Paixhans (right) in 1862
Class overview
Name	Palestro class
Operators	French Navy
Preceded by	Dévastation class
Succeeded by	Embuscade class
Built	1859–1862
In service	1862–1871
Completed	4
Scrapped	4
General characteristics
Type	Ironclad floating battery
Displacement	1,560 t (1,540 long tons)
Length	47.5 m (155 ft 10 in)
Beam	14.04 m (46 ft 1 in)
Draft	3 m (9.8 ft) (mean)
Installed power	580 ihp (430 kW)
Propulsion	Twin screw, FCM steam engine
Speed	7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph)
Complement	212
Armament	12 × 160 mm (6.3 in) guns later 2 of the 160 mm guns were replaced by 1 × 40 mm (1.6 in) gun
Armor	Hull: 120 mm (4.7 in)

The Palestro-class ironclad floating batteries were four floating batteries built for the French Navy in 1859–1862 to replace the Crimean War-built vessels because of fears that the 1855 ships would deteriorate because they had been built hurriedly with poor wood.

References

Bibliography

• de Balincourt, Captain; Vincent-Bréchignac, Captain (1973). "French Floating Batteries". F.P.D.S. Newsletter. Akron, OH: F.P.D.S. I (2): 13–20. OCLC 41554533.
• Caruana, J.; Koehler, R. B. (1996). "Question 7/95: French Ironclad Floating Batteries". Warship International. Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organization. XXXIII (4): 416–18. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.