Archimède was one of four experimental submarines ordered for the French Navy in 1906. Each boat was built to a different design and Archimède was optimized to maximize speed and range.
Background and description The Board of Construction () intended to order 20 submarines for the 1906 naval program, including two large long-range experimental boats. The board was preempted by Navy Minister () Gaston Thomson who opened a competition for submarines that were faster on the surface and with longer range than the preceding on 6 February 1906. Surfaced requirements were for a maximum speed of , a range of without using an auxiliary fuel tank, and a range of with the extra fuel. Submerged, the boats had to have a maximum speed of and a range of at . Four designs were submitted, including one by naval constructor Julien Eugène Hutter using an Pluviôse-type hull enlarged and optimized to meet the speed and range requirements, all of which were authorized by the board, along with 16 s.Roberts, p. 442
Archimède displaced surfaced and submerged, almost half again more than the Pluviôse-class boats. She had an overall length of , a beam of , and a maximum draft of .Roberts, p. 443 The boat had a depth of from the bottom of her keel to the top of the conning tower and a metacentric height of when surfaced. Like most French submarines of this period, Archimède was fitted with a prominent "walking deck" above her single hull to facilitate operations on the surface.Garier 1998, p. 156
The submarine's hull was divided into nine watertight compartments. The boat had two rudders at her stern, one below the waterline and the other above. She had three sets of diving planes, fore, aft, and amidships, to control her depth below the water. The hull was fitted with 20 external ballast tanks and 4 internal tanks, 3 of which could be used as auxiliary tanks for fuel oil. Normally, Archimède had a capacity of of oil, plus an additional that could be stored in the ballast tanks.Garier 1998, pp. 162, 164
On the surface, the boat was powered by a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one three-bladed propeller using steam provided by two Guyot du Temple boilers that had a working pressure of . The engines were designed to develop a total of and a maximum speed of 15 knots. Submerged, each propeller was driven by a Breguet electric motor using electricity from four 62-cell batteries. During her sea trials Archimède briefly reached a speed of on the surface, but had a sustained speed of . The boat demonstrated a range of at , but using her full fuel capacity increased the distance to Underwater, she could sustain a speed of and had a range of at 5 knots.Garier 1998, p. 170
Internally, Archimède was armed with a single torpedo tube in the bow. Externally, the boat was equipped with two single rotating Drzewiecki drop collars below the "walking deck" aft of the conning tower, two fixed launching frames abreast the conning tower, aimed 10° off the centerline, and another pair forward of conning tower aimed 6° outwards. The submarine was equipped with Modèle 1906 torpedoes. These had a warhead and a range of at a speed of .Friedman, p. 345
Construction, trials and subsequent history Archimède was ordered on 31 December 1906 as part of the 1906 competition from the Cherbourg Naval Base (). She was laid down on 2 January 1908 and was launched on 4 August 1909. While exiting the harbor on 24 December, the boat accidentally struck the a glancing blow while turning. Neither ship was damaged.Garier 1998, p. 171 Engineering problems delayed Archimèdes commissioning until September 1911 when she was assigned to the Cherbourg defensive group of submarines. Early the following year, the boat was transferred to the 1st Submarine Flotilla () of the Light Squadron () when those units were formed. On 10 June 1912, the submarine was transferred to the Third Squadron at Brest for offensive missions.
When the First World War began in August 1914, Archimède was assigned to the 3rd Submarine Flotilla of the 2nd Light Squadron at CherbourgCouhat, p. 288 which had the mission of closing the English Channel to German ships and protecting Entente ships in cooperation with the Royal Navy.Stanglini & Cosentino, p. 289 Archimède and the submarine were ordered to Calais on 24 September and placed under British command in preparation for operations in the North Sea. Archimède was transferred to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla on 19 October. At the end of the following month the boat was sent to Harwich, England, and placed under the command of Commodore Roger Keyes. After the British discovered that the German High Seas Fleet had sortied into the North Sea late on 14 December, Keyes ordered eight of his submarines, including Archimède, to set up a patrol line north of the neutral Dutch island of Terschelling no later than the morning of 16 December to defend against any German attempt to enter the English Channel. Archimède was paired with the British submarine and they were stationed at the northern end of the patrol line. If no German ships were spotted, Archimède was to station itself between Heligoland island and the lightship at the mouth of the Weser River and remain on station until the night of the 18th.Garier 2002, pp. 24, 27–28, 31–34
See also List of submarines of France
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