French ironclad Requin

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For other ships with the same name, see French ship Requin.

Requin in Britain in 1892
History
France
NameRequin
Laid down15 November 1878
Launched13 June 1885
Commissioned1 December 1888
Decommissioned1 August 1919
Stricken21 June 1920
FateBroken up, 1921
General characteristics
Class and type
ironclad
Displacement7,767.2 t (7,644.5 long tons; 8,561.9 short tons)
Length88.25 m (289 ft 6 in)
loa
Beam17.78 m (58 ft 4 in)
Draft7.74 m (25 ft 5 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed14.5 to 15 kn (26.9 to 27.8 km/h; 16.7 to 17.3 mph)
Range1,678 nmi (3,108 km; 1,931 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement373
Armament
  • 2 × 420 mm (17 in) guns
  • 4 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
  • 2 × 65 mm (2.6 in) guns
  • 2 × 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns
  • 1 × 47 mm
    Hotchkiss revolver cannon
  • 10 × 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon
  • 4 × 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes
Armor
General characteristics (as modernized)
Installed power
  • 12 ×
    Niclausse boilers
  • 6,130 ihp (4,570 kW)
Complement332
Armament

Requin was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and early 1880s. She was last member of the four-ship Terrible class. They were built as part of a fleet plan started in 1872, which by the late 1870s had been directed against a strengthening Italian fleet. The ships were intended for coastal operations, and as such had a shallow draft and a low freeboard, which greatly hampered their seakeeping and thus reduced their ability to be usefully employed outside of coastal operations after entering service. Armament consisted of a pair of 420 mm (16.5 in) guns in individual barbettes, the largest-caliber gun ever mounted on a French capital ship. Requin was laid down in 1878 and was completed in 1887.

Unlike her

Ottoman Palestine in 1917. She was briefly used as a training ship after the war, before being broken up
in 1921.

Design

Main article: Terrible-class ironclad

The Terrible class of barbette ships was designed in the late 1870s as part of a naval construction program that began under the post-Franco-Prussian War fleet plan of 1872. By 1877, the Italian fleet under Benedetto Brin had begun building powerful new ironclads of the Duilio and Italia classes, which demanded a French response, beginning with the ironclad Amiral Duperré of 1877. In addition, the oldest generation of French ironclads, built in the early-to-mid 1860s, were in poor condition and necessitated replacement. The Terrible class was intended to replace old monitors that had been built for coastal defense. The Terribles were based on the Amiral Baudin-class ironclads, but were reduced in size to allow them to operate in shallower waters.[1]

After entering service, the Terrible-class ships were found to have very poor

coastal-defense type ironclads built during that period. The ships frequently alternated between the Mediterranean Squadron and the Northern Squadron, the latter stationed in the English Channel, but neither location suited their poor handling.[2]

Characteristics

Sketch showing the side and top views of the class

Terrible was 88.25 m (289 ft 6 in)

spotting tops for her main battery guns. The ship's crew consisted of 373 officers and enlisted men.[3][4]

Her propulsion machinery consisted of two

kW) for a top speed of 14.5 to 15 knots (26.9 to 27.8 km/h; 16.7 to 17.3 mph). The ship had a storage capacity of 394 t (388 long tons; 434 short tons) of coal, which allowed her to steam for 1,678 nautical miles (3,108 km; 1,931 mi) at a speed of about 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph).[3][5]

Her main armament consisted of two 420 mm (17 in) 22-

Hotchkiss revolver cannon, and ten 37 mm (1.5 in) revolver cannon, all in individual mounts. Her armament was rounded out with four 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes in the hull above the waterline, two tubes per side.[3][5]

The ship was protected with

amidships, where it protected the ship's propulsion machinery spaces and ammunition magazines. On either end of the central portion, the belt was reduced to 300 mm (11.8 in), and it extended for the entire length of the hull. At even normal loading, the belt was nearly submerged entirely, reducing its effectiveness significantly. Her armor deck was 80 mm (3.1 in) layered on 16 mm (0.63 in) of hull plating, and it curved downward at the sides. The barbettes for the main battery were 450 mm (18 in) thick, layered on top of 30 mm (1.2 in) hull plating, and the tubular supports connecting them to the ammunition magazines were 200 mm (7.9 in). They were fitted with 17 mm (0.7 in) hoods to protect the gun crews from shell fragments. Her conning tower armor was 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, as were the shields for the 100 mm guns.[3][5]

Modifications

Requin was extensively modernized between 1898 and 1892, having her armament and propulsion system completely replaced. Her old 420 mm guns were replaced with a pair of

Niclausse boilers, which were the water-tube type. Coal storage was increased to 480 t (470 long tons; 530 short tons). Her new propulsion system produced 6,130 ihp (4,570 kW).[7] The heavy compound armor for the main battery barbettes was replaced with 254 mm (10 in) of new, stronger Harvey armor. As a result of these changes, her crew was reduced to 332 officers and men.[3][8]

Service history

Requin in Britain in 1891

The

sea trials on 1 December 1888, and her official acceptance trials were carried out between March and May 1889. She was pronounced complete in June, and on 9 July, she was placed in the 2nd category of reserve.[9]

