French ironclad Hoche
 Hoche in her 1890 configuration, as first completed | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name: | Hoche |
| Namesake: | Lazare Hoche |
| Ordered: | 3 August 1880 |
| Builder: | Lorient |
| Launched: | 29 September 1886 |
| Completed: | 1890 |
| Decommissioned: | April 1908 |
| Nickname(s): | "le Grand Hôtel" ("Grand Hotel")[1] |
| Fate: | Sunk as target in 1913 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Derivative of the Amiral Baudin-class ironclad |
| Displacement: | 12,150 tonnes |
| Length: | 98 m (322 ft) |
| Beam: | 21.2 m (70 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.9 m (26 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 9,700 shp (7,200 kW) |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 650 |
| Armament: |
|
| Armour: | |
The French ironclad Hoche was an early ironclad battleship of the French Navy. She used the 340mm/28 Modèle 1881 gun as her main armament, like the Marceau class which followed. Hoche was completed with a heavy but unarmoured superstructure that resulted in her being top heavy. This was later lightened.[2]
Service history
In 1892, off Marseilles, Hoche collided with the steamer Maréchal Canrobert which sank with the loss of 107 lives.
In a refit lasting from September 1894 to April 1895, the eighteen 138mm guns were replaced by twelve of a newer model, which were faster-firing, and the aft armoured mast was replaced with a pole mast.[3] From 1899 to 1902, a major refit replaced the engines and boilers, replacing the single large stack with two smaller side-by-side stacks, and removed large portions of the superstructure.[4]
Hoche was decommissioned and placed in reserve in April 1908, and disarmed on 1 January 1910.[3] She was sunk as practice target by the French battleship Jauréguiberry and the armoured cruiser Pothuau on 2 December 1913.
Notes and references
- ↑ Maquette de bateau, Hoche, cuirassé d'escadre, 1886
- ↑ Regan, Geoffrey (2001). Geoffrey Regan's Book of Naval Blunders. André Deutsch. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-233-99978-7.
- 1 2 Backer, Steve. "Hoche".
- ↑ "French Barbette Ship Marceau (1881/1891)".
External links
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