Brennus (Armadillo)

Under the influence of ideas of the so-called. "Young school" , which dominated the French shipbuilding in the 1880s, during the period from 1883 to 1889 the French did not lay down a single battleship. The “young school” paid special attention to mine-torpedo forces and the raider war against the enemy’s commerce.

By the end of the 1880s, interest in the ideas of the "young school" had significantly weakened. The practice of naval maneuvers has shown that the radical ideas of Jeune École work only in proving grounds, while in the real situation of war at sea they are at least of little use. The naval maneuvers of 1886 clearly demonstrated that the small destroyers so beloved "Jeune École" practically lose their combat effectiveness at any worsening weather conditions, while large armored ships retained their fighting qualities. In 1887, the most influential supporter of the “young school”, Admiral Theophil Ob., Resigned.

Earlier, in 1884, France began the construction of two armadillos under the improved Marceau project. Under the influence of Admiral Oba, the construction of these ships was discontinued, but the prepared materials and equipment were preserved. In 1888, the French government decided, using ready-made materials from two unfinished ships, to build a new modern battleship. The ship, called "Brennus" was laid on the stocks of the Navy in Lorient in 1889.

Built after a long period of downtime in the French military shipbuilding, the Brennus was largely an experienced ship. It had a total displacement of 11,200 tons (already considered not too large at the time of its laying). The relatively low-sided hull had a characteristic “blockage” of sides in the upper part, standard for French armadillos. It is interesting to note that the battleship did not have a ram.

The ship was propelled by two triple expansion steam engines, with a total capacity of 13,900 hp. The machines received steam from 32 water - tube boilers of the Bellville system. Brennus was the first large ship equipped with water-tube boilers, which allowed it to develop a course of up to 18 knots. In addition, the battleship was distinguished by another feature unusual for his time: he did not have a pronounced ram .

Due to design errors and project alterations, the battleship was heavily overloaded. When fully loaded, the main belt was completely hidden under water. To solve the problem, engineers had to reduce the height of superstructures even before the ship entered service and replace the aft combat mast with a light signal mast.

Armament

The main caliber of the Brennus was three 340-millimeter 42-caliber guns of the 1887 model . Two guns were in the bow turret, and one in the stern. These long-barreled guns were considered at that time one of the best in the world for their capabilities.

Auxiliary weapons consisted of ten 164-mm quick-firing guns. For the first time in world shipbuilding, four auxiliary caliber guns were installed in separate armored towers in the center of the hull, which guaranteed them good security and excellent firing angles. The remaining six guns were below deck in an armored casemate.

The ship also carried 32 small-caliber anti-mine guns and four surface 450-mm torpedo tubes.

Booking

Reservation of the ship consisted of both steel and compound plates. Along the entire waterline there passed an armored belt with a thickness of 460 millimeters in the center of the hull and up to 305 millimeters at the extremities. The slabs of the belt had the shape of an inverted trapezoid in profile, that is, tapering to the bottom.

Above the main belt was the upper armor belt, up to 100 millimeters thick. The upper belt stretched over the entire length of the ship, and was intended to protect against high-explosive surface-based shells, in order to avoid the formation of holes that could be swamped by waves.

The underwater part of the ship was covered by a convex carpass deck , lowering below the waterline at the extremities.

The main caliber artillery was located in armored towers, protected by 460 mm steel armor. The towers stood on the upper deck, armored wells of elevators going down from them went for the supply of shells.

In the center of the hull there was an auxiliary artillery casemate protected by 100 mm armor plates on which four towers of auxiliary caliber guns stood on top.

For French shipbuilding, the Brennus was a significant step forward. This ship was quite comparable in most respects to modern British armadillos, although the protracted construction and construction overload led to its rapid obsolescence.

The Brennus’s armament was powerful and effective: the French attached great importance to both long-barreled main-caliber guns (possessing greater penetration power than even larger-caliber British counterparts) and the defense of auxiliary artillery. For the first time in world shipbuilding at Brennus, a part of auxiliary caliber artillery was placed in rotating towers with wide firing angles.

The armadillo was also very well protected, having a strong and rationally located reservation (although due to construction overload, the main belt of the armadillo was almost hidden under water)

In general, the Brennus was an undoubted success of the French shipbuilding, although subsequent battleships developed a different arrangement of artillery.

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