French armoured cruiser Amiral Charner
| Amiral Charner | |
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Amiral Charner |
| Namesake: | Léonard Charner |
| Builder: | Rochefort |
| Laid down: | June 1889 |
| Launched: | 18 March 1893 |
| Fate: | Sunk, 8 February 1916 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Amiral Charner-class armoured cruiser |
| Displacement: | 4,700 tonnes (4,626 long tons) |
| Length: | 110 m (360 ft 11 in) |
| Beam: | 14 m (45 ft 11 in) |
| Draught: | 6.2 m (20 ft 4 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Creusot steam engines, 8,800 shp (6,562 kW), 16 boilers |
| Speed: | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Complement: | 410 |
| Armament: |
• 2 × Canons de 164 mm Modèle 1893 • 4 × 138 mm (5.4 in) guns |
The Amiral Charner was an armoured cruiser of the French Navy, lead ship of her class.
In 1896, she was sent to the Mediterranean to operate the station off Crete. From 1901, she operated in the Far East. In 1905, she was put in the reserve in Toulon.
At the outbreak of the First World War, she was sent to the defence of the Suez Canal. In September 1915, she took part in rescue operations to save refugees from the Armenian Genocide, evacuating 3,000 people from Antioch. In December, in the context of the Noemvriana, she invaded Kastelorizo, along with Jeanne d'Arc.
On 8 February 1916, off Beirut, Amiral Charner was torpedoed by German U-boat U-21 and sank in only two minutes. Most of the crew went down with the ship; only quarter-master Cariou survived, rescued on 13 February after drifting on a raft with 13 comrades.[1]
References
- Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, Tome II, 1870-2006, LV Jean-Michel Roche, Imp. Rezotel-Maury Millau, 2005
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