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ALMA central battery ironclads (1867-1869)


Photo



Reine Blanche

Ships


Name No Yard No Builder Laid down Launched Comp Fate
Alma     Arsenal de Lorient 1.10.1865 26.11.1867 1869 hulk 1886
Armide     Arsenal de Rochefort 1865 12.4.1867 1867 stricken 1887
Atalante     Arsenal de Cherbourg 6/1865 9.4.1868 1869 stricken 1887
Jeanne d'Arc     Arsenal de Cherbourg 1865 28.9.1867 1868 stricken 1883
Montcalm (ex-Indienne)     Arsenal de Rochefort 26.10.1865 16.10.1868 1869 stricken 1891
Reine Blanche     Arsenal de Lorient 1865 10.3.1868 1869 stricken 1886
Thétis     Arsenal de Toulon 1865 22.8.1867 1868 stricken 1895


Technical data


Displacement normal, t

Thétis: 3513

Montcalm: 3828
Displacement full, t 
Length, m

68.9 pp
Breadth, m

13.9 - 14.2
Draught, m

6.26 - 6.66 mean
No of shafts

1
Machinery

1 HRCR, 4 oval boilers
Power, h. p.

1580 - 1890
Max speed, kts

11 - 11.9
Fuel, t

coal 250
Endurance, nm(kts)

 
Armour, mm

wrought iron; belt: 150, battery: 120, barbettes: 100
Armament

6 x 1 - 194/19 M1864/66 MLR
Complement

316


Standard scale images


<i>Montcalm </i>1869
Montcalm 1869


Graphics


<i>Reine Blanche</i>
Reine Blanche


Project history

Wooden-hulled central battery ships. It was originally intended to have an upper battery with 4 194mm at the corners, but this was given up in favour of four barbettes reduced to two for reasons of topweight, The battery height varied from 1.7m to 2.1m and 4 194mm guns were mounted here with two in the barbettes. The metal reinforced ram projected 2.7m and Alma is credited with a tactical diameter of only 330m. They were rigged as barques with about 1440m² of sail and had single funnels except Jeanne d'Arc and Thétis which had two abreast.

Ship protection

15mm iron plating above water was not armoured and 120mm armour closed bulkheads for the battery. The waterline belt was complete and about 2.4m wide

Modernizations

1870s, all: - 6 x 1 - 194/19; + 6 x 1 - 194/20 M1870, 4 x 1 - 139/21 M1870 or 4 x 1 - 120/25 M1870, 8 x 5 - 37/17 Hotchkiss

Naval service

Reine Blanche was rammed by Thétis in July 1877 but both ships survived. Thétis was commissioned at the end of 18S5 for the Pacific but had to return as unseaworthy and eventually went to Noumea as a stationary hulk.