French battleship Masséna

Masséna

Masséna
Class overview
Preceded by	Jauréguiberry
Succeeded by	Bouvet
History
France
Name	Masséna
Namesake	André Masséna
Laid down	September 1892
Launched	July 1895
Commissioned	June 1898
Fate	Scuttled 9 November 1915
General characteristics
Type	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement	11,735 tonnes (11,550 long tons)
Length	112.65 m (369 ft 7 in)
Beam	20.27 m (66 ft 6 in)
Draught	8.84 m (29 ft 0 in)
Propulsion	3 triple expansion engines
Speed	17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement	667
Armament	2 × 305 mm/45 (12 in) Modèle 1893 guns 2 × 274 mm/45 (10.8 in) Modèle 1893 guns 8 × 138 mm/45 (5.5 in) Modèle 1891 guns 8 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns 4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armour	Belt: 450 mm (18 in) Turrets: 400 mm (16 in) Conning tower: 350 mm (14 in)

Masséna was a

In 1889, the British

Masséna was 112.65 metres (369 ft 7 in) long

Masséna's main armament consisted of two Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893 guns in two single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. Each turret had an arc of fire of 250°.^[8] The placement of the forward gun turret close to the bow placed a great deal of weight too far forward. This exacerbated stability problems with the ship, and rendered accurate shooting more difficult.^[9] She also mounted two Canon de 274 mm Modèle 1893 guns in two single-gun turrets, one amidships on each side, sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the ship's sides.^[5] The 305 mm guns were an experimental 45 caliber version and had a muzzle velocity of 800 metres per second (2,625 ft/s), which produced a muzzle energy of 30,750 foot-tons and allowed the shells to penetrate up to 610 mm (24 in) of iron armour at a range of 1,800 m (2,000 yd). This was sufficiently powerful to allow Masséna's main guns to easily penetrate the armour of most contemporary battleships. The 274 mm guns, which were 45 calibers long, had a similar muzzle velocity, but being significantly smaller than the 305 mm guns, produced a muzzle energy of 22,750 foot-tons and 460 millimetres (18 in) of iron penetration.^[10][11]

Her secondary armament consisted of eight Canon de 138.6 mm Modèle 1891 guns, which were mounted in manually operated single turrets at the corners of the superstructure with 160° arcs of fire.^[8] For defence against torpedo boats, Masséna carried eight 100 mm (3.9 in) quick-firing guns, twelve 3-pounder quick-firers, and eight 1-pounder guns. Her armament suite was rounded out by four 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes, two of which were submerged in the ship's hull, the other two in trainable deck launchers.^[12]

The ship's armour was constructed with Harvey steel manufactured by Schneider-Creusot. The main belt was 250 to 450 mm (9.8 to 17.7 in) thick, and ran for a length of 110 m (360 ft) along the hull. The belt terminated some 10 m (33 ft) from the stern, where it was capped with a transverse bulkhead that was 250 mm (9.8 in). The belt was 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) wide. Above the belt was 101 mm (4.0 in) thick side armour. The bulkheads at either end of the armoured belt were 240 mm (9.4 in) thick. The main battery guns were protected with 350 to 400 mm (14 to 16 in) of armour, and the secondary turrets had 99 mm (3.9 in) thick sides. The main armoured deck was 69 mm (2.7 in) thick, and the splinter deck below it was 38 mm (1.5 in) thick. The conning tower had 350 mm (14 in) thick sides.^[6][12]

Service

Masséna was laid down at the

In 1900, four engineering officers were seriously injured while disassembling a pipe to repair it. They had disassembled it too quickly, and were severely scalded by escaping steam.

naval review in Cherbourg on 19 July for President Émile Loubet.^[17]

In 1903, the ship was transferred from the Northern Squadron to the Mediterranean, where she was assigned to the Division de réserve (Reserve Division) along with her four half-sisters and the old battleship Brennus.[18] On 18 August, the ship participated in a gunnery trial with the new battleship Suffren off Île Longue. A mild steel plate 55 centimetres (21.7 in) thick, measuring 225 by 95 centimetres (7 ft 5 in by 3 ft 1 in), was attached to the side of Suffren's forward turret to determine the resistance of an armour plate to a large-calibre shell. Masséna anchored 100 metres (330 ft) away from Suffren and fired a number of 305-millimetre (12 in) 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 Suffren's turret was fully operational, as was her Germain electrical fire-control system and the six sheep placed in the turret were unharmed. One splinter struck Masséna above her armour belt and left a 15-centimetre sized hole in her hull. Another 50-kilogram (110 lb) splinter landed within a few metres of the Naval Minister, Camille Pelletan, who was observing the trials.^[19]

