page_title: French ironclad Couronne
section_title: Construction and service
hierarchical_section_title: French ironclad Couronne / Construction and service
caption_attribution_description: The frigate Couronne (1863)
context_page_description: The French ironclad Couronne was the first iron-hulled ironclad warship built for the French Navy in 1859–62. She was the first such ship to be laid down, although the British armoured frigate HMS Warrior was completed first. The ship participated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, but saw no combat. She was served as a gunnery training ship from 1885 to 1908 before she was hulked the following year and became a barracks ship in Toulon. Couronne was scrapped in 1934, over 70 years after she was completed.
context_section_description: Ordered on 4 March 1858, Couronne was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient on 14 February 1859, launched on 28 March 1861 and commissioned on 2 February 1862 at a cost of 6,018,885 francs. On 19 June 1864, Couronne played an incidental role in the Battle of Cherbourg as she escorted the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama out of French territorial waters to her fight with USS Kearsarge. While assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, the ship made a port visit in August 1865 to Brest where the fleet hosted the British Channel Fleet. A few days later the French fleet made a reciprocal visit to Portsmouth where it was hosted by the Channel Fleet. On 1 March 1867, Couronne was driven ashore in the Îles d'Hyères, Var in a storm. Several lives were lost.
  During the Franco-Prussian War the ship was assigned to Vice Admiral Léon Martin Fourichon's squadron that blockaded German ports in the Heligoland Bight in August and September 1870. The four German ironclads at Wilhelmshaven sortied in search of the French squadron in early August before the French arrived and in mid-September after the French were forced to abandon the blockade for lack of coal. 
  Couronne returned to Toulon on 10 December. In 1876, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron. From 1881 to 1885, Couronne was reconstructed to serve as a gunnery training ship, replacing Souverain: her armour was replaced by wood of the same thickness, two boilers were removed and her propeller was replaced. Her rigging was replaced by a full ship rig and iron spar deck and poop decks were fitted which gave her the appearance of a steam ship of the line of the Napoléon type. The ship was rearmed with an assortment of guns of various calibres for training purposes, replacing Souverain in this role. Her crew and trainees numbered 1200 officers and enlisted men. Couronne was replaced as a gunnery training ship on 1 December 1908 and disarmed on 1 September 1909. She was subsequently converted to a floating barracks at Toulon until she was scrapped in 1934.
caption: Portrait of Couronne as a gunnery training ship.
exif: {}