Pluviôse-class submarine

The Pluviôse-class submarines were a group of 18 submarines built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Before World War I, two were accidentally lost, but one of these was salvaged and put back into service. Four others were lost during the war and the survivors were stricken in 1919.

Design and description The Pluviôse class were built as part of the French Navy's 1905 building program to a double-hull design by Maxime Laubeuf.Smigielski, p. 209 The submarines displaced surfaced and submerged. They had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . differed from her sisters as she was built to test the hull shape planned for the following . She had an overall length of , a beam of and displaced on the surface and underwater. The submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 23 enlisted men.Garier 1998, pp. 51, 54, 56, 65

For surface running, the boats were powered by two triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by two Du Temple boilers. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor.Garier 1998, pp. 56–59 On the surface they were designed to reach a maximum speed of and underwater. The submarines had a surface endurance of at and a submerged endurance of at .Garier 1998, p. 67

The first six boats completed (, , , , and ) were armed with a single internal bow torpedo tube, but after an accident that lead to the sinking of in 1909, the tubes were removed from Pluviôse and Messidor. A ministerial order of 18 March 1910 added one to while she was still under construction, but the bow tubes were deleted from the rest of the class. All of the boats were fitted with six 450 mm external torpedo launchers; the pair firing forward were fixed outwards at an angle of seven degrees and the rear pair had an angle of five degrees. Following a ministerial order on 22 February 1910, the aft tubes were reversed so they too fired forward, but at an angle of eight degrees. The other launchers were a rotating pair of Drzewiecki drop collars in a single mount positioned on top of the hull at the stern. They could traverse 150 degrees to each side of the boat. The Pluviôse-class submarines carried eight torpedoes; those with bow tubes carried their reload in the torpedo compartment.Garier 1998, pp. 59–60

Ships in class + Pluviôse-class submarines Name Builder Laid downCouhat, p. 140 Launched CommissionedGarier 1998, pp. 49–50 Fate Q68 Arsenal de Toulon1906 30 October 19091 November 1910 Stricken, 12 November 1919 Q66 Arsenal de Rochefort 19 May 19091 February 1910 Stricken, 1 December 1919 Q76 14 October 190910 September 1910 Q54 Arsenal de Cherbourg 18 October 190816 June 1909 Sunk in collision with British armed boarding steamer , 2 August 1918 Q65 Arsenal de Rochefort 16 June 190822 February 1911 Torpedoed by Austro-Hungarian destroyers, 5 February 1915 Q58Arsenal de Cherbourg 13 November 190929 June 1910 Stricken, 12 November 1919 Q69 Arsenal de Toulon 17 March 191014 January 1911 Stricken, 1 December 1919 Q53 Arsenal de Cherbourg 7 December 190730 December 1908 Q77 Arsenal de Rochefort 10 February 191013 October 1910 Q56 Arsenal de Cherbourg 24 December 190830 November 1909 Stricken, 12 November 1919 Q67 Arsenal de Toulon 31 December 19082 August 1910 Rammed by Austro-Hungarian scout cruiser , 29 December 1915 Q64 Arsenal de Rochefort 4 January 19081 September 1909 Unknown Q51 Arsenal de Cherbourg 27 May 19075 October 1908 Sunk in collision, 26 May 1910. Raised and repaired. Stricken, 12 November 1919 Q55 26 September 1908 16 June 1909 Sunk in collision with , 29 April 1918 Q57 3 July 190913 July 1910 Stricken, 12 November 1919 Q59 7 July 19104 February 1911 Sunk in collision with , 8 June 1912 Q52 15 September 19075 October 1908 Stricken, 1 December 1919 Q75 Arsenal de Rochefort 18 June 190915 March 1910

Service The Pluviôse class were acknowledged to be good sea boats and saw action throughout the First World War on patrol and close blockade duty. Of the eighteen built, five were lost. One () was accidentally lost prior to the war, in 1912. Two others, Floréal and , were lost accidentally during the conflict, while and were lost in action.

Pluviôse-class submarine

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