French cruiser Jules Michelet
Jules Michelet at Tanjung Priok, Dutch East Indies, while serving as transport for the Governor-General of Indochina, 1929
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Class overview | |
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Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Léon Gambetta class |
Succeeded by | Ernest Renan |
History | |
Name | Jules Michelet |
Namesake | Jules Michelet |
Builder | Lorient |
Laid down | June 1904 |
Launched | 31 August 1905 |
Commissioned | November 1908 |
Fate | Sank as target 1937 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Armoured cruiser |
Displacement | 13,105 t (12,898 long tons) |
Length | 146.53 m (480 ft 9 in) overall |
Beam | 21.41 m (70 ft 3 in) |
Draught | 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in) |
Propulsion | 3 vertical triple expansion steam engines , 28 Guyot du Temple boilers, 30,000 ihp (22,371 kW) |
Speed | 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h; 25.9 mph) |
Capacity | 2,070 tonnes of coal |
Complement | 728 |
Armament |
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Armour |
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Jules Michelet was an
Description
Jules Michelet was
The main armament was four 194 mm (7.6 in) guns in twin turrets, one each fore and aft, while secondary armament was twelve 164 mm (6.5 in) guns, eight of which were in single turrets and the remaining four in casemates. Although Jules Michelet had four fewer 164 mm guns than the Leon Gambetta class, with single turrets instead of twin turrets, both the main and secondary guns were more powerful models than those carried in the earlier ships. A tertiary anti-torpedo-boat battery of twenty four 47 mm (1.9 in) guns was mounted in casemates. The ship's armament was completed by two submerged 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.[1]
History
The ship was launched in August 1905 and completed in November 1908,[1] reaching a speed of 22.9 knots (42.4 km/h; 26.4 mph) in trials.[2]
After entering service, Jules Michelet was assigned to the cruiser squadron of the
World War I
During the
After the German ships escaped to Constantinople, rather than attack the French troop transports from North Africa as had been expected, the French turned to address the next naval threat: the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea. Edgar Quinet joined the rest of the French fleet in its blockade of the Adriatic, based out of Navarino.[6] 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.[8]
Twelve of Jules Michelet's 47 mm guns were removed during the war, replaced by four anti-aircraft guns of similar size.
Later career
Jules Michelet went on a brief tour of
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e Gardiner, p. 306
- ^ Moore, p. 188
- ^ Earle, p. 1113
- ^ "Two Explosions on Warship Same Day" (PDF). The New York Times. 28 June 1912. p. 8.
- ^ "Explosions on French Warships", p. 5
- ^ a b c d e Gardiner & Gray, p. 193
- ^ Corbett, pp. 61–62
- ^ Corbett, pp. 88–89
- ^ Purnell's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Modern Weapons and Warfare, pp. 1643–1644.
- ^ The Times History of the War: Volume XXI 1920, p. 15.
- ^ Jordan & Moulin, p. 212
- ^ McMurtrie, p. 175
References
- Corbett, Julian Stafford (1920). Naval Operations: To The Battle of the Falklands, December 1914. Vol. I. London: Longmans, Green & Co. OCLC 873379826.
- Dai, Wei (September 2020). "A Discussion on French Armored Cruiser Identification: From the Gueydon Class to the Edgar Quinet Class". Warship International. LVII (3): 199–221. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Earle, Ralph, ed. (1912). "Professional Notes". Proceedings. Vol. 38, no. 1. Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. pp. 1106–1174.
- "Explosions on French Warships". The Colonist. LIV (13458). Nelson, New Zealand: 5. 2 July 1912.
- Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 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 0-87021-907-3.
- Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2019). French Armoured Cruisers 1887–1932. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4118-9.
- Jordan, John & Moulin, Jean (2013). French Cruisers 1922–1956. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-133-5.
- Purnell's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Modern Weapons and Warfare. London: Phoebus Pub. Co. 1978. OCLC 7668230.
- Moore, John (1990). Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. London: Studio. ISBN 1-85170-378-0.
- McMurtrie, Francis Edwin (1931). Jane's Fighting Ships 1931. Newton Abbot: Davis & Charles Reprints. ISBN 0-7153-5849-9.
- The Times History of the War: Vol. XXI. London, 1920.
External links