french ironclad french ironclad wooden armored corvette built french_navy placed reserve completion mobilized spent rest career mediterranean far_east flagship french squadrons use target gunnery trials design description alma class ironclads designed improved versions armored corvette suitable foreign deployments unlike predecessor alma class ships true central battery ironclads fitted armored transverse bulkheads like ironclads era equipped metal reinforced ram measured meters perpendiculars beam meters mean draft meters displaced metric tons long tons crew numbered officers men propulsion ship single horizontal cylinder return connecting rod steam engine driving single bladed propeller engine powered oval boilers sea trials engine produced indicated horsepower ship reached knots mph carried metric tons long tons coal allowed ship steam nautical miles speed knots mph barque rigged sail area square meters armament mounted millimeter modèle breech loading guns central battery battery deck guns mounted barbettes upper deck sides ship millimeter guns mounted upper deck exchanged guns guns armor piercing shell caliber gun weighed pounds gun weighed long tons gun fired shell muzzle velocity credited ability penetrate nominal inches wrought iron armour muzzle guns fire solid shot explosive shells armor complete millimeter wrought iron waterline belt approximately meters high sides battery armored millimeters wrought iron ends battery closed bulkheads thickness barbette armor millimeters thick backed millimeters wood portions sides protected millimeter iron plates service laid launched april ship began sea trials october reserve brest immediately completion commissioned july serve franco prussian war squadron ordered lift blockade prussian baltic ports september return decommissioned november recommissioned january blockade prussian corvette lisbon duration war afterward transferred mediterranean remained decommissioned october toulon armament reduced guns recommissioned flagship august september ship reduced reserve december brest recommissioned flagship departed brest january relieved sister january singapore decommissioned toulon march condemned october gunnery trials march filled watertight barrels sinking set fired group french ironclads ranges meters towed port examine effects shells
French ironclad Armide