and tapered down to at its lower edge. Fore and aft of the armored citadel amidships, the belt reduced to at the waterline; forward its lower edge tapered to a thickness of , but aft the belt tapered to on its bottom edge. The main armored deck was thick. The forward turret and its barbette were protected by armor plates thick, while those of the aft turret and its barbette were thick. The turret roofs were thick. The armor protecting the casemates and secondary gun turrets had a thickness of . The conning tower had thick sides. Construction and career Brennus, named after the Gallic chieftain, was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient on 2 January 1889 and launched on 17 October 1891. Fitting-out work was completed in 1893, but serious problems with her stability delayed her commissioning. The day after her stability trials on 17 June, the shipyard was notified that there would be a seven-month delay in the delivery of her propellers and the decided that the ship would use the propellers from the ironclad in the interim. Brennus steamed to Brest on 2 August where some of material were removed and she conducted preliminary steam trials on 5 September. The following month, the Arsenal de Brest submitted a proposal to lighten the ship which it estimated was overweight, which was approved on 30 October. To reduce the ship's excessive topweight, the bridge wings and the overhang of the bridge over the main-gun turrets was eliminated. More importantly, the top deck of the superstructure was removed and the aft military mast was replaced by a pole mast. To further reduce weight, the torpedo nets were removed and the boat stowage was lowered by one deck. To improve her stability, a watertight caisson () was added at the waterline over her belt armor. The opportunity was taken to replace her propellers and the 164.7 mm Modèle 1887 guns initially installed were replaced by the latest model. The ship began her preliminary sea trials in August 1895 and a second stability trial was conducted on 22 December that showed a metacentric height of . Despite these modifications, the ship was not fully satisfactory. A report by (Captain) Joseph Besson, the ship's first commander, stated: The ship has good qualities but also major defects. The most serious problem is that when engaging on the broadside the ship is effectively unarmoured.