The Marceau class and France's return to capital-ship construction

Fleet treats Hoche as an improvised step toward restoring French capital-ship construction after the disruption associated with the Jeune École. Her three Marceau-class half-sisters offered a more mature design and a clearer sign of recovery. Clarke challenges that favorable comparison because their British contemporaries included the Royal Sovereign class. The Marceaus can therefore represent improvement within the French programme while remaining disadvantaged against contemporary foreign ships. Their design also retained the expectation that a battle would develop into a close, swirling melee, making them a late expression of that doctrine.