Tonnerre.

About Tonnerre

Tonnerre was the lead ship of a class of two coastal defense breastwork monitors built for the French Navy in the 1870s. Armed with a main armament of two 274.4 mm (11 in) Modèle 1875 guns mounted in a single turret that had armor 300 mm (12 in) thick, the ship was Launched in 1875, the vessel was originally commissioned into reserve at Brest. As French naval doctrine moved from a fleet of smaller coastal defense ships to larger ocean-going battleships, the ship Tonnerre had an uneventful career. Between 1884 and 1885, the ship served in the Evolution Squadron but joined the Northern Squadron in 1891. As part of a naval exercise in 1893, the vessel participated in the successful defence of Cherbourg against a superior force. The ship was struck in 1905 and, after serving as a target, was sold after 1920.