French battleship Brennus

*Brennus*
History

France
Name:	Brennus
Namesake:	Brennus
Ordered:	1888
Builder:	Lorient
Laid down:	12 January 1889
Launched:	17 October 1891
Commissioned:	16 December 1896
Struck:	1919
Fate:	Broken up in 1922
General characteristics
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	11,190 t (11,010 long tons; 12,330 short tons)
Length:	110.29 m (361.8 ft)
Beam:	20.4 m (67 ft)
Draft:	8.28 m (27.2 ft)
Propulsion:	2 triple-expansion engines 32 Belleville boilers 13,900 ihp (10,400 kW)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement:	673
Armament:	3 × 340 mm/42 Modèle 1887 guns 10 × 1 – 164 mm Mle 1893 guns 4 × 65 mm 14 × 47 mm (1.9 in) Mle 1885 Hotchkiss guns 8 × 37 mm 4 × 460 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 460 mm (18 in) Deck: 60 mm (2.4 in) Conning tower: 150 mm (5.9 in) Turrets: 460 mm

Brennus was the first pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the late 19th century. She was laid down in January 1889, launched in October 1891, and completed in 1896. Her design was unique and departed from earlier ironclad battleship designs by introducing a number of innovations. These included a main battery of heavy guns mounted on the centerline and the first use of Belleville boilers. She formed the basis for several subsequent designs, beginning with Charles Martel.

Brennus spent the majority of her career in the Mediterranean Squadron, and she served as its flagship early in her career. In 1900, she accidentally rammed and sank the destroyer Framée. As newer battleships were commissioned into the fleet, Brennus was relegated to the Reserve Squadron in the early 1900s. By the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, her old age and poor condition prevented her from seeing action. She was ultimately stricken from the naval register in 1919 and sold for scrap three years later.

An earlier vessel, also named Brennus, was laid down in 1884 and cancelled under the tenure of Admiral Théophile Aube. The vessel, along with a sister ship named Charles Martel, was a modified version of the Marceau-class ironclad battleships. After Aube's retirement, the plans for the ships were reworked entirely for the ships actually completed, though they are sometimes conflated with the earlier, cancelled vessels. This confusion may be a result of the same shipyard working on both of the ships named Brennus, along with use of material assembled for the first vessel to build the second. The two pairs of ships were, nevertheless, distinct vessels. The second Brennus was ordered in 1888.

Brennus was the first pre-dreadnought style battleship built in the French Navy; the previous Magenta-class ships were barbette ships, a type of ironclad battleship.Brennus formed the basis for the subsequent group of five broadly similar battleships built to the same design specifications, begun with Charles Martel, though they reverted to the armament layout of the earlier Magentas which saw the main guns distributed in single turrets in a lozenge pattern.

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