was a predreadnought battleship built for the (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed in 1902, the ship was assigned to the (Mediterranean Squadron) for most of her career and often served as a flagship. She had an eventful career as she twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break before the start of World War I in 1914. was assigned to join the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a series of attacks on the Ottoman fortifications guarding the straits.
She was moderately damaged during the fighting on 18 March 1915 and had to be sent to Toulon for repairs. Upon their completion the ship returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli Campaign. provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. After repairs the ship was assigned to the French squadron tasked to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front. While en route to Lorient for a refit, was torpedoed off Lisbon by an Imperial German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sank with all hands.
Design and description The three battleships of the that had been authorized in 1893 were still building when the Navy Minister, (Vice Admiral) Armand Besnard, was able to get the Chamber of Deputies to authorize the battleship in 1897 to an improved design. The Chamber authorized another battleship the following year and Besnard, not wishing to delay construction for the time required for an entirely new design, requested an enlarged and improved version of .Caresse, p. 10; Jordan & Caresse, p. 74
was intended to have only modest improvements in armament and armour, but the number of improvements grew as the project was discussed by the Conseil des travaux de la Marine (Board of Construction) so that she was essentially a new design, retaining only some of s layout. The biggest changes were that the bulk of the secondary armament was mounted in turrets, rather than s casemates, and the stowage of shells for the main armament was increased from 45 to 60 rounds per gun.Caresse, p. 10
General characteristics
was longer than , being long overall. She had a beam of and a draught of forward and aft. She displaced at normal displacement, and at full load, over more than the earlier ship. was fitted with bilge keels to reduce her rolling.Caresse, pp. 10–11, 16 Her crew numbered 31 officers and 637 men as a private ship and 42 officers and 700 sailors as a flagship.Jordan & Caresse, p. 75
Propulsion was powered by three Indret vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. The centre shaft drove a three-bladed screw propeller and the wing propellers were four-bladed; each was in diameter. The engines used steam provided by 24 Niclausse boilers at a working pressure of . Rated at a total of , the engines were intended to give the ship a speed of . During her sea trials on 12 November 1903, they produced and gave a top speed of . The ship carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of . carried of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to improve its burn rate. The ship's 80-volt electrical power was provided by two 600-ampere and three 1,200-ampere dynamos.Caresse, pp. 11–12; Jordan & Caresse, p. 84
Armament Like , carried her main armament of four 40-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893/96 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The turrets were traversed by electric motors, but were elevated and depressed by hand. The guns were loaded at an angle of −5° and they had a maximum elevation of +15°. They fired armour-piercing projectiles at the rate of roughly one round per minute. They had a muzzle velocity of which gave a range of at maximum elevation. carried 60 shells for each gun with each turret holding ready-use racks for 22 projectiles.Friedman, pp. 211–212; Jordan & Caresse, p. 68
The ship's secondary armament consisted of ten 45-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893/96 guns. Six of these were mounted in single-gun turrets on each side of the superstructure and the remaining four guns were positioned below them on the upper deck in individual casemates that were sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the sides. The guns fired shells at a muzzle velocity of to a maximum range of . Their theoretical rate of fire was between two and three rounds per minute. carried 200 shells for each gun. She also carried eight 45-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893 guns in shielded mounts on the shelter deck and on the superstructure. These guns fired a projectile at , which could be elevated up to +20° for a maximum range of . Their maximum rate of fire was four rounds per minute. The ship carried 2,000 shells for these guns.Friedman, pp. 221, 227; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 47, 76, 78–79
For defence against torpedo boats, mounted twenty-two 50-calibre Canon de Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns. They were positioned in the fighting tops and on the superstructure. They fired a projectile at to a maximum range of . Their theoretical maximum rate of fire was fifteen rounds per minute, but only seven rounds per minute sustained. carried 16,500 rounds for these guns. Two Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns were also mounted on the upper bridge.Friedman, pp. 120, 228; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 34, 75, 80
The ship was equipped with four torpedo tubes on the broadside. Two of these were submerged, abaft the forward turret, and fixed at a 30° angle to the side. The two above-water tubes could traverse 80°. Normally carried twelve Modèle 1892 torpedoes, of which four were training models.Caresse, pp. 12–13
