French battleship Liberté (1905)
| File:Liberte French Battleship LOC 04282u.jpg | |
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Liberty |
| Builder: | Chantiers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire |
| Laid down: | 1902 |
| Launched: | 16 April 1905 |
| In service: | 1908 |
| Fate: | Destroyed by accidental detonation of her magazines, 25 September 1911 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Liberté class battleship |
| Displacement: | 14 900 tonnes |
| Length: | 134 m |
| Beam: | 24.25 m |
| Draught: | 8.40 m |
| Propulsion: | 3 steam engines, 22 boilers, 20 500 HP |
| Speed: | 19.4 knots |
| Range: | 8000 nmi at 12 knots |
| Endurance: | 900 tonnes of coal |
| Complement: | 25 officers, 715 men |
| Armament: |
4 × 305mm/40 Modèle 1893 guns (twin) |
| Armour: | Belt: 280 mm |
The Liberté was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. Commanded by capitaine de vaisseau Louis Jaurès, She sailed to the United States after her commissioning. Her career was ended when,on 25 September 1911, as the Liberté was moored in Toulon harbour, an accidental explosion in the starboard bow started a fire in the 194mm magazines, which quickly spread to the rest of the ship, in spite of the efforts of the crew and attempts at flooding the magazines. At 5:53 pm, the main magazines detonated, destroying the ship and killing 200 of her crew. People on the neighbouring ships and in the port were also killed and maimed, yielding a total count of around 300 killed. On 25 February 1925, the wreck was raised, and subsequently scrapped.
Design
Comissioned in 1908, Liberte had mostly the same characteristics as her sister ships. She displaced 14,900 tonnes (14,700 long tons), was 134 metres (440 ft) long, had a beam of 24.25 metres (79.6 ft) and a draft of 8.40 metres (27.6 ft).[1] Equipped with three steam engines rated at 20,500 indicated horsepower (15,300 kW) powered by twenty two coal-fired boilers, Liberte could move at a maximum speed of 19.4 knots (35.9 km/h; 22.3 mph) and a range of 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).[1] She could carry 900 tonnes (890 long tons) of coal.[1] Her main armament was four 305mm/40 Modèle 1893 guns in two twin turrets, augmented by ten 194 millimetres (7.6 in) guns in five twin turrets and five torpedo tubes.[1]
Service History
After comissioning, the Liberté left to America for a short cruise.[2] Two years later, on 25 September 1911, as the Liberté was moored in Toulon harbour, an accidental explosion in the starboard bow started a fire in the 194mm magazines, which quickly spread to the rest of the ship, in spite of the efforts of the crew and attempts at flooding the magazines. At 5:53 pm, the main magazines detonated, destroying the ship and killing 200 of her crew. People on the neighbouring ships and in the port were also killed and maimed, yielding a total count of around 300 killed.
The loss hit the French opinion particularly harshly because of the high human toll, of the large military value of the Liberté, and because it was the latest of a long series of accidental fires due to chemical instability of the ammunition, leading to the "affaire des poudres" ("gunpowder scandal"). The French Navy suffered a number of fatal accidents in the Harbour of Toulon, starting in February 1907 when nine men were killed in a torpedo boat explosion, followed by the explosion of the Iéna in March 1907 killing 107 men, a gun explosion in August 1908 which killed six, an explosion on a cruiser taking 13, and the death of six on the cruiser Gloire on 10 September 1911.[3]
The wreck was raised on 25 February 1925 and scrapped.[2]
- Battleship Liberté1.png
The wreck of the Liberté after the explosion
- Armor plate from the Liberty after explosion.JPG
Armour plate weighing 10 tonnes from the Liberté lodged in the side of the République, 300 metres away
- Explosion effect on the battleship Liberte.JPG
The effects of the explosion were to peel the upper decks back
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Jackson, pg 153
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.cityofart.net/bship/liberte_disaster.html
- ↑ "French Battleship Blown up in Toulon Harbor". Popular Mechanics: 651. November 1911. http://books.google.com/books?id=_t0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA651&dq=battleship+liberte&cd=2#v=onepage&q=battleship%20liberte&f=false. Retrieved 9 December, 2009.
Bibliography
- Jackson, Robert (2000). The World's Greatest Battleships. Singapore: Greenwich Editions.
| |||||||||||
