Designed by the French naval architect Henri Dupuy de Lôme, the ships of the class were intended to fight in the line of battle, unlike the first British ironclads.[1] The ships were 77.25- long,[2] with a beam of 17m (56feet). They had a maximum draft of 8.48m (27.82feet),[3] a depth of hold of 10.67m (35.01feet) and displaced 5618-.[2] The ships of the class had a high metacentric height of 7feet and consequently rolled badly.[3] With their gun ports only 1.88m (06.17feet) above the waterline, they proved to be very wet. They had a crew of 570 officers and enlisted men.[2]
The ships of the Gloire class had a single horizontal return connecting-rod compound steam engine that drove a six-bladed, 5.8sp=usNaNsp=us propeller. The engine was powered by eight Indret[2] oval boilers and was designed for a capacity of 2500ihp.[3] On sea trials, the ships exceeded 13kn.[2] They carried a maximum of 675t of coal which allowed them to steam for 4000km (2,000miles) at a speed of .[4] The Gloire-class ships were initially fitted with a light barquentine rig with three masts that had a sail area around 11800square feet. This was later changed to a full ship rig of 27000disp=flipNaNdisp=flip, but later had to be reduced because of excessive rolling.[3]
The ships were initially armed with 36 Modèle 1858 164.7mm rifled muzzle-loading guns, 34（14 each sides and 2 pivot mounts fore and 4 pivot mounts aft as chase guns）of which were positioned on the single gun deck in the broadside. The remaining two guns were placed on the upper deck as chase guns.[2] They fired a 44.9kg (99lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of only 322m/s and proved to be ineffective against armour.[5] They were replaced by rifled breech-loading Modèle 1864 guns in 1868. Four of six 194 and eight 240mm guns were mounted in the middle of the gun deck and a pair of remaining 194mm guns replaced the original chase guns.[2]
The wooden hull was completely armoured with wrought iron plates 1201NaN1 thick. Backed by the 760adj=onNaNadj=on sides of the hull, the armour extended 5.4m (17.7feet) above the waterline and 2m (07feet) below.[4] The Gloire-class ships had an open-topped conning tower with armour 1001NaN1 thick and 101NaN1 of armour underneath the wooden upper deck.[3]
| Ship | Builder | Laid down | Launched | Completed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal de Toulon | 4 March 1858 | 24 November 1859 | August 1860 | ||
| 1 May 1858[6] | 4 April 1861 | March 1862 | |||
| Arsenal de Cherbourg | 14 September 1858 | 10 March 1860 | 13 May 1862 |
All three ships of the class had very uneventful careers, spending the bulk of their time with the Mediterranean Fleet aside from a few excursions to foreign waters.[7] Normandie supported the French intervention in Mexico in 1862, the first ironclad to cross the Atlantic. They were active during the Franco-Prussian War, but saw no action. Gloire, the only ship built with seasoned timber lasted the longest, not being condemned and broken up until 1879. Her sister ships only lasted a decade in service before they were too rotten for any further use and were condemned in 1871–1872 and subsequently broken up.[3]