When the Brennus' keel was laid at the Lorient Dockyard, it marked France's return to battleship construction after a hiatus of nearly 10 years. French naval doctrine in this interval had been hijacked by the so-called jeune école, who advocated swift, maneuverable ships as a counterweight to Britain's overwhelming superiority in numbers of capital ships. In brief, the jeune école sought to neutralize enemy capital ships with swift torpilleurs (torpedo boats) and harass his commerce with speedy cruisers. Existing battleships would draw coast defense duties. France would abandon the line of battle, and the contest for the best battleships, in which she was being roundly beaten by Britain, Italy, and even Russia, relying instead on the offensive spirit to carry the day against overwhelming odds.

Laid down in 1889 but not completed until 1896, Brennus looked back to the clunky ironclads such as Hoche (known as "the Hotel" in the French Navy for her large superstructure and marble appointments in officers' country), and also forward to the gloriously absurd, waddling French battleships of the 1890s. With low freeboard as in the Hoche and the British Admiral class, she had a forward-sloped foredeck, a semi-whaleback which became a common feature of French battleships in the decade to come. Her hull had a unique bow with a plumb stem, entirely abandoning the ram. The hull featured prominent tumble-home as did all French warships of the period, broken amidships by an armored redoubt -- a square-cornered gunhouse protruding from the tumbled-back flanks of the hull. This gunhouse was a remnant of the central battery design of the 1860s and 1870s.

As can be seen in the photographs, as originally built she had a blocky, high-rise superstructure that would do credit to a Hanjin containership of today, with cutouts for the turrets on each end and cantilevered decks above: a feature that harked back to the British Devastation class. Unlike the symmetrical Marceau class, Brennus carried three 34 cm (13.4-inch) guns on her 11,200-ton displacement: two in a twin turret forward, one in a single turret aft. This was the first all-centerline disposition in a French battleship; during the Nineties most new construction favored the diamond-pattern layout instead. Brennus' mounts were similar to the British gunhouse-on-barbette design, but utilized a larger gunhouse overlapping a much smaller barbette tube, just big enough to house the ammo hoist (where the British used a much larger barbette whose lip overlapped the base of the gunhouse; the barbette contained all the turret's training gear as well in British vessels). Brennus' ten 6.4" guns were all mounted in the central armored redoubt: four in single turrets sprouting from the corners of its top, and 6 in single casemate mounts on the main deck beneath the turrets (thus five to a side: three on the main deck and two in turrets on he weather deck).

Specifications for the Brennus:
Dimensions: 361' x 56'6" x 22'6"   Displacement: 11,370 tons deep laden. Armament: (3) 13.4"/42 cal (1x2, 1x1), (10) 6.4"/45 cal (4x1 turret mounted, 6 in main deck box batteries), (4) 2.5"/40cal., (14) 1.85"/43 cal. QF, and (6) 1.5"/23 cal. QF guns; (4) 18" torpedo tubes. Nickel-steel armor: 18"/10" belt; 4½" upper belt; 18" fore turret; 16" aft turret; 17½" barbettes; 4¾" secondary turrets, casemates, conning tower; 4" battery; 3" deck. Fuel capacity: 550 tons of coal std; maximum 800 tons. Propulsion: 32 Belleville water-tube boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines developing 13,950 IHP, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 17.1 kts. Crew: 675. Initial cost: ~ £995,000 at 1891 values.

Metric specifications:
Dimensions: 110m x 17.2m x 6.86m   Displacement: 11,370 tons deep laden. Armament: (3) 34 cm/42 cal (1x2, 1x1), (10) 163 mm/45 (4x1 turret mounted, 6 in main deck box batteries), (4) 65 cm/40cal., (14) 47 mm/43 cal. QF, and (6) 37 cm/23 cal. QF guns; (4) 457 mm torpedo tubes. Nickel-steel armor: 450/250 mm belt; 438 mm barbette; 116 mm upper belt; 457 mm fore turret; 400 mm aft turret; 121 mm secondary turrets, casemates, conning tower; 100 mm battery; 76 mm deck. Fuel capacity: 550 tons of coal std; maximum 800 tons. Propulsion: 32 Belleville water-tube boilers; (2) inverted vertical triple expansion steam engines developing 10,155 kW, shafted to twin screw. Maximum speed: 31.7 km/hr. Crew: 675. Initial cost: ~ £995,000 at 1891 values.

