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	Paixhans (right) in 1862
Class overview
Name	Palestro class
Operators	French Navy
Preceded by	Dévastation class
Succeeded by	Embuscade class
Built	1859–1862
In service	1862–1871
Completed	4
Scrapped	4
General characteristics
Type	Ironclad floating battery
Displacement	1,560 t (1,540 long tons)
Length	47.5 m (155 ft 10 in)
Beam	14.04 m (46 ft 1 in)
Draft	3 m (9.8 ft) (mean)
Installed power	580 ihp (430 kW)
Propulsion	Twin screw, FCM steam engine
Speed	7.5 knots (13.9 km/h; 8.6 mph)
Complement	212
Armament	12 × 160 mm (6.3 in) guns; later 2 of the 160 mm guns were replaced by 1 × 40 mm (1.6 in) gun;
Armor	Hull: 120 mm (4.7 in)

The Palestro-class ironclad floating batteries were four floating batteries built for the French Navy in 1859–1862 to replace the Crimean War-built vessels because of fears that the 1855 ships would deteriorate because they had been built hurriedly with poor wood.

Name	Built at	Laid down	Launched
Palestro	Arman, Bordeaux	1859	August 1862
Pei-ho	Arman, Bordeaux	1859	September 1862
Saigon	Arman, Bordeaux	1859	September 1862
Paixhans	Arman, Bordeaux	1859	September 1862

References

Bibliography

de Balincourt, Captain; Vincent-Bréchignac, Captain (1973). "French Floating Batteries". F.P.D.S. Newsletter. I (2). Akron, OH: F.P.D.S.: 13–20. OCLC 41554533.
Caruana, J.; Koehler, R. B. (1996). "Question 7/95: French Ironclad Floating Batteries". Warship International. XXXIII (4). Toledo, Ohio: International Naval Research Organization: 416–18. ISSN 0043-0374.
Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.