The French ironclad Belliqueuse ("Bellicose") was a wooden-hulled, armored corvette, built for the French Navy in the 1860s and designed as a cheap ironclad. She was the first French ironclad to sail around the world, which she did between December 1867 and May 1869. She spent the bulk of her career in the Pacific before returning to Toulon, where she was used as a target in 1886.

Design and description

Belliqueuse was designed as a small and cheap ironclad suitable for foreign deployments. Her armament and armor was concentrated in the middle of the ship like a central battery ironclad, but unlike those ships she lacked armored transverse bulkheads and was very vulnerable to raking fire. Like most ironclads of her era she was equipped with a bronze ram; hers weighed 2200 kg. Belliqueuse measured 68.05 m at the waterline and 70 m between perpendiculars, with a beam of 14.01 m. She had a draft of 6.97 m and displaced 3777 t.

Propulsion

The ship had a single horizontal return connecting-rod steam engine driving a single propeller. Her engine was powered by four oval boilers. The engine produced a total of 1200 ihp and gave a top speed of 11 knots. On sea trials the engine produced 1227 ihp and the ship reached 11.83 kn. Belliqueuse carried 250 MT of coal which allowed the ship to steam for 1410 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. Belliqueuse was barque-rigged; initially she had a sail area of 1450 sqm, but this was later increased to 1800 sqm in 1869.

Armament

Belliqueuse mounted her four 194 mm Modèle 1864 guns in the central battery on the battery deck along with four of her six 164 mm Modèle 1864 guns. The other two 164 mm guns were carried on pivot mounts fore and aft on the upper deck. She was partially rearmed in 1870 and exchanged her 164 mm pivot guns for a pair of 138 mm Modèle 1870 guns. In addition four 37 mm Hotchkiss 5-barrel revolving guns each were added. They fired a shell weighing about 500 g at a muzzle velocity of about 610 m/s to a range of about 3200 m. They had a rate of fire of about 30 rounds per minute.

Armor

Belliqueuse was completely armored with 150 mm of wrought iron from the battery deck down to 1.5 m below the waterline. The sides of the battery itself were protected with 120 mm of armor, but the ends were closed only by light screens. Fore and aft of the battery, her sides were unprotected.

Service

Belliqueuse was laid down at Toulon in September 1863, and launched on 6 September 1865. The ship began her sea trials on 30 December 1865, but did not enter service until 30 October 1866. That day she was commissioned as the flagship of the Pacific Station under command of Contre-amiral (Rear Admiral) Jérôme-Hyacinthe Penhoat. On 22 December 1867, the ship departed Toulon in an attempt to circumnavigate the world. Belliqueuse arrived at Brest on 26 May 1869 after 396 days at sea, the first French ironclad to do so. On 15 November 1869 she hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral Chevalier as commander of the Levant Squadron. During 1870 she was transferred to New Caledonia as flagship of the Western Pacific Division (Division de l'Océanie Occidentale), but returned to Toulon on 5 June 1871 after Chevalier's death. In 1872 the ship was sent to the China Station and relieved the FRENCH IRONCLAD Alma as flagship of the station on 1 October 1872. She returned to Toulon on 3 May 1874. Belliqueuse served with the Squadron of Evolutions (Escadre d'évolution) for six months from 5 June 1877 and was reduced to reserve afterwards. She was paid off on 15 November 1884 and struck off the navy list on 3 May 1886. Belliqueuse was then used as a target in experiments with high capacity shells. Belliqueuse was sold at Toulon for demolition in 1889.

Footnotes