French ironclad Redoutable

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Redoutable was a French ironclad warship and the first in the world to use steel as its main building material. Built at the Arsenal de Lorient, she was laid down in 1872–1873, launched in 1876, and commissioned for trials in 1878.

Design and build
Redoutable was a central-battery and barbette ship with a mixed iron and steel construction. She carried heavy armor, including a belt about 350 mm thick and a heavy deck, with the central battery protected by up to 240–300 mm of armor. The ship was about 95 to 101 meters long, around 19.8 meters wide, and had a draft of about 7.8 meters. She was powered by two horizontal, return-connecting rod compound steam engines driving two shafts, with eight boilers producing roughly 6,000–6,700 indicated horsepower and a top speed around 14.5 knots. Her range was about 2,800 nautical miles at 10 knots. Redoutable carried a crew of around 700.

Armament and defenses
Her main guns were seven 27 cm (Model 1875) guns, with six 14 cm (Model 1870) guns complementing them, plus smaller Hotchkiss machine guns and four torpedo launchers. The ship’s armor belt, the central battery armor, and other protective plating were among the heaviest of her time, designed to withstand heavy naval fire. She also carried torpedo defense nets and featured three masts with military tops and a distinctive gun layout, including some weapons mounted in barbettes.

Operational history
Redoutable served with the French Mediterranean squadron and played a role in events surrounding the Boxer Protocol negotiations in 1901, which helped end the Boxer Rebellion in China.

Fate
She was stricken from the naval register in 1910, sold in 1911 for 100,000 francs, and broken up in Saigon in 1912, with demolition completed by 1913.