Spanish waters with the rest of the division. Later that year, in July and August, the ships made a longer voyage to Russia in anticipation of the signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance in August. She remained in active service through 1895, but saw little activity of note during this period. Throughout the 1890s, the French Navy considered multiple proposals to rebuild the ship to correct her deficiencies, but no work was done until 1902, when she received new, lighter guns, new engines and water-tube boilers, and increased armor protection for her conning tower.
Work was completed by 1904, but she saw little activity afterward apart from sea trials to evaluate the effectiveness of the modifications. She was ultimately struck from the naval register in November 1913. The Navy intended to dismantle the ship in Brest, but the start of World War I in August 1914 interrupted all non-essential work. Some limited scrapping was carried out in 1917 and 1918, but by 1920, when the French government was prepared to sell the ship, it was discovered she had sunk at her mooring. The Navy deemed it too expensive to raise the wreck and so offered her for sale in situ, but after a series of attempts in the 1920s and early 1930s, no firm bought the salvage rights. The wreck appears to still be on the bottom of Brest's harbor.
Design
was designed in the late 1870s as part of a naval construction program that had begun under the post-Franco-Prussian War fleet plan of 1872. Initially, the French built two types of armored capital ships, the first, a series of high-freeboard barbette ships, and the second being smaller coast defense ships descended from the monitors that had been built in the 1860s. Most of the initial series of coastal defense ships built under the 1872 plan featured a single gun turret with two large-caliber guns toward the bow similar to the breastwork monitors being built in the British Royal Navy at the time. The French ships included the four vessels of the and es, which being built simultaneously in the early 1870s and were broadly similar. Their turrets were very large, with the guns widely spaced, to theoretically allow them to fire directly astern, one gun on either side of the superstructure. The Minister of the Navy, Louis Raymond de Montaignac de Chauvance, ordered a fifth vessel on 12 February 1875, to be named , nearly identical to , though with a slightly longer and narrower hull.
Work on the new ships proceeded slowly, which was common in French shipyards at the time. French capital ship design practices were interrupted by the development of the German s; these were coastal defense vessels that were significantly more powerful than the French coastal defense ships that had already been built under the 1872 plans, making them obsolete. Moreover, the latest French sea-going capital ships, and the , were too large to operate in the relatively shallow waters of the Baltic Sea. In 1876, the French reconsidered the last two coastal defense ships— and —that had been ordered but not yet built under the 1872 plan, since more powerful vessels would be needed to combat the s.
At the same time, the naval engineer Carlet designed a new, significantly smaller turret for the new coastal defense ships in July 1877. The turret carried a pair of guns, a major increase in power over the guns of the earlier vessels, and they were arranged closer together, abandoning the concept of direct astern fire, as the blast effects were far too serious to permit it in practice. In December, the design staff decided to abandon the single turret arrangement, opting instead for a pair of single-gun turrets, one forward, and one aft, to preserve the ability to fire at any angle. This led to further changes: the early gun turrets of the time were very heavy, and doubling the number, even at reduced size, would have prohibitively increased the ships' displacement. Instead, barbette mounts were adopted to save weight. In addition, the transfer of the second gun aft required a two-shaft arrangement for the propulsion system, as the propeller shafts would have to be placed on either side of the magazine for the gun.
By shifting the second gun aft and switching to barbette mounts, enough weight was saved to allow the gun caliber to be increased again to and to thicken the belt armor. The French firm Farcot & Sons, which was responsible for supplying the hydraulic gun handling equipment, conducted a pair of studies in March and April 1878 at the request of the Navy. The (Board of Construction) held a meeting on 25 June to consider the alterations to the original design, deeming it to be a significant improvement over the earlier coastal defense ships, though it noted deficiencies in some aspects of the armor layout, including the deck and the conning tower.
Characteristics
was long between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced . Since she was intended for coastal operations, the ship had a low freeboard and a short upper deck that supported the main battery guns and conning tower. The ship's construction rendered her prone to severe rolling. Her bow was inverted, with an inward-curving stem. She was fitted with a single pole mast equipped with a spotting top for her main battery guns. The crew consisted of 235 officers and enlisted men.
