for her centerline guns; this made Hoche the first French capital ship to use armored turrets. Huin accepted this change, but the additional weight of the turrets forced the hull to be lowered by a deck to retain sufficient stability. Characteristics Hoche was long at the waterline, with a beam of and a draft of . She displaced . The ship had a low freeboard and a very large superstructure that rendered her very top-heavy and as a result unstable. Her superstructure was so large that she was nicknamed "". The problem was compounded by the fact that she was overweight on completion, which further reduced her freeboard. Her forward and aft conning towers included bridges that were cantilevered over the main battery turrets. The hull featured a pronounced ram bow. She was fitted with a pair of heavy military masts equipped with fighting tops that carried some of her light guns and were also used to spot for her main battery guns. Steering was controlled by a single large rudder. The crew consisted of 611 officers and enlisted men. Her propulsion machinery consisted of two vertical compound steam engines that each drove a single screw propeller. Steam for the engines was provided by eight coal-burning fire-tube boilers that were ducted into a single wide funnel that were placed directly astern of the conning tower. Her engines were rated to produce for a top speed of . Coal storage amounted to . Her cruising radius was , though the speed that enabled that range is unknown. Her main armament consisted of two Modèle 1881 guns and Modèle 1881 guns, both of which were 28-caliber weapons. They were all mounted in individual barbette mounts, with the 340 mm guns on the centerline, forward and aft, and the 274 mm guns in wing mounts amidships. The 340 mm guns fired high-explosive shells filled with melinite with a muzzle velocity of . The 274 mm guns fired shells at a velocity of . These guns were supported by a secondary battery of eighteen guns, all carried in individual pivot mounts. Fourteen of the guns were placed in a gun battery in the hull, seven guns per broadside, and the remaining four were located at the four corners of the superstructure. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried ten 3-pounder guns and ten 1-pounder Hotchkiss revolvers, all in individual mounts. These were placed in