Gustave Zédé was the lead boat of her class of two submarines built for the French Navy during the 1910s, just before World War I. The boat was intended to use diesel engines, but they were cancelled she was under construction and steam engines were substituted.

Design and description The Gustave Zédé class was built as part of the French Navy's 1909 building programSmigielski, p. 211 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 navy placed an order for Gustave Zédés engines with Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire which were to be a license-built design by MAN, but MAN declared that it could not provide blueprints for such powerful engines and the contract was cancelled in 1912. The navy decided to use instead readily available Delaunay-Belleville vertical triple-expansion steam engines in 1912.Roberts, pp. 447–448

The boat had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . Gustave Zédé displaced on the surface and underwater. Her crew of 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 . This shortfall limited the boat to in service. When submerged each shaft was driven by a electric motor. The designed speed underwater was ; during her sea trials on 21 August 1913, Gustave Zédé reached from . She carried of fuel oil which gave her a surfaced range of at and a submerged endurance estimated at at .Roberts, p. 448

The sisters were armed with a total of eight torpedoes. 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.Garier 2000, p. 33

Construction and career Gustave Zédé was ordered on 14 February 1911 and was laid down at the Arsenal de Cherbourg on 7 August. She was launched on 20 May 1913 and commissioned on 10 October 1916.

Citations

Bibliography