French ironclad La Galissonnière
Encyclopedia
La Galissonnière was lead ship
of a class
of wooden-hulled, armored corvette
s built for the French Navy
during the 1870s. She was named after the victor of the Battle of Minorca
in 1756, Marquis de la Galissonnière
. She bombarded Sfax
in 1881 as part of the French occupation of Tunisia
and was present in Alexandria
shortly before the British bombarded
it before the beginning of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. The ship participated in a number of battles during the Sino-French War
of 1884–85. La Galissonnière was condemned in 1894.
. They used the same central battery layout as their predecessors, although the battery was lengthened 4 metre to provide enough room to work the larger 240 millimetres (9.4 in) guns. A two-propeller
layout was adopted in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the ship's draft.
La Galissonnière measured 76.62 metre between perpendiculars, with a beam
of 14.84 metre. She had a mean draft of 6.55 metre and displaced 4654 tonnes (4,580.5 LT). The ship had a metacentric height
of 0.926 metre. Her crew numbered between 352 and 382 officers and men.
s. On sea trial
s the engines produced a total of 2370 ihp and the ship reached 13.08 knots (7.1 m/s). La Galissonnière carried 500 metric tons (492.1 LT) of coal which allowed the ship to steam for 3240 nautical miles (6,000.5 km) at a speed of 10 knots (5.4 m/s). She was ship-rigged with three masts and had a sail area around 1707 sqm.
s on the upper deck, sponson
ed out over the sides of the ship, abaft the funnel. La Galissonnières secondary armament of four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns was also mounted on the upper deck. They were replaced by six 100 millimetres (3.9 in) guns in 1880. The armor-piercing
shell of the 19-caliber
240-millimeter gun weighed 317.5 pounds (144 kg) while the gun itself weighed 15.41 long tons (15.7 t). It had a muzzle velocity
of 1624 ft/s (495 m/s) and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal 14.4 inches (366 mm) of wrought iron
armour at the muzzle. The guns could fire both solid shot
and explosive shells.
The ship received four 37 millimetres (1.5 in) Hotchkiss 5-barrel revolving guns
in 1878. They fired a shell weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) at a muzzle velocity of about 610 m/s (2,001.3 ft/s) to a range of about 3200 metres (3,499.6 yd). They had a rate of fire of about 30 rounds per minute. La Galissonnière also received several towed Harvey torpedoes.
waterline belt
, approximately 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) high laid over 650 millimetres (25.6 in) of wood. The sides of the battery itself were armored with 120 millimetres (4.7 in) of wrought iron backed by 520 millimetres (20.5 in) of wood and the ends of the battery were closed by bulkheads of the same thickness. The barbette armor was 120 millimetres (4.7 in) thick. The unarmored portions of their sides were protected by thin iron plates.
La Galissonnière was laid down at Brest
on 22 June 1868 and launched on 7 May 1872. While the exact reason for such prolonged construction time is not known, the budget for the French Navy was cut after the Franco-Prussian War
of 1870–71 and the French dockyards had not been reformed with working practices more suitable for the industrial age. The ship began her sea trials on 20 April 1874 and was not commissioned until 18 July 1874. She became flagship of the Pacific Squadron on 16 May 1874 under the command of Rear Admiral Perigot. She return to Brest on 19 March 1877, having circumnavigated the world via the Suez Canal
. The ship was placed in reserve upon her return until she recommissioned on 15 August 1878 in preparation for a commission as flagship of the Caribbean Squadron which began on 6 October under Rear Admiral Peyron. Two years later she sailed to Cherbourg and was reduced to reserve on 13 May 1880.
La Galissonnière became the flagship of the Levant Squadron under Rear Admiral
Alfred Conrad on 27 May 1881. Shortly afterward she bombarded the Tunisian port of Sfax in July 1881 as part of the French occupation of Tunisia. In early 1882 La Galissonnière was present in Alexandria shortly before the British bombarded
it before the beginning of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. The ship remained in the Mediterranean through 1883.