As for armor, Brennus carried nickel-steel protection, a big advance from the brittle compound iron-and-steel armor used on the Marceau class; though by the time of her appearance in 1896, the world's most advanced navies had already shifted to improved Harvey armor. Like all French vessels of the time, Brennus' main armor protection was in a narrow waterline belt extending about halfway up the next deck above the waterline. Previous French ironclads had featured "soft ends," i.e. tapered or no armor at the bow and stern. By contrast, Brennus' armor extended the full length of the waterline, as shown in the schematic above. But amidships she had a 4.7" upper belt, another innovation in the French navy. Her bow had a visible outward "step" at the top of the upper armor belt (see illustration at left). The designers abandoned the ram, giving her a plumb stem. She had a single armored deck and rather good protection for the main armament turrets and conning tower, but none on the superstructure save the 4" protection on the 6.4" box batteries. Another novel idea Brennus featured was the armored mast with protected gunhouse -- an elaboration of the "fighting top" in general use in most navies of the time. First introduced by the Neptune in 1892, these thick masts contained electric elevators to convey the gunners and spotters to their posts. This glamorous-sounding but impractical innovation (adding a terrific amount of top weight to an already unstable hull) was adopted by Brennus and the Charles Martel class battleships and by dozens of armored cruisers, but abandoned after 1900 with the Suffren. When she was first trialed in 1894, Brennus appeared over weight, floating 15"(38 cm) deeper than her designed draft. This had the effect of submerging the armor belt -- partially on an even keel, entirely with a 5-degree heel. Worse yet, the hydraulic machinery for rotating the turrets would not work when the ship heeled. It took two years of rework before she was accepted into the French navy. And even then, there were continuing stability problems.

Not visible from exterior photos but still a noteworthy advance, the ship's steam plant consisted of 32 Belleville water-tube boilers, about 10 years in advance of most foreign navies' practice: Brennus was, in fact, the first capital ship powered with Bellevilles, originally developed for use in torpedo boats. The Brennus' lot were an early and temperamental version of the famous boiler, not nearly so dependable as the design later became. Above decks, quite visible as an overstated expression of French national pride (some might say chauvinisme) was the stern flagstaff, an 11-meter steel rod that justly could be called the "mother of all flagstaffs." At the opposite extremity, from 1900 on Brennus carried a nearly life-size bronze figurehead, now preserved at the Musée National de la Marine in Paris.

Brennus underwent a major rebuild in 1903, in which her armored mainmast was replaced with a steel pole model and her upperworks were simplified to save topweight and improve stability. In 1897, she pioneered a new method of fire control tested by Brennus, Marceau, and Neptune. This procedure was adopted as the standard in the French navy the following year. In 1908 the ship was converted to a training ship for mechanics. Just before the outbreak of WWI, in June 1914, she was hulked and used for storage. She was sold for scrapping in 1922, having rendered 26 years' devoted service to France. Above, an artist's conception of Brennus by moonlight.

A Battleship Brennus Briefing

The Brennus in her original configuration, showing the tumble-home hull, intricate masts and outsize, oblong funnels. Her single-gun aft 13" turret is well shown here. The ship's top-heaviness is clear to the naked eye.

The Brennus sorties from Toulon. The extravagant figurehead can be seen perched on the extreme bow. Enlarge

Polished to blazing brilliance and manned for inspection, Brennus at Toulon after her major refit flaunts a racier silhouette. The bow is well shown here, with its mid-stem "step" outwards at the top of the armor belt. The original stock anchors have been replaced with modern stockless types, snugged into patent anchor beds in the hull.

The French may not have had the best battleships, but they had some of the best battleship photographers. Credited to Bougault of Toulon, here is Brennus cleared for action, foam roiling about her cutwater, clouds of coal smoke billowing from her stacks, guns raised at the alert from their drooping travel position, masthead gunhouses manned and ready, and the tricoleur rippling at the stern. French battleship heaven!