French ironclad floating battery Saigon

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Saigon was a Palestro-class ironclad floating battery built for the French Navy after the Crimean War. Ordered on 18 July 1859 and laid down at the Arman Brothers yard in Bordeaux, she was launched on 24 June 1861 and completed in November 1862. The Palestro-class ships were designed for coastal defense with better mobility and seaworthiness than older ships, and they were smaller to keep a lower profile.

Key facts
- Length: 47.5 m; beam: 14.04 m; draft: 3.0 m; displacement: 1,563 t
- Propulsion: two high‑pressure steam engines driving two propellers (580 ihp); two masts with a schooner rig
- Crew: about 200
- Armament: originally 12 × 164.7 mm (6.48 in) Mle 1860 30-pdr guns (later replaced by Mle 1864 rifled guns and reduced to 10 guns)
- Armor: waterline belt 120 mm; gun battery 110 mm

Career highlights
- Placed in reserve soon after completion. On 15 November 1863 she caught fire and sank in the Charente River; refloated on 30 November and repaired through March 1864.
- Returned to reserve until commissioned on 13 September 1870 during the Franco‑Prussian War.
- Reclassified as an embarkation hulk in 1871, stricken on 21 August 1871, and later scrapped in 1884.