Featured Article Summary #283

Brennus was the first pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy, finished in 1896. It was the only ship of its class and featured heavy guns on the centerline and Belleville boilers, and its design influenced later ships, starting with Charles Martel. When she was originally completed in 1893, Brennus was too top-heavy, so she was rebuilt over the next three years before joining service. Most of her career was spent in the Mediterranean Squadron, where she even served as the squadron’s flagship early on. In 1900, she accidentally rammed and sank the destroyer Framée. Later she was placed in reserve, used for training, decommissioned before World War I, then disarmed in 1915 to provide spare parts, before being scrapped after being removed from the naval register in 1919. In 1880 the French Navy planned to build several ironclad battleships, including a new ship called Brennus. Work on the first Brennus began in 1885, but it was cancelled in 1886 by Admiral Théophile Aube, then restarted in 1887–1889 under a redesigned plan, reusing some materials and parts from the earlier work; despite confusion, the two Brennus vessels were distinct. Brennus was the French Navy’s first pre-dreadnought-style battleship and introduced new guns in turrets, the first use of homogeneous steel armor, and the first Belleville boilers. It also added extra protection against quick-firing guns and dropped the ram bow, and it became the model for later similar battleships, though their gun layout eventually returned to an earlier lozenge pattern. Brennus was a large French battleship, measuring 110.3 m long between perpendiculars and 114.46 m overall, with a 20.4 m beam and an 8.28 m draft after reconstruction. She displaced about 11,370 tons when fully loaded, but she was found to be badly overweight, which made her draft 38 cm too deep during early trials and submerged much of her armored belt, largely defeating its purpose. Her hull was divided by 18 watertight compartments and a double bottom, and she had a crew of 667. The ship also had very poor stability, mainly because much of its weight was placed high up on a large superstructure, worsening its handling and causing a heavy list during trials. Brennus was powered by two sets of four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, using steam from 32 Belleville water-tube boilers, and reached about 17.1 kn on trials. She carried 706 tons of coal for a 2,805 nmi range at 11 kn, and onboard electricity was generated by four 400-amp dynamos powered by dedicated internal-combustion engines. Brennus was armed with three 340 mm main guns, firing either 420 kg cast-iron shells or heavier 490 kg armor-piercing shells. Its secondary battery included ten 164.7 mm guns, plus quick-firing anti-torpedo-boat weapons of 65 mm, 47 mm, and 37 mm types, and it carried four 450 mm torpedo tubes with two torpedoes per tube. The ship’s armor was mainly nickel steel, with a 400 mm thick waterline belt amidships that tapered to thinner protection toward the ends. Key areas like the turrets and barbettes were heavily armored (about 405–455 mm), while the main deck was 60 mm thick and the conning tower had 120 mm sides. Brennus was built at the Arsenal de Lorient, laid down in January 1889 and launched in October 1891. After fitting-out was finished in 1893, serious stability issues delayed her commissioning, along with delays in getting new propellers, so she temporarily used propellers from the ironclad Neptune. To fix the weight and stability problems, workers removed parts of the superstructure, changed masts, removed torpedo nets, lowered boat storage, added a watertight caisson, and replaced some equipment, but further sea and stability trials still showed major defects. Her first commander reported that during broadside firing the ship effectively lacked adequate protection, mainly because the heavy, unbalanced 340 mm turrets made the hull heel so much that most belt armour ended up too low for real shell protection.