The French navy built the first ironclad to try to gain a strategic advantage over the British , but were consistently out @-@ built by the British . Despite taking the lead with a number of innovations like breech @-@ loading weapons and steel construction , the French navy could never match the size of the Royal Navy . In the 1870s , the construction of ironclads ceased for a while in France as the Jeune Ecole school of naval thought took prominence , suggesting that torpedo boats and unarmored cruisers would be the future of warships . Like the British , the French navy saw little action with its ironclads ; the French blockade of Germany in the Franco @-@ Prussian War was ineffective , as the war was settled entirely on land .