 Vauban as originally completed
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| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Vauban |
| Builder | Arsenal of Cherbourg |
| Laid down | 1 August 1879 |
| Launched | 3 July 1882 |
| Commissioned | March 1885 |
| Stricken | 5 September 1905 |
| Fate | Sold, 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Vauban-class ironclad |
| Displacement | 6,207.6 t (6,109.6 long tons; 6,842.7 short tons) |
| Length | 84.7 m (277 ft 11 in) loa |
| Beam | 17.45 m (57 ft) |
| Draft | 7.39 m (24 ft 3 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Range | 2,380.5 nmi (4,408.7 km; 2,739.4 mi) at 12.8 knots (23.7 km/h; 14.7 mph) |
| Crew |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Vauban was the lead ship of the Vauban class of ironclad barbette ships built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and 1880s. Intended for service in the French colonial empire, she was designed as a "station ironclad", smaller versions of the first-rate vessels built for the main fleet. The Vauban class was a scaled down variant of Amiral Duperré. They carried their main battery of four 240 mm (9.4 in) guns in open barbettes, two forward side-by-side and the other two aft on the nautical. Vauban was laid down in 1879 and was completed in 1885.
Though Vauban had been intended for use overseas, she spent the majority of her career in French waters in the Mediterranean Squadron. During this period, she was primarily occupied with annual training exercises. By 1893, she was reduced to the Reserve Division. She was sent to French Indochina in 1899, though she was relieved in 1900. Her return to France proved to be short-lived, as the Boxer Uprising in Qing China prompted the French to send reinforcements to help suppress the rebellion. Vauban spent the next four years in East Asia, though she spent 1903 and 1904 in reserve in Saigon. She was struck from the naval register in 1905, though she served as a depot ship for another nine year; she was eventually sold for scrap in 1919.