 Formidable in Algiers in 1899
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Formidable |
| Builder | Lorient, France |
| Laid down | 10 January 1879 |
| Launched | 16 April 1885 |
| Commissioned | 25 May 1889 |
| Stricken | 9 February 1909 |
| Fate | Broken up |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Amiral Baudin-class ironclad |
| Displacement | 11,720 long tons (11,910 t) |
| Length | 101.4 m (332 ft 8 in) lwl |
| Beam | 21.34 m (70 ft) |
| Draft | 8.46 m (27 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement | 625 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
Formidable was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy between her keel laying in late 1879 and her completion in early 1889. She was the second and final member of the Amiral Baudin class. The ships of the class was designed in response to Italian naval expansion, and carried a main battery of three 370 mm (14.6 in) guns all mounted in open barbettes on the centerline. The armament was chosen after public pressure to compete with the very large guns mounted on the latest Italian ironclads.
Formidable spent most of her career in the Mediterranean Fleet, where she conducted fleet training exercises each year. In 1891, she was involved in tests with tethered observation balloons. Her career passed fairly uneventfully, though she caused a grounding accident that involved two other vessels in 1895. She was modernized between 1897 and 1898, which included removing her center main battery gun and barbette and installing a battery of light quick-firing guns in its place. After returning to service, she was transferred to the Northern Squadron, based in the English Channel, where the routine of peacetime training maneuvers continued. Withdrawn from active duty in 1903, she briefly saw service in 1904 but was again removed from use thereafter and was stricken from the naval register in 1909 before being broken up thereafter.