 Troude early in her career
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Troude class |
| Builders | Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde |
| Operators |  French Navy |
| Preceded by | Forbin class |
| Succeeded by | Jean Bart class |
| Built | 1886–1891 |
| In commission | 1891–1922 |
| Completed | 3 |
| Retired | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 1,923 to 1,994 long tons (1,954 to 2,026 t) |
| Length | 95 m (311 ft 8 in) lwl |
| Beam | 9 m (29 ft 6 in) |
| Draft | 5.18 m (17 ft) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph) |
| Complement | 201 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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The Troude class was a group of three protected cruisers built for the French Navy in the late 1880s and early 1890s. The class, which was very similar to the preceding Forbin class, comprised Troude, Cosmao and Lalande. They were ordered as part of a fleet program that accorded with the theories of the Jeune École, which proposed a fleet based on cruisers and torpedo boats to defend France. The Troude-class cruisers were intended to serve as flotilla leaders for the torpedo boats, and they were armed with a main battery of four 138 mm (5.4 in) guns.
All three members of the class served in the Mediterranean Squadron in their early careers, where they took part in routine training exercises. In 1897, Troude became the flagship of the Levant Division and was later transferred to the North Atlantic Division in 1899. All three ships were in reserve by 1901. Troude was reactivated for a brief stint in the North Atlantic from 1904 to 1905, while Lalande returned to service in the Mediterranean in 1906. Troude was discarded in 1907 or 1908 and Lalande was broken up for scrap in 1912. Cosmao remained in reserve until the start of World War I in August 1914, when she was recommissioned to patrol the coast of French Morocco. She, too, was scrapped after the war in 1922.