French cruiser Edgar Quinet
![]() Edgar Quinet in 1913
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History | |
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Name | Edgar Quinet |
Namesake | Edgar Quinet |
Builder | Lorient |
Laid down | November 1905 |
Launched | 21 September 1907 |
Commissioned | January 1911 |
Homeport | Toulon |
Fate | Wrecked, 4 January 1930 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Edgar Quinet-class cruiser |
Displacement | 13,847 long tons (14,069 t) |
Length | 158.9 m (521 ft) |
Beam | 21.51 m (70 ft 7 in) |
Draft | 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) |
Crew | 859–892 |
Armament |
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Armor |
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Edgar Quinet was an
At the outbreak of
Description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/50/Edgar_Quinet_class_cruiser_plan_and_profile.jpg/220px-Edgar_Quinet_class_cruiser_plan_and_profile.jpg)
The Edgar Quinet class were designed initially as sister ships of the preceding cruiser Ernest Renan, but instead of the mixed battery of 194 mm (7.6 in) and 165 mm (6.5 in) guns, the two ships were altered to carry a uniform battery of 194 mm weapons. Other minor changes were introduced during the design process, including some features of the latest French pre-dreadnought battleships, including a straight stem. The two Edgar Quinet-class cruisers proved to be the last major warships of the French fleet to rely on reciprocating machinery for their propulsion systems.[1]
Edgar Quinet was 158.9 meters (521 ft)
Edgar Quinet was armed with a
Service history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ae/Edgar_Quinet_being_launched.png/220px-Edgar_Quinet_being_launched.png)
Edgar Quinet was laid down at Brest in November 1905 and launched on 21 September 1907. She was completed in January 1911 and commissioned into the French fleet.[3][4] The ship was the most powerful armored cruiser completed by France, but she entered service two years after the British battlecruiser HMS Invincible, which rendered the armored cruiser obsolescent as a warship type.[5] In April 1912, she was assigned to the 1st Light Squadron, along with her sister ship Waldeck-Rousseau and the armored cruiser Ernest Renan.[6]
In 1913, Edgar Quinet participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the
World War I
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/French_cruiser_Edgar_Quinet.jpg/220px-French_cruiser_Edgar_Quinet.jpg)
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Edgar Quinet was anchored off Durazzo with the British cruiser HMS Defence and destroyer HMS Grampus and the German Breslau. The ships were moored there in a show of international support for a conference in Scutari over the status of Albania.[8] Edgar Quinet and the armored cruisers Ernest Renan and Jules Michelet were mobilized as the First Light Division and tasked with hunting down the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and her consort Breslau.[9] These ships, along with a flotilla of twelve destroyers, were to steam to Philippeville on 4 August, but the German cruisers had bombarded the port the previous day. This attack, coupled with reports that suggested the Germans would try to break out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, prompted the French high command to send Edgar Quinet and the First Light Division further west, to Algiers.[10]
After the German ships escaped to Constantinople, rather than attack the French troop transports from North Africa as had been expected, Edgar Quinet joined the rest of the French fleet in its blockade of the Adriatic Sea, based out of Navarino.[9] The fleet, commanded by Admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, had assembled by the night of 15 August; the following morning, it conducted a sweep into the Adriatic and encountered the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Zenta. In the ensuing Battle of Antivari, Zenta was sunk, with no losses on the French side. The French fleet then withdrew due to the threat of Austro-Hungarian U-boats in the area.[11]
By the beginning of 1916, the fleet's modern armored cruisers had been organized into two units, the 1st and 2nd Light Divisions; Edgar Quinet served as the flagship of the former, which also included Waldeck-Rousseau and Ernest Renan. Both divisions supported the main French battle fleet.[12] On 8 January, Edgar Quinet, Waldeck-Rousseau, Ernest Renan and Jules Ferry embarked a contingent of Chasseurs Alpins (mountain troops) to seize the Greek island of Corfu. The cruisers sent the troops ashore on the night of 10 January; the Greek officials on the island protested the move but offered no resistance.[13] At some point between 1917 and 1918, the ship had her mainmast removed to allow her to operate a kite balloon.[14]
Later career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/French_cruiser_Edgar_Quinet_80-G-416378.tiff/lossless-page1-220px-French_cruiser_Edgar_Quinet_80-G-416378.tiff.png)
Edgar Quinet continued her service in the eastern Mediterranean after the end of the war in November 1918. She was reduced to
After returning to service on 12 October 1928, the ship was assigned as a training ship for cadets from the
Footnotes
- ^ Dodson, p. 103.
- ^ a b Osborne, p. 192.
- ^ a b c Gardiner, p. 307.
- ^ Peltier, p. 235.
- ^ Osborne, p. 82.
- ^ Ingersoll, p. 1385.
- ^ Vego, pp. 151–152.
- ^ Corbett, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e Gardiner & Gray, p. 193.
- ^ Corbett, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Corbett, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Dodson, p. 129.
- ^ Lauzanne, pp. 121–122.
- ^ Dodson, p. 131.
- ^ Dodson, pp. 140, 197.
- ^ Dodson, p. 197.
- ^ Tucker, p. 72.
- ^ Dodson, p. 140.
- ^ Jordan & Moulin, p. 167.
- ^ Marriott, p. 123.
- ^ Jordan & Moulin, pp. 89, 167.
References
- OCLC 174823980.
- ISBN 978-1-4738-9216-3.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
- Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
- Ingersoll, R. E. (1898). "Organization of the Fleet for War". Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute. 39 (4). Annapolis: Naval Institute Press: 1379–1405.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2019). French Armoured Cruisers 1887–1932. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4118-9.
- Jordan, John & Moulin, Jean (2013). French Cruisers 1922–1956. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-133-5.
- Lauzanne, Stéphane (1918). Fighting France. Translated by John L. B. Williams. New York: D. Appleton & Co. OCLC 1172534.
- Marriott, Leo (2006). Catapult Aircraft: Seaplanes That Flew From Ships Without Flight Decks. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation. ISBN 184415419X.
- Osborne, Eric W. (2004). Cruisers and Battle Cruisers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1851093699.
- Peltier, J. G. (1908). "The French Armored Cruiser Edgar Quinet". International Marine Engineering. XIII. London: Marine Engineering: 235–236.
- Tucker, Spencer (2003). Who's Who in Twentieth Century Warfare. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415234972.
- Vego, Milan N. (1996). Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904–14. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780714642093.