The French ironclad ''Reine Blanche'' was a wooden-hulled armored

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

built for the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

in the late 1860s as an improvement over the armored corvette . She played a minor role in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and was accidentally rammed by one of her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s in 1877. The ship bombarded the port of

Sfax Sfax (; ar, صفاقس, Ṣafāqis ) is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Berber Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterranean ...

during the

French occupation of Tunisia The French conquest of Tunisia occurred in two phases in 1881: the first (28 April – 12 May) consisting of the invasion and securing of the country before the signing of a treaty of protection, and the second (10 June – 28 October) consisting ...

in 1881 before being sent to the Pacific in 1884. She quickly returned to port with worn-out boilers and was condemned later that year.

Design and description

The sIronclad is the all-encompassing term for armored warships of this period. Armored corvettes were originally designed for the same role as traditional wooden corvettes, but this rapidly changed as the size and expense of these ships caused them to be used as second-class armored ships. were designed as improved versions of the armored corvette , suited for foreign deployments. Unlike their predecessor, the ''Alma''-class ships were true central battery ironclads as they were fitted with armored transverse bulkheads.de Balincourt and Vincent-Bréchignac 1976, p. 26 Like most ironclads of their era, they were equipped with a metal-reinforced

ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

.Gardiner, p. 302 ''Reine Blanche'' measured

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the stern ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of . She had a mean

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

of and displaced . Her crew numbered 316 officers and men.

Propulsion

The ship had a single horizontal return connecting-rod steam engine driving a single propeller. Her engine was powered by four oval

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

s. On

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s the engine produced and the ship reached . ''Reine Blanche'' carried of coal, allowing the ship to steam for at a speed of . She was

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...

-rigged and had a sail area of .

Armament

''Reine Blanche'' mounted her four Modèle 1864

breech-loading A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally breech ...

guns in the central battery on the battery deck. The other two 194-millimeter guns were mounted in

barbettes Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protection ...

on the upper deck,

sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...

ed out over the sides of the ship. The four guns were also mounted on the upper deck. She may have exchanged her Mle 1864 guns for Mle 1870 guns. The

armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...

shell of the 20-

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...

Mle 1870 gun weighed while the gun itself weighed . The gun fired its shell at a

muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...

of and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

armour at the muzzle. The guns could fire both

solid shot A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

and explosive shells.

Armor

''Reine Blanche'' had a complete

waterline

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, approximately high. The sides of the battery itself were armored with of wrought iron and the ends of the battery were closed by bulkheads of the same thickness. The barbette armor was thick, backed by of wood.de Balincourt and Vincent-Bréchignac 1976, p. 27 The unarmored portions of her sides were protected by iron plates.

Service

''Reine Blanche'' was laid down at

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

in 1865 and launched on 10 March 1868. The ship began her

s on 15 April 1869 and was put into

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

after they were completed. She was commissioned on 20 July 1870 and made one cruise to the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

during the Franco-Prussian War before she was placed in reserve again on 20 September. ''Reine Blanche'' was recommissioned in July 1871 as

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of the second division of the Evolutionary Squadron. During the

Cantonal Revolution The Cantonal rebellion was a cantonalist insurrection that took place during the First Spanish Republic between July 1873 and January 1874. Its protagonists were the "intransigent" federal Republicans, who wanted to establish immediately the F ...

''Reine Blanche'' and her

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

spent much of September–October 1873 in the

port of Cartagena The port of Cartagena ( es, Puerto de Cartagena) is the port located in Cartagena, Spain. It is the fourth nationwide port in freight traffic behind Algeciras, Valencia and Barcelona. It occupies the eighth place in relation to the number of cruis ...

, Spain, where they could protect French citizens. She was reduced to reserve on 1 February 1876 and recommissioned in April 1877.de Balincourt and Vincent-Bréchignac 1976, p. 30 On 3 July 1877, she was accidentally rammed by ''Thétis'' off the

Îles d'Hyères The Îles d'Hyères (), also known as Îles d'Or (), are a group of four Mediterranean islands off Hyères in the Var department of Southeastern France. Islands With a combined area of , the Îles d'Hyères consist of *Porquerolles – , ...

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

and had to be run ashore to prevent her from sinking. ''Reine Blanche'' was placed back into reserve in 1878. She was recommissioned on 15 April 1879 for service with the Levant Squadron. From 5–16 July 1881 ''Reine Blanche'' bombarded the Tunisian port of

as part of the

. The ship was named as the

of the Pacific Squadron on 20 January 1884 under command of Rear Admiral Franquet, but she returned to

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

on 22 May 1884 with worn-out boilers and her hull in poor shape. ''Reine Blanche'' was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...

and condemned on 12 November 1884.

Notes

Footnotes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reine Blanche Ships built in France Alma-class ironclads 1868 ships Maritime incidents in July 1877