During her period in the Reserve Division, Masséna was manned with a reduced crew that would be completed with

French Morocco and in the western Mediterranean. The exercises consisted of three phases and began on 2 July and concluded on 30 July.^[20] On 13 January 1908, she joined the battleships République, Patrie, Gaulois, Charlemagne, Saint Louis, and Jauréguiberry for a cruise in the Mediterranean, first to Golfe-Juan and then to Villefranche-sur-Mer, where the squadron stayed for a month. Masséna hosted President Armand Fallières during a major fleet review held off Toulon on 4 September 1911. On 16 October 1912, Masséna, Gaulois, Saint Louis, Carnot, Bouvet, and Jauréguiberry were activated for training duties as the 3rd Squadron of the Mediterranean Squadron; in July 1913, they were joined by Charlemagne. The squadron was dissolved on 11 November and Masséna returned to the reserve.^[21]

Early in 1914, the French

Gallipoli Peninsula late in 1915, and scuttled there on 9 November to form a breakwater to protect the evacuation effort that withdrew the Allied expeditionary force in January 1916.^[24]

Footnotes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Masséna (ship, 1895).

1. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 22–23.
2. ^ Ropp, p. 223.
3. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 25, 32.
4. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 32, 38–40.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Campbell, p. 294.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Jordan & Caresse, p. 32.
7. ^ Leather, p. 91–93.
8. ^ ^{a b} Gibbons, p. 140.
9. ^ Leather, p. 93.
10. ^ Cooper, p. 805.
11. ^ Friedman, p. 204.
12. ^ ^{a b} Leather, p. 91.
13. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 32, 217.
14. ^ Maw & Dredge, p. 514.
15. ^ "France", p. 412.
16. ^ "Casualties", p. 228.
17. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 217–218.
18. ^ ^{a b} Jordan & Caresse, p. 223.
19. ^ Caresse, pp. 13–15.
20. ^ Leyland, pp. 64–68.
21. ^ Jordan & Caresse, pp. 223, 225, 229, 233.
22. ^ Gill, p. 505.
23. ^ Haythornthwaite, pp. 8–10.
24. ^ Smigielski, p. 192.

References

• Campbell, N. J. M. (1979). "France". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 283–333.
  ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5
  .
• Caresse, Philippe (2023). "The Battleship Masséna". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2023. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 142–158.
  ISBN 978-1-4728-5713-2
  .
• Caresse, Philippe (2010). "The Drama of the Battleship Suffren". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2010. London: Conway. pp. 9–26.
  ISBN 978-1-84486-110-1
  .
• "Casualties". Notes on Naval Progress. Washington, DC: United States Office of Naval Intelligence: 228–229. July 1900.
• Cooper, George F., ed. (1898). "French Battleship "Massena"". Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. XXIV (4): 805.
• "France". Notes on Naval Progress. Washington, DC: United States Office of Naval Intelligence: 412–415. July 1901.
• ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7
  .
• Gibbons, Tony (1983). The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships: A Technical Directory of Capital Ships from 1860 to the Present Day. New York: Crescent Books.
  ISBN 978-0-517-37810-6
  .
• Gill, C. C. (1914). "Professional Notes". Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. 40: 475–618.
  ISSN 0041-798X
  .
• ISBN 978-0-275-98288-1
  .
• Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1
  .
• Leather, John (1976). World Warships in Review: 1860–1906. London: Redwood Burn Ltd.
  ISBN 978-0-356-08076-5
  .
• Leyland, John (1908). Brassey, Thomas A. (ed.). "Chapter IV: Foreign Naval Manoeuvres". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 64–82.
  OCLC 496786828
  .
• Maw, W. H. & Dredge, J., eds. (1898). Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal. LXVI. London: Offices for Advertisement and Publication. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6
  .
• Smigielski, Adam (1985). "France". In Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 190–220.
  ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8
  .