French ironclad Magenta (1890)

Photograph of Magenta by Marius Bar
History
France
Name:	Magenta
Namesake:	Battle of Magenta
Launched:	19 April 1890
Commissioned:	February 1893
Decommissioned:	1910
Fate:	Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type:	Marceau-class ironclad
Displacement:	10,558 tonnes
Length:	99 m (325 ft)
Beam:	20 m (66 ft)
Draught:	8.4 m (28 ft)
Propulsion:	2 steam engines, 8 boilers, 11,000 shp (8,200 kW)
Speed:	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement:	651
Armament:	4 × 1 340mm/28 Modèle 1881 guns 17 × 1 138mm/45 Modèle 1888 guns 5 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 460 mm (18 in) Deck: 80 mm (3 in) Bridge: 150 mm (6 in) Barbettes: 400 mm (16 in)

The French ironclad Magenta was an ironclad battleship of the French Navy. The ship underwent significant changes during her construction phase including three different sets of main guns and increases in length and width.^[1] Like her sister ships she suffered from an over-large unarmoured superstructure that in Magenta's case stretched for 40 feet (12 m) about the top of her armoured belt. In defence of the superstructure one of the ship's captains reported that it did make the ship notably more habitable than it otherwise would have been^[1]

References

1. Regan, Geoffrey (2001). Geoffrey Regan's Book of Naval Blunders. André Deutsch. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-233-99978-7.