French ironclad Couronne
Postcard of Couronne at anchor
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 French Navy
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| Preceded by: | Gloire class |
| Succeeded by: | Magenta class |
| Built: | 1859–1862 |
| In service: | 1862–1931 |
| In commission: | 1862–1908 |
| Completed: | 1 |
| Scrapped: | 1 |
| History | |
| Name: | Couronne |
| Namesake: | "Crown" |
| Ordered: | 4 March 1858 |
| Builder: | Arsenal de Lorient |
| Cost: | 6,018,885 francs |
| Laid down: | 14 February 1859 |
| Launched: | 28 March 1861 |
| Commissioned: | 2 February 1862 |
| Out of service: | Hulked, 1 September 1909 |
| Reclassified: | As gunnery training ship, 1885 |
| Fate: | Scrapped, 1934 |
| General characteristics (as completed) | |
| Type: | Armoured frigate |
| Displacement: | 6,428 tonnes (6,326 long tons) |
| Length: | 80.85 m (265 ft 3 in) |
| Beam: | 16.7 m (54 ft 9 in) |
| Draught: | 7.8 m (25 ft 7 in) |
| Depth of hold: | 9.7 m (31 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barquentine rigged |
| Speed: | 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph) |
| Range: | 2,410 nautical miles (4,460 km; 2,770 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 570 |
| Armament: | 30 × 164.7 mm (6.5 in) Mle 1860 rifled breech-loading guns |
| Armour: |
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The French ironclad Couronne ("Crown") was the first iron-hulled ironclad warship built for the French Navy in 1859–62. She was the first such ship to be laid down, although the British armoured frigate HMS Warrior was completed first. The ship participated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, but saw no combat. She was served as a gunnery training ship from 1885 to 1908 before she was hulked the following year and became a barracks ship in Toulon. Couronne was scrapped in 1934, over 70 years after she was completed.
Designed by the French naval architect Camille Audenet as an iron-hulled version of the Gloire-class ironclads, Couronne was also intended to fight in the line of battle, unlike the first British ironclads. The ship was classified as an armoured frigates because she only had a single gun deck and her traditional disposition of guns arrayed along the length of the hull also meant that she was a broadside ironclad. The ship was 80.85 metres (265 ft 3 in) long, with a beam of 17 metres (55 ft 9 in). She had a maximum draft of 7.8 metres (25 ft 7 in), a depth of hold of 9.7 metres (31 ft 10 in) and displaced 6,428 tonnes (6,326 long tons). The ship's metacentric height of 1.8 metres (6 ft) meant that she rolled less and was a better sea boat than the Gloires. Her gun ports were slightly higher above the waterline than those of her predecessors, 2 metres (6 ft 7 in), and Couronne took aboard less water as well. She had a crew of 570 officers and enlisted men.
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