protected deck. The ships had two protected decks (the pont blindée supérieur and the pont blindée inférieur (PBI)), each formed from triple layers of mild steel or thick. The lower of these, the PBI, curved downwards towards the sides of the hull to meet the torpedo bulkhead and the curved portion was reinforced by the substitution of a plate of armor in lieu of the uppermost 15-millimeter plate of mild steel. The PBI also sloped downward toward the bow and was similarly reinforced to form an armored glacis. The Dantons had an internal anti-torpedo bulge deep along the side of the hull below the waterline. It was backed by a torpedo bulkhead that consisted of three layers of 15-millimeter armor plate. Inboard of the bulkhead were 16 watertight compartments, 12 of which were normally kept empty, but the 4 abreast the boiler rooms were used as coal bunkers. This system of protection had only mixed success in practice as Danton capsized in 40 minutes after two torpedo hits while Voltaire survived her two torpedoes. Ships Construction and careers The Dantons took a long time to build. Construction was prolonged by a number of factors, chief of which were the 500 plus changes were made to the original design and in the inability of Thomson to make a timely decision. This meant that the builders sometimes had to rip out already completed sections to incorporate the modifications. Other problems were shortages of necessary infrastructure at the shipyards, lengthy delays in delivery of parts, and labor shortages and a lack of building slips in the naval dockyards. For example, water in the lower end of the newly completed Point-du-Jour slip at Brest meant that building Dantons stern was delayed four months after the bow began and construction of Mirabeau could not begin until the armored cruiser was launched. After commissioning in 1911, all six ships were assigned to the First Battle Squadron (Première escadre de ligne) of the Mediterranean Fleet where they participated in the fleet maneuvers in May–June 1913. When the war began, the squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Paul Chocheprat, was at sea preparing to escort troop convoys from French North Africa to France. Some of the ships unsuccessfully searched for the German battlecruiser and the light cruiser in the Western Mediterranean and escorted convoys. Later that month, all of the ships, except Mirabeau, participated in the Battle