Charles Martel class battleships (1883)

:This article has wikilinks to the French battleship Brennus (1891) and French battleship Charles Martel (1893). That these two ships are the ships referred to in this article is disputed. Some of the data in the infobox differs significantly from the data quoted in the sources"Charles Martel" and "Brennus" were two French battleships laid down in 1883-1884. They were slightly enlarged "Marceaus",Pages 139 and 222, "Ropp, Theodore, "The Development of a Modern Navy, French Naval Policy 1871-1904", pub US Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-141-2<] but with partial waterline belt armour. (The only other large French armoured battleships completed in the 19th Century to have a partial armoured belt were the "Dévastation" class and the "Masséna".) [Page 283, Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905". Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-83170-302-4]

*"Charles Martel" - laid down 1883. [Page 438, "Ropp, Theodore, "The Development of a Modern Navy, French Naval Policy 1871-1904".
Page 273, Beeler, John F. "British Naval Policy in the Gladstone-Disraeli Era, 1866-1880", pub Stanford University, 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2981-6 This states that France laid down an ironclad in 1883, and another in 1884, and then no more battleships until the later "Brennus" was laid down in 1889.]
*"Brennus" - laid down 1884.

The two ships were suspended in 1886, as a result of a change in naval policy due to the apointment in January 1886 of Admiral Hyacinthe-Laurent-Theóphile Aube as Minster of Marine.Pages 155 and 122, "Ropp, Theodore, "The Development of a Modern Navy, French Naval Policy 1871-1904".] Aube was a leading member of the Jeune École school of thought. The new policy was that naval operations of the future would be directed not on battleships, but on the commerce of the enemy, using cruisers and torpedo boats (then high technology). The money that was spent on construction of battleships was applied to completing vessels in an advanced state of completion. [Page 86, Brassey, Lord, "The Naval Annual 1886",] ["The Austrian "Almanach für die K.K. Marine 1886", states (p. 128) that the construction of these two armour-clads has been discontinued, and that both are to be converted into transports."
Quoted in page 228, Brassey, Lord, "The Naval Annual 1886",]

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