The Gustave Zédé class consisted of a pair of submarines, and , built for the French Navy just before World War I. Both boats were intended to use diesel engines, but those ordered for Gustave Zédé were cancelled and steam engines substituted while she was under construction.
Design and description The Gustave Zédé class was built as part of the French Navy's 1909 building programSmigielski, p. 210 to satisfy an ambitious requirement for a "high-seas" () submarine capable of a speed of on the surface. To reach this speed the sisters were to use a pair of two-cycle diesel engines. The engines for Gustave Zédé were to be a licensed design by MAN that was going to be built by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, but MAN declared that it could not provide blueprints for such powerful engines and the contract was cancelled. The navy decided to use instead readily available Delaunay-Belleville vertical triple-expansion steam engines in 1912. Néréide retained her diesels, which meant that the sisters' performance differed significantly.Roberts, pp. 447–448
The boats had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . Both displaced on the surface. Néréide displaced submerged while Gustave Zédé displaced underwater. The crew of both boats numbered 43 officers and crewmen.
Gustave Zédés three-cylinder steam engines each drove one propeller shaft and were designed to produce a total of using steam from two du Temple boilers, but could only produce . Néréides diesels were intended to produce a total of , but only produced half that. These shortfalls limited the sister to in service. When submerged each shaft was driven by a electric motor. The designed speed underwater was ; on their sea trials Gustave Zédé reached while Néréide made . The latter boat demonstrated a maximum surfaced range of at and a submerged endurance was at . Equivalent figures for Gustave Zédé were at and at .Roberts, pp. 448–449
The sisters were armed with a total of eight torpedoes, although they were distributed slightly differently. Gustave Zédé had two fixed internal torpedo tubes in the bow. The other six were located in external rotating torpedo launchers, three on each broadside that could traverse 160–165 degrees to the side of the boats. The boat was not initially fitted with a deck gun. Néréide shared the internal tubes, but substituted a pair of fixed tubes for the forward rotating mounts. She was equipped with a deck gun forward of the conning tower.Garier 2000, pp. 33, 41
Ships + Ships Ship Launched Completed (Q92) 20 May 1913 10 October 1914 (Q93) 9 May 1914 31 October 1916
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