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French battleship Redoutable (1876)
Encyclopedia
Redoutable (1876) was a central battery and barbette
Barbette
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...
ship of 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...
. She was the first warship in the world to use steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
as the principal building material.
Compared to iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, steel allowed for greater structural strength for a lower weight. France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
was the first country to manufacture steel in large quantities, using the Siemens
Carl Wilhelm Siemens
Carl Wilhelm Siemens was a German born engineer who for most of his life worked in Britain and later became a British subject.-Biography:...
process. At that time, steel plates still had some defects, and the outer bottom plating of the ship was made 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...
.
All-steel warships were later built by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, with the dispatch vessels Iris
HMS Iris (1877)
HMS Iris was an Iris Class second-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. The Iris class ships were the first all-steel ships to serve with the Royal Navy and were employed as armed dispatch vessels. She had a double bottom and her Maudslay machinery produced , slightly less than her stablemate HMS...
and Mercury
HMS Mercury (1878)
HMS Mercury was an Iris class second class cruiser of the Royal Navy. The two ships of the class were the first all steel ships in the Royal Navy. She was distinguished from the Iris by her straight bow, which gave her a slightly shorter length of 315 feet...
, laid down in 1875-1876.
Contemporary description in Scientific American
Crew
Full complement: 30 officers + 679 ratings.Trials or 1st category reserve: 8 officers + 371 ratings.
2nd category reserve: 5 officers + 139 ratings.
3rd category reserve: 0 officers + 27 ratings.
Service
Redoutable formed part of the French Mediterranean squadron.Redoutable was present during the negotiation of the treaty of the 7 September 1901 with China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
Commanding officers of the Redoutable
| Date | Commanding Officer |
|---|---|
| 1879 | Captain Rallier |
| 1881 | Captain Behic |
| 1883 | Captain de Boissondy |
| 1885 | Captain de Slane |
| 1887 | Captain de Libran |
| 1889 | Captain Dieulouard |
| 1892 | Captain Chateauminois |
| 1894 | Captain Billard |
| 1896 | Captain Mallarmé |
| 5 September 1898 | Captain Esmez |
| 21 July 1900 | Captain Neny |
| 3 December 1901 | Captain Duroch |
| 15 October 1903 | Captain Poidloue |
| 1906 | Captain Passerat de Sillans |
| 5 December 1907 | Captain Drouet |
| 1909 | Lieutenant Arnauld* |
- Lieutenant Arnauld was the director of movements of the port of Saigon, and commander of the naval auxiliaries and naval barracks.