La Galissonnière relieved her half-sister
in April 1884 as the flagship of the Far East Squadron
, under the command of Vice Admiral
Amédée Courbet
, just in time to participate in the Sino-French War of 1884–85. The ship fought in the late stages of the Battle of Fuzhou in August 1884 when she tried to pass a Chinese fort (known to the French as Fort Kimpaï) defending the entrance to the Min River. La Galissonnière failed to destroy the fort and was lightly damaged by a shell that struck her bow. It damaged her steam capstan
and killed one man. The ship supplied landing parties during the Battle of Tamsui
in October 1884, but they were forced to retreat by Chinese troops, although only nine men were killed. Nothing is known of any further participation by La Galissonnière in the war. She was ordered home in February 1886 and laid up for the last time in Cherbourg upon her return. The ship was condemned on 24 December 1894.
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
of a class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
of wooden-hulled, armored corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
s built for the French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
during the 1870s. She was named after the victor of the Battle of Minorca
Battle of Minorca
The Battle of Minorca was a naval battle between French and British fleets. It was the opening sea battle of the Seven Years' War in the European theatre. Shortly after Great Britain declared war on the House of Bourbon, their squadrons met off the Mediterranean island of Minorca. The fight...
in 1756, Marquis de la Galissonnière
Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière
Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière, Marquis de La Galissonière, sometimes spelled Galissonnière, was the French governor of New France from 1747 to 1749 and the victor in the Battle of Minorca in 1756.- New France :...
. She bombarded Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...
in 1881 as part of the French occupation of Tunisia
French occupation of Tunisia
The French conquest of Tunisia occurred in two phases in 1881: the first consisting of the invasion and securing of the country before the signing of a treaty of protection, and the second consisting in the suppression of a rebellion...
and was present in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
shortly before the British bombarded
Bombardment of Alexandria (1882)
The Bombardment of Alexandria, in 1882, by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882. Admiral Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which sailed to Alexandria...
it before the beginning of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. The ship participated in a number of battles during the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
of 1884–85. La Galissonnière was condemned in 1894.
Design and description
The La Galissonnière-class ironcladsIronclad 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 faster, more heavily armed versions of the armored corvettes by Henri Dupuy de LômeHenri Dupuy de Lôme
Stanislas Charles Henri Dupuy de Lôme was a French naval architect. He was the son of a naval officer and was born in Ploemeur near Lorient, Brittany, in western France. He was educated at the École Polytechnique...
. They used the same central battery layout as their predecessors, although the battery was lengthened 4 metre to provide enough room to work the larger 240 millimetres (9.4 in) guns. A two-propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
layout was adopted in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the ship's draft.
La Galissonnière measured 76.62 metre between perpendiculars, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...
of 14.84 metre. She had a mean draft of 6.55 metre and displaced 4654 tonnes (4,580.5 LT). The ship had a metacentric height
Metacentric height
The metacentric height is a measurement of the static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre . A larger metacentric height implies greater stability against overturning...
of 0.926 metre. Her crew numbered between 352 and 382 officers and men.
Propulsion
La Galissonnière had two Wolf vertical compound steam engines, each driving a single 3.8 metre propeller. Her engines were powered by four oval boilerBoiler (steam generator)
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more...
s. On sea trial
Sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft . 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 can last from a few hours to many days.Sea trials are conducted to measure a vessel’s...
s the engines produced a total of 2370 ihp and the ship reached 13.08 knots (7.1 m/s). La Galissonnière carried 500 metric tons (492.1 LT) of coal which allowed the ship to steam for 3240 nautical miles (6,000.5 km) at a speed of 10 knots (5.4 m/s). She was ship-rigged with three masts and had a sail area around 1707 sqm.
Armament
The ship mounted four of her six 240-millimeter Modèle 1870 guns in the central battery on the battery deck. The other two 240-millimeter guns were mounted in barbetteBarbette
A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet rather than through an opening . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection...
s on the upper deck, sponson
Sponson
Sponsons are projections from the sides of a watercraft, for protection, stability, or the mounting of equipment such as armaments or lifeboats, etc...
ed out over the sides of the ship, abaft the funnel. La Galissonnières secondary armament of four 120 millimetres (4.7 in) guns was also mounted on the upper deck. They were replaced by six 100 millimetres (3.9 in) guns in 1880. The armor-piercing
Armor-piercing shot and shell
An armor-piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armor-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armor carried on many warships. From the 1920s onwards, armor-piercing weapons were required for anti-tank missions...
shell of the 19-caliber
Caliber (artillery)
In artillery, caliber or calibredifference in British English and American English spelling is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or by extension a relative measure of the length....
