It was carried by a number of ships built during the 1890s including the Charlemagne-class pre-dreadnought battleships.

In the battleships it was installed in armored casemates, using central pivot mounts, but no details are available.

The conversion entailed mounting the gun carriage on a simple flatbed rail wagon built from steel I beams and timbers with five variable gauge axles that allowed the guns to transition from standard gauge 144 cm (56.5 in) to narrow gauge 61 cm (24 in) allowing the guns to be brought closer to the front.

When the gun fired the hydraulic buffers slowed the recoil of the cradle which slid up a set of inclined rails on the firing platform and then returned the gun to battery by the combined action of the buffers and gravity.

Elevation was largely the same but there was no traverse so in order to aim the gun had to be drawn across a section of curved track or placed on a turntable.