Marengo was a wooden-hulled, Océan class, armored frigate, built for the French Navy in the mid to late 1860s.

Marengo participated in the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881 and was flagship of the Northern Squadron in 1891 when it made port visits in Britain and Russia.

[1] For the first time in a French ironclad three watertight iron bulkheads were fitted in the hull.

[2] The Océan-class ships had one horizontal return connecting rod compound steam engine driving a single propeller.

[2] On sea trials the engine produced 3,600 indicated horsepower (2,700 kW) and Marego reached 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph).

[3] The Océan-class ships were barque or barquentine-rigged with three masts and had a sail area around 2,000 square meters (22,000 sq ft).

[2] They fired a shell weighing about 500 g (1.1 lb) at a muzzle velocity of about 610 m/s (2,000 ft/s) to a range of about 3,200 meters (3,500 yd).

[5] The hull was not recessed to enable any of the guns on the battery deck to fire forward or aft.

However, the guns mounted in the barbettes sponsoned out over the sides of the hull did have some ability to fire fore and aft.