Amiral Charner-class cruiser

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Amiral Charner at anchor, c. 1897
Class overview
NameAmiral Charner
Operators French Navy
Preceded byDupuy de Lôme
Succeeded byPothuau
Built1894–96
In commission1895–1919
Completed4
Lost2
Scrapped2
General characteristics
Type
Armoured cruiser
Displacement4,748 t (4,673 long tons)
Length110.2 m (361 ft 7 in)
Beam14.04 m (46 ft 1 in)
Draught6.06 m (19 ft 11 in)
Installed power
  • 16 ×
    Belleville boilers
  • 8,300–9,000 
    kW
    )
Propulsion2 screws; 2 × triple-expansion steam engines
Speed17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Range4,000 nmi (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement16 officers and 378 enlisted men
Armament
Armour

The Amiral Charner class was a group of four

International Squadron off the island of Crete during the 1897–1898 uprising there and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 to protect French interests and citizens. With several exceptions the sister ships spent most of the first decade of the 20th century serving as training ships or in reserve. Bruix aided survivors of the devastating eruption of Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique in 1902. Chanzy was transferred to French Indochina in 1906 and ran aground off the Chinese coast in mid-1907. She proved impossible to refloat
and was destroyed in place.

The three survivors escorted troop convoys from

Bolsheviks. She returned home in 1919 and was sold for scrap
in 1921. Latouche-Tréville followed her to the breakers five years later.

Design and description

Brassey's Naval Annual
1902

The Amiral Charner-class ships were designed to be smaller and cheaper than the preceding armored cruiser design, the Dupuy de Lôme. Like the older ship, they were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the Jeune École.[1]

The ships measured 106.12 metres (348 ft 2 in)

military masts replaced by lighter pole masts between 1910 and 1914.[2]

The Amiral Charner-class ships had two horizontal

forced draught. The engines in Bruix were more powerful than those of her sister ships and were rated at 9,000 metric horsepower (6,600 kW). The ships had a designed speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), but during sea trials they failed to meet their specified speed, only reaching maximum speeds of 18.16 to 18.4 knots (33.63 to 34.08 km/h; 20.90 to 21.17 mph) from 8,276 to 9,107 metric horsepower (6,087 to 6,698 kW). They carried up to 535 tonnes (527 long tons) of coal and could steam for 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[3]

Armament

The ships of the Amiral Charner class had a main armament that consisted of two 45-calibre Canon de 194 mm Modèle 1887 guns that were mounted in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The turrets were hydraulically operated in all ships except on Latouche-Tréville, whose turrets were electrically powered.[4] The guns fired 75–90.3-kilogram (165–199 lb) shells at muzzle velocities ranging from 770 to 800 metres per second (2,500 to 2,600 ft/s).[5]

Their secondary armament comprised six 45-calibre Canon de 138.6 mm Modèle 1887 guns, each in single gun turrets on each broadside.[6] Their 30–35-kilogram (66–77 lb) shells were fired at muzzle velocities of 730 to 770 metres per second (2,400 to 2,500 ft/s).[7] For close-range anti-torpedo boat defense, they carried four quick-firing (QF) 65-millimetre (2.6 in) guns, four QF 47-millimetre (1.9 in) and eight QF 37-millimetre (1.5 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with four 450-millimetre (17.7 in) pivoting torpedo tubes; two mounted on each broadside above water.[6]

Protection

The side of the Amiral Charner class was generally protected by 92 millimetres (3.6 in) of steel armor, from 1.3 metres (4 ft 3 in) below the

mild steel had a thickness of 40 millimetres (1.6 in) along its centerline that increased to 50 millimetres (2.0 in) at its outer edges. Protecting the boiler rooms, engine rooms, and magazines below it was a thin splinter deck. A watertight internal cofferdam, filled with cellulose, ran the length of the ship from the protective deck[8] to a height of 1.2 metres (4 ft) above the waterline.[9] Below the protective deck the ship was divided by 13 watertight transverse bulkheads with five more above it. The ship's conning tower and turrets were protected by 92 millimeters of armor.[8]

Ships

Construction data
Name Builder[9]
Laid down
Launched
 Commissioned Fate
Amiral Charner
Arsenal de Rochefort
 15 June 1889[10] 18 March 1893[10] 26 August 1895[10] Sunk by U-21, 8 February 1916[9]
Bruix 9 November 1891[11] 2 August 1894[11] 1 December 1896[11] Sold for scrap, 21 June 1921[12]
Chanzy Chantiers et Ateliers de la Gironde, Bordeaux January 1890[13] 24 January 1894[13] 20 July 1895[13] Wrecked, 30 May 1907[9]
Latouche-Tréville
Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, Granville
 26 April 1890[14] 5 November 1892[14] 6 May 1895[14] Sold for scrap, 1926[15]

Service

drydock at Brest
, before 1914

Amiral Charner spent most of her career in the Mediterranean, although she was sent to China during the

International Squadron off the island of Crete during the 1897-1898 upring there and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 to protect French interests and citizens. With the exception of Bruix, the sisters spent most of the first decade of the 20th century as training ships or in reserve. Bruix served in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, and in the Far East before World War I. In 1902 she aided survivors of the devastating eruption of Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique and spent several years as guardship at Crete, protecting French interests in the region in the early 1910s. Chanzy was transferred to French Indochina in 1906. She ran aground off the Chinese coast in mid-1907, where she proved impossible to refloat and was destroyed in place after her crew was rescued without loss.[16]

Bruix in coastal waters, before 1914

The surviving ships escorted troop convoys from

Allied operations in the Dardanelles in early 1915 before she began patrolling the Aegean Sea and Greek territorial waters.[17]

Latouche-Tréville became a training ship in late 1917 and was decommissioned in 1919. Bruix was decommissioned in Greece at the beginning of 1918 and recommissioned after the end of the war in November for service in the Black Sea against the Bolsheviks. She returned home later in 1919 and was reduced to reserve before she was sold for scrap in 1921. Latouche-Tréville was stricken from the

navy list in 1920 and was sold for scrap in 1926.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Feron, pp. 8–9
  2. ^ Feron, pp. 10, 15, 17
  3. ^ Feron, pp. 15, 17, 19, 25
  4. ^ Feron, pp. 14–15
  5. ^ Friedman, p. 218
  6. ^ a b Feron, pp. 11, 15
  7. ^ Friedman, p. 223
  8. ^ a b Feron, pp. 12, 15
  9. ^ a b c d Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 304
  10. ^ a b c Feron, p. 17
  11. ^ a b c Silverstone, p. 92
  12. ^ Feron, p. 28
  13. ^ a b c Feron, p. 23
  14. ^ a b c Feron, p. 19
  15. ^ Feron, p. 22
  16. ^ Feron, pp. 18, 20–21, 24–25, 27
  17. ^ Feron, pp. 19, 21–22, 28
  18. ^ Feron, pp. 22, 28

Bibliography

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