Magenta was the lead ship of her class of two broadside ironclads built for the French Navy (Marine nationale) in the early 1860s. She served as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron.

Design and description

The Magenta class were two-decked ironclad ships of the line, much as the preceding Gloire-class ironclad were armored versions of traditional frigates. Magenta was 88.6 m long, had a beam of 17.34 m, and a draft of 8.44 m. The ship displaced 6965 t. The Magentas were equipped with a metal-reinforced, spur-shaped ram, the first ironclads to be fitted with a ram, and they had a crew of 674 officers and enlisted men. The Magenta-class ships had a single two-cylinder horizontal-return connecting-rod compound steam engine that drove the propeller shaft, using steam provided by eight boilers. The engine was rated at 1,000 nominal horsepower or 3450 PS and was intended to give the ships a speed in excess of 13 kn. During their sea trials, sister ship FRENCH IRONCLAD Solférino achieved a speed of 12.88 kn from 4012 PS. The Magenta class carried enough coal to allow them to steam for 1840 nmi at a speed of 10 kn. They were originally fitted with a three-masted barquentine rig that had a sail area of 1711 sqm, but they were re-rigged as barques with 1960 sqm in 1864–1865.

Armament and protection

The main battery of the Magenta class consisted of sixteen 194 mm Modèle 1858–60 smoothbore muzzle-loading guns, thirty-four 164.7 mm Modèle 1858–60 rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns and a pair of 225 mm RML howitzers on two gun decks. All of the 194 mm guns and ten of the 164.7 mm guns were mounted on the lower gun deck on the broadside. The remaining 164.7 mm guns and the 225 mm howitzers were positioned on the upper gun deck; the former on the broadside, but the latter were placed on pivot mounts as chase guns fore and aft. In the late 1860s all of the guns on the lower gun deck were removed and their armament was changed to four 240 mm RMLs and eight 194 mm smoothbores, two each of the latter fore and aft as chase guns on the upper gun deck. Their final armament consisted of ten 240 mm Modèle 1864–66 guns and four 194 mm guns as chase guns fore and aft. The Magentas had a full-length waterline belt that consisted of wrought-iron plates 120 mm thick. Above the belt both gun decks were protected with 109 mm of armor, but the ends of the ships were unprotected.

Construction and career

On 21 July 1875, Magenta was serving as flagship in a naval exercise involving six ironclads – Magenta and five Alma-class central battery ironclads – and a number of smaller ships in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the east coast of Corsica. The ironclads were steaming in beautiful weather at 8 knots in two parallel columns, with Magenta leading one column, followed by Jeanne d′Arc and Reine Blanche, and Armide leading the other, followed by Thétis and Alma. At 12:00 noon the admiral commanding the squadron ordered the screw corvette Forfait, operating as a dispatch vessel, to pass astern of Magenta to receive orders. Attempting to place his ship in the column between Magenta and Jeanne d′Arc, the commanding officer of Forfait misjudged his turn, and Jeanne d′Arc collided with Forfait, her ram bow tearing into Forfait′s side. Forfait sank 14 minutes later, her crew of 160 taking safely to her boats; her commanding officer floated free from the bridge as Forfait sank beneath him, but also was rescued. On 31 October 1875, an accidental nighttime galley fire started aboard Magenta while she was in port at the naval base at Toulon, France, and spread out of control. Her crew was able to flood her forward gunpowder magazine but could not reach her aft magazine. When it became clear that the ship could not be saved, her crew abandoned ship, and Magenta′s aft magazine exploded shortly afterward, 2 hours 55 minutes after the fire broke out. She sank in 15 meters (49 feet) of water. At the time of the accident, Magenta had a cargo of Carthaginian antiques, notably 2080 Carthaginian tombstones known as the Pricot de Sainte-Marie steles (Tophet, 2nd century BC) and a marble statue of Vibia Sabina (Thasos, c. 127-128 AD), found in 1874 by the Pricot de Sainte-Marie mission. The wreck was located in April 1994. Fragments of stelae have since been recovered. The statue has been partially recovered, though the head was too damaged to be rejoined to the rest of the statue. The fragments are on display at the Louvre in Paris.