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The ''French ironclad Couronne'' ("Crown") was the first iron-hulled ironclad warship built for the French Navy in 1859–62. She was the first such ship to be laid down, although the British armoured frigate was completed first. The ship participated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, but saw no combat. She was served as a gunnery training ship from 1885 to 1908 before she was hulked the following year and became a barracks ship in Toulon. ''Couronne'' was scrapped in 1934, over 70 years after she was completed. ==Design and description== Designed by the French naval architect Camille Audenet as an iron-hulled version of the s, ''Couronne'' was also intended to fight in the line of battle, unlike the first British ironclads.〔Gardiner, p. 54〕 The ship was classified as an armoured frigates because she only had a single gun deck and her traditional disposition of guns arrayed along the length of the hull also meant that she was a broadside ironclad.〔 The ship was long,〔Gille, p. 23〕 with a beam of . She had a maximum draft of , a depth of hold of and displaced .〔 The ship's metacentric height of meant that she rolled less and was a better sea boat than the ''Gloire''s.〔Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 286〕 Her gun ports were slightly higher above the waterline than those of her predecessors, , and ''Couronne'' took aboard less water as well.〔 She had a crew of 570 officers and enlisted men.〔 The ship had a single horizontal return connecting-rod compound steam engine that drove a six-bladed, propeller using steam provided by eight Indret oval boilers for a designed speed of .〔 Figures for the engine's designed power vary wildly, from ,〔〔de Balincourt & Vincent-Bréchignac, Part II, p. 24〕〔Silverstone, p. 61〕 but ''Couronne'' reached from during her sea trials. She carried a maximum of of coal〔 which allowed her to steam for at a speed of .〔 The details of ''Couronne''s sailing rig are not precisely known, but presumably she was fitted with a light barquentine rig with three masts like that of the ''Gloire''-class ships. It is also unknown if she had the same multiple changes of rigging as those ships.〔de Balincourt & Vincent-Bréchignac, Part I, p. 14〕 ''Couronne'' was armed with 36 Modèle 1860 rifled breech-loading guns, 30 of which were positioned on the single gun deck in the broadside. The remaining 4 guns were placed on the upper deck as chase guns.〔 They fired a shell at a muzzle velocity of only and proved to be ineffective against armour.〔Gardiner, p. 159〕 The ship was rearmed multiple times during her career, the first of which was the replacement of the chase guns by four howitzers in 1864 and the replacement of the rest of the guns by improved Modèle 1864 guns. The ship was subsequently rearmed with 16 Modèle 1864 or 1866 guns on her main deck and six 164.7-millimetre guns on the upper deck as chase guns. Her final armament configuration before she became a gunnery training ship in 1881 was eight Modèle 1870 guns and four 194-millimetre Modèle 1870 guns on the main deck. A pair of guns and a dozen 5-barrelled Hotchkiss revolving cannon were mounted on the upper deck.〔 ''Couronne''s wrought iron hull was completely protected by armour plates 120 millimetres thick. The armour backing consisted of two layers of teak, totaling in thickness, an iron lattice work thick, and the side of the hull. The ship had a conning tower with armour thick and of armour underneath the wooden upper deck.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French ironclad Couronne」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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