She displaced at normal load and at full load. Charles Martels hull was subdivided by 13 transverse bulkheads into 14 watertight compartments and she was fitted with a ram bow. Her forecastle gave her a high freeboard forward, but her quarterdeck was cut down to the main deck level aft. Her hull was given a marked tumblehome to give the 27 cm guns wide fields of fire. Like earlier Huin designs, Charles Martel had a very tall superstructure; she was equipped with two heavy military masts, with a tall flying deck between them. In service, the tall superstructure made her top-heavy, though her high freeboard made her very seaworthy. She normally had a crew of 651 officers and enlisted men, which increased to 751 when serving as a flagship. Charles Martel had two vertical, three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines manufactured by Schneider-Creusot; each engine drove a single three-bladed, screw using steam supplied by twenty-four Lagrafel d'Allest water-tube boilers at a maximum pressure of . The boilers were divided into four boiler rooms and were ducted into two funnels. Her engines were rated at , which was intended to give the ship a speed of normally and up to using forced draft. During her sea trials on 5 May 1897, Charles Martel reached a speed of from . The ship could carry a maximum of of coal, which gave her a range of at a speed of . Her 83-volt electrical power was provided by four 600-ampere dynamos. Armament Charles Martels main armament consisted of two 45-caliber Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1887 guns in two single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The hydraulically worked turrets had a range of elevation of -5° to +15°. They fired cast-iron projectiles at the rate of one round per minute. They had a muzzle velocity of which gave a range of at maximum elevation. The ship's intermediate armament consisted of a pair of 45-caliber Canon de Modèle 1887 guns in single-gun wing turrets amidships on each side and sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the ship's sides. Their turrets had the same range of elevation as the main battery. The guns had the same rate of fire and muzzle velocity as the larger guns, but their cast-iron shells only weighed and their maximum range was slightly less at . Her secondary armament consisted of eight 45-caliber Canon de Modèle 1888-91 guns