The Couronne was built as an ironclad of Gloire type, though she was made entirely in iron rather than iron plaques fixed on a wooden hull. When built, she was the only all-iron ship in the French navy. In 1864, Couronne took an incidental role in the Battle of Cherbourg, leading CSS Alabama off French territorial waters to her fight with USS Kearsarge. In 1908, she was replaced in her role as gunnery school, and converted to a floating barracks, until she was scrapped in 1932.