The French floating batteries were deployed in 1855 as a supplement to the wooden steam battle fleet in the Crimean War . The role of the battery was to assist unarmored mortar and gunboats bombarding shore fortifications . The French used three of their ironclad batteries ( Lave , Tonnante and Dévastation ) in 1855 against the defenses at the Battle of Kinburn on the Black Sea , where they were effective against Russian shore defences . They would later be used again during the Italian war in the Adriatic in 1859 . The British floating batteries Glatton and Meteor arrived too late to participate to the action at Kinburn . The British planned to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against the well @-@ fortified naval base at Kronstadt .