French ironclad Flandre

Flandre, named after the historic province,^[7] was ordered on 16 November 1860 from the Arsenal de Cherbourg. The ship was laid down on 28 January 1861 and launched on 12 June 1864. She was commissioned for trials on 20 February 1865, completed in April^[1] and was definitively commissioned (armement définitif) the following month.^[2]

Flandre was assigned to the Ironclad Division (Division cuirassée) of the Northern Squadron, based in Cherbourg. She made cruises to Portuguese Madeira and Spanish Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, over the next two years.

Together with the ironclad Magenta, the ship visited Plymouth, England, on 17–19 July^[3] to take part in the Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society.^[8] To reciprocate British hospitality, the French invited the Channel Fleet to visit Cherbourg on Emperor Napoleon III's birthday in August. They arrived on 14 August and remained for four days, their crew's exchanging ship visits, touring the dockyard and participating in multiple banquets and balls. The British invited the Ironclad Division and the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée) to visit Portsmouth. The French ships, including Flandre, arrived later that month and remained until 2 September; their crews similarly occupied as the British were earlier.^[9] In September–October 1866 Flandre, her sisters Magnanime and Héroïne and Magenta took part in fleet maneuvers and comparative gunnery trials.^[10]

In January 1867, Flandre collided with the British merchantman Brutus in the Atlantic Ocean. Brutus sank with the loss of ten of her fourteen crew.^[11] Together with Magnanime and Magenta, Flandre escorted the transports ferrying French troops home after the collapse of the Second French intervention in Mexico in 1867.^[12] Two years later she became the flagship of Rear Admiral (contre-amiral) Charles de Dompierre d'Hornoy.^[3]

When the Franco-Prussian War began on 19 July 1870, France needed time to complete its mobilization. The ship was assigned to Vice Admiral (vice-amiral) Édouard Bouët-Willaumez's squadron that was tasked to blockade German ports in the Heligoland Bight. It left Cherbourg on 24 July and, failing to find any German ships, proceeded to Danish waters to await further orders. Bouët-Williaumez was ordered on 2 August to split his forces with half, including Flandre, proceeding into the Baltic Sea to blockade the Prussian ports there under his command and the others to return to the Bight. The strong Prussia coastal defenses prevented any attack by the French ships, but the French presence severely inhibited German shipping. Flandre and the ironclad Océan were relieved by the ironclads Rochambeau and Armide in August and returned to Cherbourg where Flandre joined the ships blockading the Bight.^[13]

The neutral British had denied the French permission to bunker at Heligoland, so the ships were forced to do so at sea under dangerous conditions. Bad weather and a series of storms beginning in late August prevented the squadron from bunkering and the ships were forced to return to France in early September. By then Prussia was besieging Paris and many of the trained gunners aboard the squadron's ships were transferred to defend the city. The squadron resumed the blockade with reduced crews until December when smaller ships took it over.^[14] In a storm on 12 October, the armored frigate Surveillante lost her rudder and had to be towed back to Cherbourg by Flandre.^[15]

The ship was paid off in Cherbourg on 18 March 1871 and was briefly reactivated on 20 October 1873 to test a torpedo-outrigger system. Flandre was rearmed in 1875 with Modèle 1870 guns, but remained in reserve until she was disarmed in November 1884.^[16] Flandre stricken from the naval register on 12 November 1886 and scrapped in 1887.^[1][17]

• de Balincourt, Captain & Vincent-Bréchignac, Captain (1975a). "The French Navy of Yesterday: Ironclad Frigates: Second Group – Provence Type". F.P.D.S. Newsletter. III (2): 9–13. OCLC 41554533.
• de Balincourt, Captain & Vincent-Bréchignac, Captain (1975b). "The French Navy of Yesterday: Ironclad Frigates, Part IV". F.P.D.S. Newsletter. III (4): 26–30. OCLC 41554533.
• Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "France". In Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 282–333. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
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• Roberts, Stephen S. (2021). French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4533-0.
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• Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
• Wilson, H. W. (1896). Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare From 1855 to 1895, with Some Account of the Development of the Battleship in England. Vol. 1. Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 902936108.
• Winfield, Rif & Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail, 1786–1861. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.