Her propulsion machinery consisted of two compound steam engines that each drove a single screw propeller. Steam was provided by eight coal-burning fire-tube boilers that were ducted into a single funnel. Her engines were rated to produce for a top speed of . On sea trials on 21 May 1887, she reached a maximum of from at forced draft. Coal storage amounted to .
Her main armament consisted of two , 21-caliber guns mounted in individual barbette mounts, one forward and one aft, both on the centerline. Ammunition storage was intended to be eighty rounds per gun, but the need to save weight forced a reduction to forty shots per gun. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried four 3-pounder guns and ten 1-pounder Hotchkiss revolver cannon, all in individual mounts. Her armament was rounded out with two torpedo tubes in above-water mounts.
The ship was protected with mild steel armor; her belt was thick and extended for the entire length of the hull. She had an armor deck that was , connected to the top of the belt armor. The barbettes for the main battery were 457 mm thick and the supporting tubes were . The guns were protected by gun shields. As was common to French capital ships of the period, she had little underwater protection, which was revealed during torpedo tests the Navy conducted while was still under construction; as a result, she was fitted with anti-torpedo nets.
Modifications
received a pair of Modèle 1891 guns in individual mounts during a refit in 1892. She also had the forward and aft sections of her anti-torpedo nets removed at that time as part of an effort to reduce her displacement, as she was by that time overweight, and most of her belt was submerged under normal conditions.
Like many French capital ships of the period, was rebuilt in 1902–1904 in an attempt to extend her useful career. Her old slow-firing guns were replaced with a pair of 40-cal. guns in new gun turrets. The turrets had thick sides and bases. A new, armored conning tower was installed with 75 mm sides. She received eight water-tube Belleville boilers in place of her old fire-tube models and a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines were installed. Her new boilers were ducted into a pair of funnels. Her new propulsion system was rated for for a top speed of . Her original pole mast was replaced with a heavier military mast and a pole fore mast was installed. The changes reduced her displacement to and her draft to .
received a wireless telegraph set in between April and June 1908, along with a tall mast carry an antenna for it. At some point, late in her career, her funnel caps were extended to reduce smoke interference. The naval historian Luc Feron believes it may have been during the 1908 refit that this work was done.
Service history Construction
The keel for was laid down on 15 June 1875 in Cherbourg and her completed hull was launched on 21 July 1883. Her belt armor plates were installed over the course of the year and into early 1884. As fitting-out work continued, it became apparent that the ship was becoming overweight; by May 1885, the ship was already over her designed displacement. This led the to make several alterations on 20 October, including reducing the thickness of some armor plates, halving the number of shells carried per main gun, and eliminating spare parts carried aboard the ship, since as a coastal defense vessel, she was not expected to travel far from her home port. The shipyard accordingly issued a revised design, which the approved on 14 January 1886. Over the next year, additional alterations were made, including the decision to install electric lighting on 2 March 1886 and anti-torpedo nets on 7 February 1887. was commissioned for sea trials on 10 November 1886, though she did not begin evaluations until 19 March 1887. Trials continued through late May, which revealed significant blast effects from the main gun and problems with the placement of the torpedo tubes, but these could not be corrected.
Active career 1887–1892 was placed in 2nd category reserve on 1 July 1887, part of the harbor defenses of Cherbourg along with . She saw little activity until 6 June 1888, when she departed for a cruise to Quiberon Bay, returning to Cherbourg on 1 July, where she was again reduced to reserve status. That year, she took part in a mobilization exercise and it took her crew eight days to prepare for operations. She was placed in unclassified reserve on 3 November to have alterations made to her main battery gun equipment. Work was completed on 25 February 1889 and the ship was returned to 2nd category reserve. She was commissioned on 15 February 1890 and was assigned to the Northern Division days later. At that time, the unit consisted of the ironclads , , and and the torpedo cruiser . The ships embarked on a tour of ports in Brittany over the next several months. They took part in the 1890 fleet maneuvers held in Brest in conjunction with the Mediterranean Squadron. The exercises began on 6 July and concluded on 25 July. later took part in a fleet review in Quiberon Bay in September. She ended the year with periodic maintenance, being dry docked on 6 December.