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The Ironclad That Drowned Its Own Armor: Hoche's Fatal Design Flaw
The Ironclad That Drowned Its Own Armor: Hoche's Fatal Design Flaw
Fear and awe: a flagship built to be invulnerable carried armor so low it literally protected the sea, and that contradiction turned a routine crossing into a sinking that saved an entire passenger ship. How did a 10,820-ton French ironclad end up with its 457-mm armor belt submerged, and what did that mean the day she rammed a mail steamer off Marseille?
In this episode, you’ll hear the sequence of design choices, delays and compromises that produced the Hoche’s fatal geometry and the human decisions on the morning of 7 July…
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