Requin was commissioned for her first period of active service on 1 March 1890 and was assigned to the Northern Squadron.[9] During the fleet maneuvers later that year, Requin served in the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. At the time, the division also included the ironclads Marengo and Furieux, the former serving as the squadron flagship for Vice Admiral Charles Duperré. The ships concentrated off Oran, French Algeria on 22 June and then proceeded to Brest, arriving there on 2 July for combined operations with the ships of the Northern Squadron. The exercises began four days later and concluded on 25 July, after which Requin and the rest of the Mediterranean Fleet returned to Toulon.[10] Requin then returned to the Northern Squadron, where she remained for the next five years.[9]

In 1891, a French squadron that included Requin and the ironclads Marengo, Marceau, and Furieux, under the command of Admiral Alfred Gervais was sent to visit Kronstadt, Russia. The voyage, which began on 19 June, was to mark the signing of the Franco-Russian Alliance, which was to occur on 27 August. On the way, the ships visited a number of foreign ports, including Bergen and Larvik, Norway, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Stockholm, Sweden, before arriving in Kronstadt on 23 July. On the voyage back, which began on 4 August, the ships stopped in Finland and Norway before calling in Portsmouth, where Queen Victoria reviewed the ships. They reached Cherbourg on 27 August.[11][12] During a voyage from Saint-Malo to Brest in 1892, Requin took on significant amounts of water, demonstrating the poor seakeeping of her class; an estimated 15 to 20 long tons (15 to 20 t) of water flooded her forward barbette, and her battery deck was thoroughly washed out. That year, she served as the flagship of the Northern Squadron, which at that time also included Furieux on active duty, with another three ironclads in reserve.[13] In 1893, Requin participated in the fleet's maneuvers in the English Channel, serving in Squadron B, along with the ironclads Suffren and Fulminant.[14] She remained in the unit the following year, which was kept in commission for four months of the year. By that time, the unit consisted of Requin, Suffren, Furieux, and the ironclad Victorieuse.[15]

Requin was relieved by the coastal defense ship Valmy on 39 July 1895, and she was reduced to the 2nd category of reserve at Cherbourg on 8 August, where she was to undergo repairs. The decision was then made to embark on a major reconstruction of the ship, and she was decommissioned on 22 October 1897 for work to begin.[9] Her armament was revised with new main and secondary guns and all of her torpedo tubes were removed. She also received new boilers and engines during the reconstruction.[3][16][17] Requin was recommissioned for sea trials on 19 October 1901, decommissioned at some point thereafter, and recommissioned for service on 22 April 1902. She briefly went to Toulon on 18 May,[9] before resuming her assignment to the Northern Squadron later that year, where she was based in Cherbourg with the gunboat Styx as harbor guard ships.[18] She remained in reserve status there for the next several years.[9]

In 1906, she was attached to the Reserve Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet for the annual maneuvers, along with her

French Tunisia on 15 October. In January 1914, she was re-designated as a coastal defense ship and work began to restore her to active service.[9]

World War I

Line-drawing of the Terrible class after refit

On 8 October 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, Requin was mobilized at Bizerte, with the mission of guarding the Suez Canal.[9] She was stationed in Ismailia in December 1914 to help guard the canal from Ottoman attacks. In January 1915, some of the French and British cruisers in the canal zone were sent to patrol the southern Anatolian coast between Mersin and Smyrna, and Requin was moved further north to support them if necessary. Early that month, she was sent to join the patrol itself, but in mid-January, additional cruisers arrived to relieve Requin, which was sent back to the canal to resume guard duties. A berth was dredged in Lake Timsah in the Nile Delta for Requin, where she supported the ground forces defending the northern end of the canal.[20]

Toward the end of the month, an Ottoman force approached the canal, prompting the French to send the protected cruiser D'Entrecasteaux to join Requin in Lake Timsah. The attack came in stages in early February, and on the 3rd, Requin was heavily engaged in helping to repel the assault. She came under fire from Ottoman field artillery batteries, but she neutralized them with her forward 274 mm gun before they could score any hits. The Ottoman attack quickly broke down in the face of the heavy Anglo-French resistance. A small Ottoman force of around 400 men was detected reconnoitering Allied positions in late March, which prompted Requin to prepare for another attack, though no other Ottoman forces were in the area and the reconnaissance party was dispersed.[21]

In 1917, Requin was employed offensively, bombarding Ottoman positions along the coast of

naval register on 21 June 1920, before being sold on 2 May 1921 to the ship breaking firm Societé du Matériel Naval du Midi.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ Ropp, pp. 92, 97–98.
  2. ^ Ropp, p. 180.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Campbell, p. 291.
  4. ^ Roberts, pp. 83–84.
  5. ^ a b c d Roberts, p. 84.
  6. ^ Ropp, p. 99.
  7. ^ Roberts, p. 86.
  8. ^ Brassey & Leyland, p. 24.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Roberts, p. 87.
  10. ^ Brassey 1891, pp. 33–40.
  11. ^ Feron, pp. 252–253.
  12. ^ Brassey 1892, p. 7.
  13. ^ Brassey 1893, pp. 69–70.
  14. ^ Thursfield, p. 95.
  15. ^ Brassey 1895, p. 50.
  16. ^ Weyl, p. 30.
  17. ^ Leyland 1901, p. 41.
  18. ^ Brassey 1902, p. 48.
  19. ^ Leyland 1907, p. 103.
  20. ^ Corbett, pp. 74, 79.
  21. ^ Corbett, pp. 112–117, 292.
  22. ^ MacPherson, p. 292.

References

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