French ironclad Marceau Marceau was an ironclad turret ship built for the French Navy during the 1880s , the lead ship of her class . She served in the Mediterranean Squadron until 1900 , when she was rebuilt and subsequently placed in reserve . She returned to service in 1906 as a torpedo training ship . During World War I , she served in Malta and Corfu as a submarine tender . The old ironclad was sold for scrapping in 1920 , and while being towed to Toulon , she ran aground in a gale off Bizerte and became stranded . The wreck remained visible there until the 1930s . Design . " Marceau " had an overall length of and was long between perpendiculars . She had a beam of and a draft up to . She displaced . The ship was powered by a pair of vertical triple - expansion steam engines , each driving one shaft , using steam provided by eight coal - fired cylindrical boilers that were trunked into a single large funnel . The engines were designed to reach and propel the ship at a top speed of , but they only managed and on the ship ' s sea trials . " Marceau " had a range of at a speed of . She had a crew of 643 – 651 officers and enlisted men . The ship was armed with a main battery of two M1881 28 - caliber guns and two slightly newer M1884 guns of the same caliber . These weapons were mounted in individual barbette s in a " lozenge " arrangement , with one gun forward , one aft , and two amidships . The secondary battery consisted of sixteen M1884 quick - firing ( QF ) guns , all firing through unarmored embrasures in the hull . " Marceau " s light armament varies widely between sources : Chesneau & Kolesnik give a range of three to six 9 - pounder guns , nine to eighteen 3 - pounder guns , eight to twelve 1 - pounder five - barrel Hotchkiss revolving cannon , and three to five torpedo tube s in deck - mounted launchers ; naval historian Eric Gille gives four to seven 65 mm guns , nine to twelve 47 mm guns , eight 37 mm guns and five to six torpedo tubes , all above water ; naval historian Paul Silverstone says six 65 mm guns , twelve 47 mm guns and five torpedo tubes . The ship ' s compound armor belt was thick amidships and reduced to at the stern and . The barbettes were also 450 mm thick . The conning tower was protected by of armor plating and the deck was thick . Service history . " Marceau " was ordered in October 1880 , but was not laid down until 27 January 1882 at the " Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée " shipyard in La Seyne - sur - Mer . Work proceeded slowly , and she was not launched until April 1890 . This was a result of the influence of Admiral Théophile Aube , who was the Minister of Marine in 1886 – 87 ; Aube was a staunch advocate of the so - called Jeune École and opposed new battleship construction . Fitting out work was completed much more quickly , however , and she was commissioned into the French fleet on 14 March 1891 . After her commissioning , she joined a French fleet that visited Kronstadt and was inspected by Czar Alexander III of Russia . On the return voyage , the fleet stopped in Spithead , where Queen Victoria reviewed the ships . This turned out to be the only time " Marceau " operated in the Atlantic ; after returning to France , she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron , where she remained for the duration of her career . In 1895 , " Marceau " and the ironclads " Courbet " , " Amiral Baudin " , and " Formidable " all nearly ran aground off Hyères ; " Marceau " and three tugs used to tow " Amiral Baudin " back to port . During the 1897 fleet gunnery trials , which saw the first use of a new system of centralized fire control in the French fleet , " Marceau " , her sister " Neptune " , and the new battleship " Brennus " all achieved more than 25 percent hits at ranges of between and . On 30 August 1900 , " Marceau " returned to La Seyne for a major reconstruction . Her heavy military masts were cut down , her engines were modernized and her boilers were replaced with 16 Niclausse boilers . Another 138 . 6 mm gun was installed in the bow under the forecastle . The work was completed in May 1902 , and " Marceau " underwent a series of sea trials for the remainder of the year . She did not return to active service with the fleet , however , and was placed in reserve at Toulon . In 1906 , she was converted into a training ship for torpedo operators in Toulon . After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Marceau " was converted into a floating workshop to support torpedo boat s and submarine s . She was initially based in Malta , but was later moved to Corfu and then to Bizerte in 1918 . She was stricken from the naval register on 1 October 1920 , and sold to a shipbreaking firm based in Toulon in 1921 . While she was being towed to Toulon , a storm caused her to run aground off Bizerte . She remained visible there until the 1930s .