Ville de Nantes-class ship of the line

The Ville de Nantes class consisted of three second-rank, 90-gun, steam-powered ships of the line built for the French Navy in the 1850s. Most of the ships participated in the Second French intervention in Mexico in the 1860s and spent extensive amounts of time in reserve. In 1871–1872 the sister ships were used as prison ships after the Paris Commune was crushed by the French government in 1871.

Description
The Ville de Nantes-class ships were repeats of the preceding ship of the line Algésiras-class ship of the line and were also designed by naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme. They had a length at the waterline of 71.23 - 71.76 m, a beam of 16.8 m and a depth of hold of 8.16 m. The ships displaced 5121 t and had a draught of 8.45 m at deep load. Their crew numbered 913 officers and ratings.

The Ville de Nantes class were powered by a pair of four-cylinder steam engines that drove the single propeller shaft using steam provided by eight boilers. The engines were rated at 900 nominal horsepower and produced 3600 ihp for speeds of 11 - 12 kn. The ships were fitted with three masts and ship rigged with a sail area of 2730 sqm.

Each of the Ville de Nantes-class ships was armed with a unique mixture of 30-pounder (164.7 mm) smoothbore cannon, 163 mm rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns as well as 164.7 mm and 223.3 mm Paixhans guns. The guns were distributed between the upper and lower gundecks and the quarterdeck and forecastle.