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| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Terrible |
| Laid down | 10 December 1877 |
| Launched | 29 March 1881 |
| Commissioned | 15 July 1886 |
| Stricken | 8 April 1908 |
| Fate | Sunk as a target ship, 28 August 1909 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Terrible-class ironclad |
| Displacement | 7,767.2 t (7,644.5 long tons; 8,561.9 short tons) |
| Length | 88.25 m (289 ft 6 in) loa |
| Beam | 17.78 m (58 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 7.74 m (25 ft 5 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 14.5 to 15 kn (26.9 to 27.8 km/h; 16.7 to 17.3 mph) |
| Range | 1,678 nmi (3,108 km; 1,931 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) |
| Complement | 373 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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| General characteristics (as modernized) | |
| Installed power |
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| Speed | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Complement | 332 |
| Armament |
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Terrible was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and early 1880s. She was the lead ship of the Terrible class, which included three other vessels. They were 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. Terrible was laid down in 1877 and was completed in 1887.
Due to their handling problems, Terrible 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 1898 with new guns, but by this time, numerous, more effective pre-dreadnought battleships had been built. These ships displaced Terrible and her sisters in the Reserve Squadron, and she was ultimately stricken from the naval register in 1909 and thereafter sunk as a target ship.