French ironclad floating battery Foudroyante

The Dévastation class consisted of five ironclad floating batteries designed during the Crimea War.^[1] The design was ordered by Emperor Napoleon III after the Battle of Sinope, informed by the experience of the French Navy from the conflict. They were designed with a shallow draft, allowing them to navigate close to shore and attack Russian coastal forts.^[2]

The ships had an overall length of 53 m (173 ft 11 in), a beam of 13.55 m (44 ft 5 in) and a draft of 2.8 m (9.2 ft). They displaced 1,604 metric tons (1,579 long tons). The Dévastation class was powered by a single two-cylinder high-pressure direct-acting steam engine that used steam provided by six locomotive boilers to drive the single propeller shaft. The engine was rated at 430 indicated horsepower (320 kW). To complement the engine, the ships were originally equipped with three masts with a total sail area of 350 m² (3,800 sq ft), but these caused them to roll heavily and were replaced by lighter pole masts. The ships were designed to reach 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph), but could only attain between 3.2 knots (5.9 km/h; 3.7 mph) and 3.8 knots (7.0 km/h; 4.4 mph). The ships proved underpowered and frequently had to rely on other vessels to tow them to their station.^[1][3][4]

The Dévastations carried a main battery of sixteen 194 mm (7.6 in), 50-pounder smoothbore guns on the main deck. The upper deck housed two 138.7 mm (5.5 in) 18-pounder smoothbore guns or two 12 pounder carronades.^[1] The ships were protected by a full-length waterline belt of wrought iron that was 110 mm (4.3 in) thick. Protection for the gun battery was 100 mm (3.9 in) thick.^[1] Armored hatch covers protected the gun ports and the oak deck was covered with a sheet of iron. The ship's complement numbered 280 or 282 sailors of all ranks. An additional 40 marines could also be carried.^[3]

• de Balincourt, Captain & Vincent-Bréchignac, Captain (1973). "French Floating Batteries". F.P.D.S. Newsletter. I (2): 13–20. OCLC 41554533.
• Caruana, J.; Koehler, R. B. (1996). "Question 7/95: French Ironclad Floating Batteries". Warship International. XXXIII (4): 416–418. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Gille, Eric (1999). Cent ans de cuirassés français [A Century of French Battleships] (in French). Nantes: Marines. ISBN 2-909-675-50-5.
• 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.
• 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.