 An earlier vessel , also named Charles Martel , was laid down in 1884 and cancelled under the tenure of Admiral Théophile Aube . The vessel , along with a sister ship named Brennus , was a modified version of the Marceau @-@ class ironclad battleships . After Aube 's retirement , the plans for the ships were entirely redesigned , though the later pair of ships are sometimes conflated with the earlier , cancelled designs . This may be due to the fact that both of the ships named Brennus were built in the same shipyard , and material assembled for the first vessel was used in the construction of the second . The two pairs of ships were , nevertheless , distinct vessels . 
