Tempête-class ironclad

The Tempête class consisted of a pair of ironclad coastal-defense ships built for the French Navy (Marine Navale) in the 1870s, FRENCH IRONCLAD Tempête and FRENCH IRONCLAD Vengeur.

Design and description
The design of the Tempête-class coast-defense ships was based on that of the British breastwork monitors HMS Glatton (1871) and HMS Rupert (1872). To maximize the traverse of the single gun turret, the superstructure was as narrow as possible, only 2.5 m wide. The ships had an overall length of 73.6 m, a beam of 17.8 m and a draft of 5.33 m forward and 5.42 m aft at deep load. They displaced 4908 MT at deep load. The crew of the Tempête class numbered 7 officers and 165 enlisted men.

The Tempête class was powered by a single six-cylinder, horizontal compound-expansion steam engine that drove one propeller shaft using steam provided by four Indret cylindrical boilers. The engine was rated at 2000 ihp and was intended to give the ships a top speed of 10 kn. During her sea trials Tempête reached a speed of 11.68 kn from 2164 ihp. The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of 1103 nmi at a speed of 5 kn.

Armament and armor
The Tempêtes carried their main battery of two Canon de 274 mm Modèle 1875 guns in a single twin-gun turret, forward of the superstructure. Defense from torpedo boats was provided by four Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns and four 37 mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon. The 47 mm guns were positioned on the corners of the hurricane deck on top of the superstructure and the revolver guns were placed between them, two on each broadside.

The ships had a full-length wrought-iron waterline armor belt that tapered from the maximum thickness of 330 mm amidships to 250 mm at the ships' ends. The armored breastwork supporting the superstructure and the turret was 40 m long and was also 330 mm thick. The main deck was protected by 50 mm iron plates, as was the deck below it. The turret armor was 300 mm thick and was backed by 550 mm of teak. The plates protecting the conning tower measured 250 mm in thickness.