French ironclad floating battery Dévastation

Originally ordered on 28 July 1854 and laid down on 5 September 1854 by the naval shipyard at Cherbourg, Dévastation was launched on 17 April 1855.^[8] The ship cost 1,146,489 francs.^[9] Initially commissioned for trials on 25 April, the ship was departed for the Crimean War, departing for the battlefield towed by the paddle frigate Albatros.^[8]

Dévastation arrived in Odesa on 8 October.^[2] The warship's first action was to participate in the bombardment of the Russian fortress on Kinburn Spit,^[10] On 14 October, the vessel, along with sister ships Lave and Tonnante, departed for the fortress. Although the weather was too poor to attack on the 16 October, the ships returned the following day and stationed within 1,500 m (4,900 ft) of the coast.^[2][11] Dévastation commenced firing, shelling the fortress with 1,265 projectiles in four hours. Those inside the fortress responded and managed to achieve 72 hits, of which 31 impacted on the warship's armor, before the fortress capitulated.^[12] The only casualties suffered by the crew were two killed and twelve injured, the deaths being the only ones suffered on all three of the floating batteries.^[13] The vessel subsequently took station on the Dnieper River, where ice meant it was impossible to move until the spring thaw.^[8] The ship's service in combat proved the value of armor for naval use, promoted the adoption of the ironclad by navies across the world, and led directly to the development of the monitor during the American Civil War.^[14]

At the end of the Crimean War, Dévastation returned to France. Initially placed in the reserve, the ship was recommissioned in June 1859 to serve in the Second Italian War of Independence. For the next two months, the vessel served as part of the siege flotilla in the Adriatic Sea.^[12] The presence of the flotilla was sufficient to keep the Austro-Hungarian Navy out of the conflict.^[15] At the end of the conflict, the warship was once more placed in reserve. In 1866, the vessel became a tender to the ship of the line Louis-XIV and acted as a gunnery school.^[8] The ship was rearmed with a battery of six 194 mm guns, while on the upper deck were mounted two 240 mm (9.4 in) smoothbore guns, three 164.7 mm (6.48 in) guns and a single 223.3 mm (8.79 in) muzzle-loading rifle converted into a shell-firing gun. Dévastation was struck on 9 May 1871 and transferred to Toulon to be broken up in 1872.^[3]

• Caruana, J.; Koehler, R. B. (1996). "Question 7/95: French Ironclad Floating Batteries". Warship International. XXXIII (4). Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organization: 416–418. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Gille, Eric (1999). Cent ans de cuirassés français [A Century of French Battleships] (in French). Nantes: Marines. ISBN 978-2-90967-550-3.
• Hamilton, C. I. (1993). Anglo-French Naval Rivalry, 1840–1870. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19820-261-5.
• Martin, Frederick (1871). Martin, Frederick (ed.). The Statesman's Yearbook: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World. London: Macmillan and Co. ISBN 978-0-230-25300-1. OCLC 609404898. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Ponting, Clive (2011). The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth. London: Charro & Windus. ISBN 978-0-70117-390-6.
• Roberts, Stephen (2021). French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4533-0.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours [Dictionary of French Warships from Colbert to Today] (in French). Vol. Tome I: 1671–1870. Toulon: Roche. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (2004). Navies in Modern World History. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-202-7.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence (2012). Naval Warfare, 1815-1914. London: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-13460-994-9.
• Very, Edward W. (July 1883). "The Development of Armor for Naval Use". The Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. IX (3): 349–583.