In 1862 another remarkable vessel called the _Magenta_ was added to the French fleet. She was iron-plated and carried eighty guns on two decks, and in addition had a raised forecastle with ports on either bow, through which guns could be fired. She also had an immense blunt ram which projected like a cone upon the bows of the vessel and extended from the forecastle almost to the fore-foot. She presented an attempt to combine some of the features of the _Monitor_ with the broadside ironclad, one American invention copied being the provision of a shot-proof tower just abaft the funnel for the accommodation and shelter of the officers during an engagement. She was barquentine rigged, and under sail and steam could get up a speed of about eight or nine knots. The _Marengo_, another wooden ship which was plated with 8-inch iron armour, was designed to carry twelve guns. She had a central battery extending to the upper deck, and above this at each corner of the battery was an open armour-plated turret. The turrets each carried a large pivot gun, mounted _en barbette_, this being one of the first vessels France possessed in which it was sought to combine the advantages of the turret system with those of the barbette. These guns could fire in line of keel, and there were also four heavy guns on each broadside. She was 280 feet long by 57 feet 6 inches beam, and 28 feet draught, and was intended to have a speed of twelve knots. Her rudder was on the balanced principle. The rigging was brought down inside the bulwarks, something after the fashion of some modern sailing ships, so as to present a clean side outside. All the French ships were broad for their length. The first large armour-plated ship to enter the Pacific was the Spanish screw steam frigate _Numancia_, constructed at La Seyne by the Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée. She was 317 feet in length by 57 feet 2 inches beam, and depth 37 feet, and her draught of water was 27 feet 6 inches, with a displacement of 7,303 tons, according to English measurement. She was built of iron throughout, and had 5 inches of armour-plate backed with 16 inches of teak from end to end of the ship, and from no less than 7 feet 9 inches below the water-line up to the level of the upper deck. Her armament was forty 68-pounders. She was built in less than two years, a piece of unusually quick work for a French yard, and was launched in 1864.