Palestro-class ironclad floating battery
Paixhans (right) in 1862 | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Palestro class |
| Operators | French Navy |
| Preceded by | Dévastation class |
| Succeeded by | Embuscade class |
| Built | 1859–1863 |
| In service | 1862–1871 |
| Completed | 4 |
| Scrapped | 4 |
| General characteristics (as built) | |
| Type | Ironclad floating battery |
| Displacement | 1,563 t (1,538 long tons) |
| Length | 47.5 m (155 ft 10 in) |
| Beam | 14.04 m (46 ft 1 in) |
| Draft | 3 m (9 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power | 580 ihp (430 kW) |
| Propulsion | 2 propellers, 2 steam engines |
| Sail plan | fore-and-aft rig |
| Speed | 7–7.5 knots (13.0–13.9 km/h; 8.1–8.6 mph) |
| Complement | 200 |
| Armament | 12 × 164.7 mm (6.48 in) Mle 1860 30 pdr guns |
| Armor |
|
.jpg){kind=link}
The Palestro class consisted of four ironclad floating batteries built for the French Navy in 1859–1862 to replace the Crimean War-built Dévastation class because of fears that the 1855 ships would deteriorate because they had been hastily built with green wood that was prone to rot quickly. Saigon caught fire and sank in 1863, but was salvaged and repaired. Pei-ho was struck from the navy list in 1869, but the others were commissioned during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.