Armour had a complete waterline armour belt of Harvey armour that had a maximum thickness of amidships and reduced to at the bow and at the stern. The lower edge of this belt was in thickness amidships and thinned to at the bow and at the stern. The armour plates were high of which was above the waterline and below it. Above this was a strake of special-steel armour that extended from the bow to the aft transverse bulkhead below the aft main-gun turret. In thickness it ranged from at the bow to amidships. This armour was backed by a highly subdivided cofferdam intended to reduce flooding from any penetrating hits as its compartments were filled by water-resistant "bricks" of dried Zostera seaweed (). The outer sides of the casemates were protected by special-steel plates 110 millimetres thick. The casemates were separated by an transverse bulkhead and a centreline bulkhead thick subdivided the casemates.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 81–83
The main turret armour was in thickness with a 50-millimetre roof and the barbettes were protected by of armour. The armour for the secondary turrets ranged from thick at the front to at the rear. The conning tower had walls thick and its communications tube was protected by of armour. The armoured deck consisted of mild-steel plates laid over two plates. The splinter deck beneath it comprised two layers of plates.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 82–84
Construction and career
Prewar , named after Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez,Silverstone, p. 112 was ordered on 21 April 1898 from the Arsenal de Brest. She was laid down on 5 January 1899Campbell, p. 296 and launched on 25 July of the same year. Her fitting-out was delayed by the late delivery of fittings and armour. 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 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. anchored away from 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 s turret was fully operational, as was her Germain electrical fire-control system, and the sheep were unharmed. One splinter struck 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.Caresse, pp. 13–15
When was commissioned in Brest, she was assigned to the shortly afterwards. After arriving in Toulon, she became the flagship of its commander, Palma Gourdon, on 24 February. Two months later she carried the President of France, Émile Loubet, on a state visit to Naples.Jordan & Caresse, p. 222 As time went by several defects were revealed in service, including the weakness of the underpowered capstan which was barely capable of raising the anchor in waters deep. Another problem was that the centre engine and its propeller shaft tended to overheat. Gourdon was relieved by Charles Touchard on 4 October 1905. During fleet exercises off the Îles des Hyères on 5 February 1906, accidentally rammed the submarine when the latter miscalculated the fleet's movements while manoeuvring into firing position. rose to periscope depth less than in front of , but the latter managed to turn quickly enough while the submarine was crash-diving that only struck a glancing blow. This was enough, however, to breach two compartments abreast the ship's starboard engine room and she had to be docked for emergency repairs. s bow was crushed and several of her ballast tanks were ripped open. Only by rapidly dropping her weighted keel was the submarine able to avoid sinking. No casualties were suffered by either vessel. During the summer of 1906 s above-water torpedo tubes were removed. She then participated in an international fleet review in Marseille on 16 September.Caresse, pp. 16, 19; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 223–224
She was drydocked adjacent to on 12 March 1907 at Toulon when the latter ship's magazine exploded. Burning fragments started a small fire aboard , but she was not otherwise damaged by the explosion and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres that began on 1 July. By 5 November, the ship had been replaced as flagship by the semi-dreadnought , although she remained assigned to the (1st Battle Division). In early 1908 a rangefinder from Barr and Stroud was mounted on the navigation bridge. was transferred to the in July. During manoeuvres off Golfe-Juan on 13 August, the ship's port propeller shaft broke and the propeller fell off in water deep. While a new shaft was ordered from Indret, s salvaged corresponding shaft was used with such success that the ship's engineers requested to keep it in place and save the new shaft as a spare. This proposal was rejected by the Naval Ministry and the shafts were exchanged. The opportunity was also taken to rework the centre propeller shaft's mounting so that it would overheat less often. In 1909 the battleships of the were reorganised into two (battle squadrons), each with a pair of three-ship divisions; the now assigned to the . , as the most modern of the predreadnoughts, was often attached to the to replace ships that were refitting or under repair. In November 1910 the starboard propeller shaft broke and the propeller was lost in deep water.Caresse, pp. 16–17 No shaft was immediately available so had to wait three months for repairs; her boilers were overhauled while a new one was manufactured. On 14 February 1911 the port anchor chain broke while was conducting towing exercises with two other battleships, killing one sailor and injuring two others. The ship participated in a naval review near Toulon on 4 September. The was renamed the (1st Naval Army) on 31 October as the concentrated its forces in the Mediterranean.Caresse, pp. 16–19; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 223, 225–229, 232