seven minutes, and new loading equipment installed in 1903 had increased the rate further, to three minutes and twenty seconds between shots. These guns were supported by a secondary battery of four and eight or ten guns, all carried in individual pivot mounts. The 163 mm guns were placed in sponsons in the main deck, two forward and two aft, while the 138 mm guns were in open mounts atop the main deck. These guns had a rate of fire of one shot per minute, but the blast effects of the main battery guns were so severe that the secondary gun crews had to be withdrawn from their positions when they were fired. For defense against torpedo boats, Amiral Baudin carried four 3-pounder guns, one 47 mm 3-pounder Hotchkiss revolver cannon, and fourteen 1-pounder Hotchkiss revolvers, all in individual mounts. Formidable had one of the 47 mm guns and twelve of the 47 mm revolvers, along with eighteen of the 1-pounder revolver cannon. Their armament was rounded out with six torpedo tubes in above-water mounts. The ships were protected with a combination of mild steel and compound armor produced by Schneider-Creusot; their belt extended for the entire length of the hull and was composed of steel. The belt was intended to extend from below the waterline to above, but overloading of the ship caused all but to be submerged, leaving most of the hull exposed to enemy fire. This seriously degraded the effectiveness of the armor and was a major weakness of the Amiral Baudin design. In the central portion, where it protected the propulsion machinery spaces and ammunition magazines, the belt was thick; at the top edge, it tapered slightly to , while at the lower edge, it was reduced to . Forward, the belt reduced to and aft it was uniformly 356 mm thick. The upper edge of the belt was connected to the armor deck, which was thick at the bow and stern and where it covered the machinery spaces. The deck was layered directly on deck plating. The barbettes for the main battery were composed of 400 mm of compound armor and the supporting tubes that protected the ammunition hoists were the same thickness, but were of steel construction. The guns themselves were protected from shell splinters by armored hoods that were thick. Modifications Between 1896 and 1898, both members of the class were modernized to