Alma-class ironclad

Model of Jeanne d'Arc on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris, before the rear barbettes were deleted
Class overview
Name	Alma class
Operators	French Navy
Preceded by	Belliqueuse
Succeeded by	La Galissonnière class
Built	1865–1870
In service	1867–1891
Completed	7
Scrapped	7
General characteristics
Type	Ironclad corvette
Displacement	3,569–3,889 t (3,513–3,828 long tons)
Length	68.75–69.03 m (225 ft 7 in – 226 ft 6 in)
Beam	13.94–14.13 m (45 ft 9 in – 46 ft 4 in)
Draft	6.26–6.66 m (20 ft 6 in – 21 ft 10 in) (mean)
Installed power	4 boilers 1,585–1,896 ihp (1,182–1,414 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft, 1 steam engine
Sail plan	Barque-rig
Speed	11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Range	1,310–1,620 nmi (2,430–3,000 km; 1,510–1,860 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	316
Armament	6 × single 194 mm (7.6 in) Mle 1864 guns 4 × single 120 mm (4.7 in) guns
Armor	Belt: 150 mm (5.9 in) Battery: 120 mm (4.7 in) Barbettes: 100 mm (3.9 in) Bulkheads: 120 mm (4.7 in)

The Alma-class ironclads were a group of seven wooden-hulled, armored corvettes built for the French Navy in the mid to late 1860s. Three of the ships attempted to blockade Prussian ports in the Baltic Sea in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. Three others patrolled the North Sea and the Atlantic, while the last ship was en route to Japan when the war began and blockaded two small Prussian ships in a Japanese harbor. Afterwards they alternated periods of reserve and active commissions, many of them abroad. Three of the ships participated in the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 while another helped to intimidate the Vietnamese Government into accepting status as a French protectorate and played a small role in the Sino-French War of 1884–85.