"Suffren", named after Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, was ordered on 21 April 1898 from the Arsenal de Brest. She was laid down on 5 January 1899 and launched on 25 July of the same year. Her fitting-out was delayed by the late delivery of fittings and armour. "Suffren" began her sea trials in November 1903, but was not commissioned until 3 February 1904. On 18 August 1903 she participated in a gunnery trial with the predreadnought off Île Longue. A mild-steel plate thick, measuring , was attached to the side of "Suffren"s forward turret to determine the resistance of an armour plate to a large-calibre shell with six sheep placed in the turret to simulate its crew. "Masséna" anchored away from "Suffren" and fired a number of 305-millimetre shells at the plate. The first three were training shells that knocked splinters off the armour plate. The last two shells, fired with full charges, cracked the plate, but "Suffren"s turret was fully operational, as was her Germain electrical fire-control system, and the sheep were unharmed. One splinter struck "Masséna" above her armour belt and left a 15-centimetre sized hole in her hull. Another splinter landed within a few metres of the Naval Minister, Camille Pelletan, who was observing the trials.