Steam power Ship of the line

le napoléon (1850), first steam battleship

the french navy, however, developed first purpose-built steam battleship 90-gun le napoléon in 1850. considered first true steam battleship, , first screw battleship ever. napoleon armed conventional ship of line, steam engines give speed of 12 knots (22 km/h), regardless of wind conditions—a potentially decisive advantage in naval engagement.

eight sister ships le napoléon built in france on period of ten years, united kingdom took lead in production, in number of both purpose-built , converted units. altogether, france built 10 new wooden steam battleships , converted 28 older battleship units, while united kingdom built 18 , converted 41.

in end, france , britain 2 countries develop fleets of wooden steam screw battleships, although several other navies made use of mixture of screw battleships , paddle-steamer frigates. these included russia, turkey, sweden, naples, prussia, denmark, , austria.