Tempête was the lead ship for her class of two ironclad coast-defense ships built for the French Navy () in the 1870s. Even though the ship was not fully commissioned until 1883, she played a minor role in the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881. Tempête accidentally sank a torpedo boat during night maneuvers in 1892 and was placed in reserve later that year. She became the flagship of the local defenses in French Tunisia in 1897 and was decommissioned in 1907. The ironclad served as a target ship for the next several years until she was sunk in 1909. Her wreck was salvaged beginning in 1912, but it was not completed until 1959.
Design and description
The design of the Tempête-class coast-defense ships was based on that of the British breastwork monitors and . To maximize the traverse of the single gun turret, the superstructure was as narrow as possible, only wide. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of forward and aft at deep load. They displaced at deep load. The crew of the Tempête class numbered 7 officers and 165 enlisted men.
The Tempête class was powered by a single six-cylinder, horizontal compound-expansion steam engine that drove one propeller shaft using steam provided by four Indret cylindrical boilers. The engine was rated at and was intended to give the ships a top speed of . During her sea trials Tempête reached a speed of from . The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of .
Armament and armor
The Tempêtes carried their main battery of two Canon de Modèle 1875 guns in a single twin-gun turret, forward of the superstructure. Defense from torpedo boats was provided by four Canon de Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns and four Hotchkiss revolving cannon. The 47 mm guns were positioned on the corners of the hurricane deck on top of the superstructure and the revolver guns were placed between them, two on each broadside.
The ships had a full-length wrought-iron waterline armor belt that tapered from the maximum thickness of amidships to at the ships' ends. The armored breastwork supporting the superstructure and the turret was long and was also 330 mm thick. The main deck was protected by iron plates, as was the deck below it. The turret armor was thick and was backed by of teak. The plates protecting the conning tower measured 250 mm in thickness.
Construction and career
Tempête (Tempest), was authorized in the 1872 Naval Program as a second-class coastal-defense ship. She was ordered from the Arsenal de Brest on 26 December 1872 and was laid down that same day. The ship was launched on 18 August 1876, construction being delayed by numerous minor changes to the design. Tempête was commissioned for preliminary trials on 29 November 1879, but a boiler accident on 1 March 1880 burned three stokers. Her sea trials were completed on 26 March 1890, although the ship was not fully commissioned () until 4 July 1883. Despite this, she supported operations at Bizerte during the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881. Her construction cost 6,430,000 francs.
On 10 July, Tempête conducted tests to see if her wooden boats would be damaged by muzzle blast of her guns firing at their aft limit of traverse. The boats were undamaged, but the superstructure was damaged and needed to be strengthened. Later that year, she began taking on water in rough seas as she exited the Roadstead of Brest () and the Maritime Prefect () of Brest decided that she was only to sail in fine weather. The ship ran aground in the roadstead on 4 August 1888 and had to wait until the next tide to free herself, although she proved to be undamaged when docked for examination. During night maneuvers in the roadstead on 20 July 1892, Tempête accidentally collided with and sank torpedo boat No. 76. The ironclad was reduced to reserve later that year.
Her boilers were replaced in 1896–1897 and she was declared operational again on 15 June of the latter year. Tempête became the flagship of the Naval Division of Tunisia () that provided local defense for the eastern part of French North Africa and arrived in Bizerte on 25 July. She towed torpedo boat No. 122 to Algiers, French Algeria on 28 April–9 May 1898. The ironclad arrived in Toulon on 22 May 1900 for maintenance and she was damaged when her supporting timbers collapsed while she was in a dry dock to have her bottom painted. Much of her hull plating had to be replaced and the ship did not return to Tunisia until 8 August.