The Vauban class, sometimes referred to as the Duguesclin class, was a pair of two ironclad built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and 1880s. The class consisted of Vauban, the lead ship, and Duguesclin. They were based on the ironclad Amiral Duperré, adopting the same general arrangement, but were scaled down in size. They were intended for use overseas in the French colonial empire, and as such, they retained a sailing rig for long-range cruising and copper sheathing for their hulls to protect them when they would be unable to be dry-docked regularly. They carried a main battery of four 240 mm (9.4 in) guns that were mounted in individual barbettes; two were in sponsons forward, abreast of the conning tower, and the other two were on the centerline aft.