French battleship Charlemagne
Charlemagne at anchor
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History | |
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France | |
Name | Charlemagne |
Namesake | Charlemagne |
Ordered | 30 September 1893 |
Builder | Arsenal de Brest |
Laid down | 2 August 1894 |
Launched | 17 October 1895 |
Completed | 12 September 1897 |
Commissioned | 12 September 1899 |
Decommissioned | 1 November 1917 |
Stricken | 21 June 1920 |
Fate | Sold for scrap, 1923 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Charlemagne-class battleship |
Displacement | 11,415 t (11,235 long tons) (normal load) |
Length | 117.7 m (386 ft 2 in) |
Beam | 20.3 m (66 ft 7 in) |
Draught | 8.4 m (27 ft 7 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 3 shafts, 3 triple-expansion steam engines |
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Range | 4,000 miles (3,480 nmi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
Complement | 692 |
Armament |
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Armour |
Charlemagne was a
When
Design and description
The Charlemagne-class ships were authorized in the 1892 Naval Program as smaller versions of the preceding
The Charlemagnes carried their
The Charlemagne-class ships had a complete
Construction and career
In October 1901, the 1st Battleship Division (1re Division cuirassée), comprising Charlemagne and her sisters Gaulois and
On 24 February 1904, Charlemagne was transferred to the 2nd Battle Division. She was one of the ships that escorted President Loubet during his state visit to Italy in April and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvers later that summer. While ammunition was being transferred on 30 December 1904, an explosion occurred in a 305 mm magazine, but Charlemagne suffered neither casualties nor damage from the incident as the magazine was quickly flooded.[16] Together with the destroyer Dard, the ship was the French contribution to an international squadron that briefly occupied Mytilene in November–December 1905 and participated in a naval review by President Armand Fallières in September of the following year.[17] Charlemagne, Saint Louis, and the predreadnought battleship Suffren were deployed to Morocco on 30 November to reduce tensions between the European powers vying to assume control over that country. Their presence was effective and they returned to Toulon before the end of the year. She engaged in the summer naval manoeuvres in 1907 and 1908 and was transferred to the 4th Battle Division with her sisters when that unit was formed in July 1908.[18][19]
The 4th Division had been reassigned to the newly formed 2nd Battle Squadron (Escadre de ligne) by 5 January 1909. The Mediterranean and Northern Squadrons were redesignated as the 1st and 2nd Squadrons respectively on 5 October 1909. The division spent Christmas at
World War I
Charlemagne was not initially combat ready and arrived at Bizerte on 19 August and was joined there by Saint Louis and Suffren three days later. They were tasked with patrolling merchant traffic between Tunis and Sicily to prevent
On 18 March, Charlemagne, together with Bouvet, Suffren, and Gaulois, was tasked to penetrate deep into the Dardanelles after six British battleships suppressed the defending Ottoman fortifications and attack those same fortifications at close range. After the French ships were ordered to be relieved by six other British battleships,[24] Bouvet struck a mine and sank almost instantly while Gaulois was hit twice, one of which opened a large hole in her hull that began to flood the ship. Charlemagne escorted Gaulois to the Rabbit Islands, north of Tenedos, where the latter ship could be beached for temporary repairs.[25] Together with two British predreadnought battleships and the Russian protected cruiser Askold, Charlemagne bombarded Ottoman fortifications defending the Gulf of Saros on 26 March. The battleship arrived at Bizerte on 3 April to begin a badly needed refit that included repairs to her rudder.[26] The same day that Charlemagne returned to the Dardanelles, the Dardanelles Division was redesignated as the Dardanelles Squadron (Escadre des Dardanelles) on 14 May and the battleships were assigned to the 3rd Battleship Division shortly afterwards.[27] Together with the British predreadnought battleship HMS Agamemnon, she bombarded Ottoman positions during the Third attack on Anzac Cove on 19–22 May. Charlemagne was slightly damaged when her armour belt was dented when she was struck by a shell on 25 May. The ship bombarded Ottoman fortifications at Achi Baba on 30 May without noticeable effect and Kumkale on 5–6 June. During the Landing at Suvla Bay, Charlemagne bombarded Ottoman positions on 5–6 August.[28]
The ship was transferred to
The ship was decommissioned on 1 November 1917 and was stricken from the naval register on 14 March 1918 with the proviso that her propulsion plant was required to remain operational. Charlemagne was condemned on 21 June 1920 and turned over as part payment to the company that was scrapping the wreck of the predreadnought Liberté. They sold her to an Italian company that demolished her in Savona, Italy.[32]
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 41–42
- ^ Roberts, p. 202
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 46
- ^ Gille, p. 98
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 45, 50, 54–55
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 46, 58–60
- ^ a b c Silverstone, p. 92
- ^ Roberts, p. 203
- ^ Bulletin des lois de la République Française (in French). Impr. Nat. des Lois. 1895. p. 870.
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 44, 218
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 219–220
- ^ a b c Gille, p. 96
- ^ Caresse, p. 121
- ^ Caresse, p. 122
- ^ a b Jordan & Caresse, pp. 221–222
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 222–223
- ^ Lange-Akhund, p. 299
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 223–225
- ^ a b Gille, p. 97
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 226–229, 232
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 253
- ^ Prévoteaux, p. 64
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 261, 263
- ^ Corbett, pp. 160, 214, 218
- ^ Caresse, pp. 129–130
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 267
- ^ Prévoteaux, p. 150
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 267–268
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, p. 268
- ^ Le Chuiton, p. 56
- ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 246, 279, 281
- ^ Roberts, p. 204
Bibliography
- Caresse, Philippe (2012). "The Battleship Gaulois". In John, Jordan (ed.). Warship 2012. London: Conway. ISBN 978-1-84486-156-9.
- ISBN 978-1-870423-74-8.
- Gille, Eric (1999). Cent ans de cuirassés français [A Century of French Battleships] (in French). Nantes: Marines édition. ISBN 2-909-675-50-5.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
- Lange-Akhund, Nadine (1998). The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources. East European Monographs. Vol. CDLXXXVI. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-383-2.
- Le Chuiton (1925). La division navale des bases du corps expeditionnaire d'Orient et de l'Armée d'Orient : 25 août 1915-3 mars 1916 (in French). Ecole de Guerre Navale.
- Prévoteaux, Gérard (2017). La marine française dans la Grande guerre: les combattants oubliés: Tome I 1914–1915 [The French Navy during the Great War: The Forgotten Combatants, Book I 1914–1915]. Collection Navires & Histoire des Marines du Mond (in French). Vol. 23. Le Vigen, France: Éditions Lela presse. ISBN 978-2-37468-000-2.
- Roberts, Stephen S. (2021). French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4533-0.
- Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.