 Forbin in Toulon around 1890
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Forbin |
| Ordered | 7 April 1886 |
| Builder | Arsenal de Rochefort |
| Laid down | May 1886 |
| Launched | 14 January 1888 |
| Commissioned | 15 November 1888 |
| Decommissioned | 1 November 1911 |
| Stricken | 27 November 1913 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Forbin-class protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 1,857 t (1,828 long tons; 2,047 short tons) |
| Length | 95 m (311 ft 8 in) lwl |
| Beam | 9.33 m (30 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement | 209 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | Deck: 40 mm (1.6 in) |
Forbin was a protected cruiser, the lead ship of the Forbin class, built in the late 1880s for the French Navy. The class was built as part of a construction program intended to provide scouts for the main battle fleet. They were based on the earlier unprotected cruiser Milan, with the addition of an armor deck to improve their usefulness in battle. They had a high top speed for the time, at around 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), and they carried a main battery of four 138 mm (5.4 in) guns.
Forbin spent the 1890s in the Reserve Squadron, based in the Mediterranean Sea; during this period, she was kept in partial commission to participate in annual training exercises. She was in reserve by 1901, when she had an ammunition fire related to unstable Poudre B propellant charges. Forbin was reactivated in 1906 for service with the Northern Squadron. By 1911, she had been moved to the Moroccan Naval Division. She was converted into a collier in 1913 and was used in that capacity until she was struck from the naval register in 1919. The ship was sold for scrap in 1921.