French ironclad Caïman

Caïman was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and early 1880s. She was the third of four ships of the Terrible class, built as part of a fleet plan started in 1872, which by the late 1870s had been directed against a strengthening Italian fleet. The ships were intended for coastal operations, and as such had a shallow draft and a low freeboard, which greatly hampered their seakeeping and thus reduced their ability to be usefully employed after entering service. Armament consisted of a pair of 420 mm (16.5 in) guns in individual barbettes, the largest gun ever mounted on a French capital ship. Caïman was laid down in 1878 and was completed in 1887.

Due to their handling problems, Caïman and her sister ships saw little active service with the French fleet, instead spending most of their careers in the Reserve Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. During this period, the ship spent most of the year out of service with reduced crews, only being reactivated for the fleet maneuvers each year. She was modernized in 1900 with new guns, but by the early 1900s, numerous, more effective pre-dreadnought battleships had been built. These ships displaced Caïman and her sisters in the Reserve Squadron, and she was reduced to a guard ship in Toulon in 1902. She was struck from the naval register in 1911, converted into a hulk, and used in that capacity until 1927, when she was broken up.