Bélier was the name ship of her class of ironclad rams built for the French Navy during the 1860s and 1870s. Completed in 1874, she spent her career in reserve and was never fully commissioned. The ship was sold for scrap in 1896.
Design and development The Bélier class constituted a reversal of the defensive philosophy that drove the design of the preceding ironclad ram, , with their emphasis on an offensive role using their guns instead of a ram. The ships had an overall length of , a beam of and a draft of . They displaced . They were powered by a pair of two-cylinder direct-acting steam engines that used steam provided by six boilers to drive each propeller shaft. The engines were rated at a total of that was intended to give the ships a speed of . The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of . The ship's complement numbered 147 sailors of all ranks.
Bélier was armed with a main battery of two Mle 1864 rifled breech-loading guns in a turret in the bow. The turret sat above a barbette that housed the turret machinery; both had armor thick. The ships were protected by a full-length waterline belt of wrought iron that was thick. The deck armor was thick in Bélier.
Construction and career The ship was completed in January 1874 and was intermittently commissioned four times for trials until she was permanently placed in reserve on 1 November 1878. Bélier was struck from the navy list on 8 July 1896 and was sold for scrap on 17 December. While being broken up, some gunpowder left aboard the ironclad exploded on 25 October 1897, almost completely demolishing the ship.
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