3-021-513 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French ironclad Rochambeau, formerly the American Dunderberg, 1868. Ship '...purchased by the French Government from the United States...[She] is a very formidable vessel of war...[and] may be described as a shotproof iron fort, mounted upon an iron hull, with fore and aft decks, likewise of iron, which are but little raised above the water-level. These parts of the hull, as well as the midships portion, are shotproof, the stern part containing the screw-propeller and steering apparatus, while the fore part is armed with a beak to pierce the sides of an enemy's ship. This vessel was built at New York, by Mr. W. H. Webb...There are two engines, of reverse horizontal action, with a combined force of 5000-horse power. The iron plating of the central portion is seven inches thick, and that of the two decks, fore and aft, is eight inches and a half. There are portholes for eighteen guns; but the armament when she came over from America consisted of four 15-in. Rodman guns and twelve 11-in. Dahlgrens. It is not yet known how she will be armed by the French naval authorities. She made a good passage from New York to Cherbourg, in fourteen days, with an average speed of eight or nine miles an hour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.