240-millimeter gun weighed 317.5 pounds (144 kg) while the gun itself weighed 15.41 long tons (15.7 t). It had a muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity
Muzzle velocity is the speed a projectile has at the moment it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Muzzle velocities range from approximately to in black powder muskets , to more than in modern rifles with high-performance cartridges such as the .220 Swift and .204 Ruger, all the way to for tank guns...
of 1624 ft/s (495 m/s) and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal 14.4 inches (366 mm) of wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
armour at the muzzle. The guns could fire both solid shot
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
and explosive shells.
The ship received four 37 millimetres (1.5 in) Hotchkiss 5-barrel revolving guns
Hotchkiss gun
The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch light mountain gun; there was also a 3-inch Hotchkiss gun...
in 1878. They fired a shell weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) at a muzzle velocity of about 610 m/s (2,001.3 ft/s) to a range of about 3200 metres (3,499.6 yd). They had a rate of fire of about 30 rounds per minute. La Galissonnière also received several towed Harvey torpedoes.
Armor
La Galissonnière had a complete 150 millimetres (5.9 in) wrought ironWrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
waterline belt
Belt armor
Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated on to or within outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and on aircraft carriers converted from those types of ships....
, approximately 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) high laid over 650 millimetres (25.6 in) of wood. The sides of the battery itself were armored with 120 millimetres (4.7 in) of wrought iron backed by 520 millimetres (20.5 in) of wood and the ends of the battery were closed by bulkheads of the same thickness. The barbette armor was 120 millimetres (4.7 in) thick. The unarmored portions of their sides were protected by thin iron plates.
Service
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
on 22 June 1868 and launched on 7 May 1872. While the exact reason for such prolonged construction time is not known, the budget for the French Navy was cut after the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870–71 and the French dockyards had not been reformed with working practices more suitable for the industrial age. The ship began her sea trials on 20 April 1874 and was not commissioned until 18 July 1874. She became flagship of the Pacific Squadron on 16 May 1874 under the command of Rear Admiral Perigot. She return to Brest on 19 March 1877, having circumnavigated the world via the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
. The ship was placed in reserve upon her return until she recommissioned on 15 August 1878 in preparation for a commission as flagship of the Caribbean Squadron which began on 6 October under Rear Admiral Peyron. Two years later she sailed to Cherbourg and was reduced to reserve on 13 May 1880.
La Galissonnière became the flagship of the Levant Squadron under Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Alfred Conrad on 27 May 1881. Shortly afterward she bombarded the Tunisian port of Sfax in July 1881 as part of the French occupation of Tunisia. In early 1882 La Galissonnière was present in Alexandria shortly before the British bombarded
Bombardment of Alexandria (1882)
The Bombardment of Alexandria, in 1882, by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882. Admiral Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which sailed to Alexandria...
it before the beginning of the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. The ship remained in the Mediterranean through 1883.
La Galissonnière relieved her half-sister
Sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...
in April 1884 as the flagship of the Far East Squadron
Far East Squadron
The French Far East Squadron was an exceptional naval grouping created for the duration of the Sino-French War .- Background :...
, under the command of Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...
Amédée Courbet
Amédée Courbet
Anatole-Amédée-Prosper Courbet was a French admiral who won a series of important land and naval victories during the Tonkin campaign and the Sino-French War .-Early years:...
, just in time to participate in the Sino-French War of 1884–85. The ship fought in the late stages of the Battle of Fuzhou in August 1884 when she tried to pass a Chinese fort (known to the French as Fort Kimpaï) defending the entrance to the Min River. La Galissonnière failed to destroy the fort and was lightly damaged by a shell that struck her bow. It damaged her steam capstan
Capstan (nautical)
A capstan is a vertical-axled rotating machine developed for use on sailing ships to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers. The principle is similar to that of the windlass, which has a horizontal axle.- History :...
and killed one man. The ship supplied landing parties during the Battle of Tamsui
Battle of Tamsui
The Battle of Tamsui , fought on 8 October 1884, was a significant French defeat during the Sino-French War.- Background :...
in October 1884, but they were forced to retreat by Chinese troops, although only nine men were killed. Nothing is known of any further participation by La Galissonnière in the war. She was ordered home in February 1886 and laid up for the last time in Cherbourg upon her return. The ship was condemned on 24 December 1894.