 A postcard of Charles Martel underway before 1914
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Brennus |
| Succeeded by | Carnot |
| History | |
 France | |
| Name | Charles Martel |
| Namesake | Charles Martel |
| Ordered | 10 September 1890 |
| Builder | Arsenal de Brest |
| Laid down | 1 August 1891 |
| Launched | 29 August 1893 |
| Commissioned | 20 February 1897 |
| Decommissioned | 1 April 1914 |
| Reclassified | As a barracks ship, 1 April 1914 |
| Stricken | 30 October 1919 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 20 December 1920 |
| General characteristics (as completed) | |
| Type | Pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 121.59 m (398 ft 11 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 21.71 m (71 ft 3 in) |
| Draft | 8.4 m (27 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range | 2,218 nmi (4,108 km; 2,552 mi) at 13.81 knots (25.58 km/h; 15.89 mph) |
| Complement | 651; 751 as a flagship |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Charles Martel was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the 1890s. Completed in 1897, she was a member of a group of five broadly similar battleships ordered as part of the French response to a major British naval construction program. The five ships were built to the same basic design parameters, though the individual architects were allowed to deviate from each other in other details. Like her half-sisters—Carnot, Jauréguiberry, Bouvet, and Masséna—she was armed with a main battery of two 305 mm (12 in) guns and two 274 mm (10.8 in) guns. The ship had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
Charles Martel spent her active career in the Escadre de la Méditerranée (Mediterranean Squadron) of the French fleet, first in the active squadron, and later in the Escadre de réserve (Reserve Squadron). She regularly participated in fleet maneuvers, and in the 1901 exercises, the submarine Gustave Zédé hit her with a training torpedo. Charles Martel spent just five years in the active squadron, having been surpassed by more modern battleships during a period of rapid developments in naval technology. She spent the years 1902–1914 mostly in reserve, and the navy decommissioned the vessel in early 1914, hulking her and converting her into a barracks ship. After the outbreak of World War I in August, her guns were removed for use on the front and she briefly served as a prison ship. Charles Martel was condemned in 1919 and was sold for scrap the following year.