The Bouvines class consisted of a pair of ironclad coastal-defense ships built for the French Navy (Marine Navale) in the 1890s, and . Thoroughly obsolete by World War I, the ships only played a minor role during the war. They were sold for scrap in 1920.
In 1887 preliminary design work began on an armored coast-defence ship intended to serve as the centerpiece of a group of torpedo boats under the auspices of Admiral Théophile Aube, Minister of the Navy and Colonies, and an ardent exponent of the Jeune École (Young School) of naval strategy that believed in the primacy of coastal defences and commerce raiding. The torpedo warfare role was eventually dropped and four coast-defence ironclads, the and the Bouvines classes, were ordered in 1889.
The Bouvines-class ships were half-sisters to the Jemmapes class laid down at the same time. They were virtually identical except that the Bouvines were given a forecastle deck to improve seaworthiness and the main armament was lightened to compensate for the additional weight, as guns were installed rather than the 340 mm (13.4 in) guns of the Jemmapes class.
Bouvines and Amiral Tréhouart were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of forward and aft. They were only slightly heavier than the Jemmapes class and displaced , only more than the other ships. Bouvines had a metacentric height of . Once in service they proved to roll badly so bilge keels were later fitted. Their crew numbered 15 officers and 318 ratings; service as a flagship added 5 more officers and 33 more ratings.
The Bouvines-class ships used two inclined horizontal triple-expansion steam engines built by Menpenti of Marseilles, one engine per shaft. Bouviness engines were powered by 16 d'Allest-Lagrafel water-tube boilers and had two funnels, but Amiral Tréhouart used the same number of Belleville boilers instead and had only one funnel. The engines produced a total of and gave a top speed of on trials. The ships carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of .
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