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Floating Batteries, 1859-1882: Photo Gallery

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Floating Batteries

In fleet lists as Batteries flottantes 1859, to Batteries flottantes cuirassées 1874.

Class: Palestro (1860)
Floating battery Paixhans
Paixhans (Floating battery) alongside one of the old frigate hulks used at Rochefort as mooring hulks. While three units of the class were broken up in 1871, Saïgon was cut down in 1872 and survived as an embarkation hulk at Rochefort until 1884. (Photo: Wikimedia, unsourced)
Class: Palestro (1860)
Floating battery Paixhans
Paixhans (Floating battery). Print entitled "Batterie le Paixhans (1870)" by Charles Fouqueray (navy painter from 1908) for La guerre navale racontée par nos amiraux. It appears to show the same scene as the previous photo. (Drawing: Shipscribe)
Class: Implacable (1862)
Floating battery Arrogante
Arrogante (Floating battery). On 19 March 1879 Arrogante was at anchor in shallow water near Toulon when she was struck by a sudden wind storm with high waves. She took on water forward, broached, and sank with only her masts and funnel above water. She was later raised and restored to service. (Drawing: L'Illustration, Journal Universel, 29 March 1879, page 208)
Class: Implacable (1862)
Floating battery Opiniatre
Opiniâtre (Floating battery) as a support hulk for the Défense mobile at Cherbourg. (Photo: Detail from a postcard by Levy Fils mailed in 1912)
Class: Embuscade (1862)
Floating battery Refuge
Refuge (Floating battery) off the Château at Brest in a photo from Lacroix and Delcambre, Voyages en France et en Suisse, circa 1884. (Photo: Detail from BNF-btv1b8438892cf36)
Class: Embuscade (1862)
Floating battery Refuge
Refuge (Floating battery) at lower left with several torpedo boats in a photo attributed to Émile Mage. She was bâtiment central de la défense mobile there from 1884 to 1889. (Photo: Shipscribe)
Class: Embuscade (1862)
Floating battery Protectrice
Protectrice (Floating battery) in drydock, probably at Rochefort while enroute to Brest from her builder at Bordeaux. Note her flat bottom. (Photo: Wikimedia from histarmar.com.ar/InfGral/BateriasFlotFranc.htm, defunct)
Class: Embuscade (1862)
Floating battery Embuscade
Embuscade (Floating battery). Shown here after being hulked and moored off the Corderie Royale at Rochefort in 1920, she was sold in 1945. (Photo: francois.delboca.free.fr/port/fsembusc.html)


Sectional Floating Batteries

In fleet lists as Batteries flottantes 1860, Batteries flottantes démontables 1865, Batteries cuirassés démontables 1874, and Batteries flottantes cuirassés 1885.

Class: Batterie no. 1 (1859)
Sectional Floating Battery No.1 class
Batterie no. 1 class (Sectional floating battery) helping to defend Paris as the Germans approached in September 1870. Note the improvised floating batteries behind her. (Drawing: Illustrated London News, 10 September 1870, page 273)
Class: Batterie no. 1 (1859)
Commune, ex Sectional Floating Battery No.5
Commune, ex Batterie no. 5 (Sectional floating battery) in insurgent hands between March and May 1871 during the uprising by the Commune of Paris. The guns are 138.6mm breechloaders. (Drawing: Illustrated London News, 20 May 1871, page 497)
Class: Batterie no. 6 (1865), etc.
French floating batteries
Three classes of French floating batteries including the No. 6 sectional type plus a contemporary gunboat extracted from Albaret's 1881 volume. All but the gunboat were gone from his 1884 volume. The No. 6 type also had two forward-facing gun ports not shown here. (Drawings: J. R. Albaret, Documents généraux relatifs aux divers types de bâtiments de la flotte française, 1 August 1881, Archives de la marine, 0DD1-40)