French battleship St Louis (1896)

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Battleship saint-louis Bougault.jpg
The St Louis in April 1903
Career (France) French Navy Ensign
Namesake: Louis IX of France
Owner: France
Builder: Lorient shipyard
Laid down: 1893
Launched: 1896
Commissioned: September 1900
Struck: 1933
Fate: Broken up
General characteristics
Class and type: Charlemagne class battleship
Displacement: 11,300 tonnes
Length: 118 m
Beam: 20.5 m
Draught: 8.40 m
Propulsion: 2 steam engines, 3 shafts, 14,500 HP
Speed: 18 knots
Complement: 694 men
Armament:

2 × 2 - 305 mm Mle 1893/96 guns
10 × 1 - 138 mm/45 Modèle 1893 guns
8 × 1 - 100 mm/10

4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes
Armour:

belt : 250-400 mm
decks : 90 and 40 mm
barbettes : 400 mm

bunker : 75 mm

The Saint Louis was a pre-dreadnought capital battleship of the French Navy. She was laid down in 1893, launched in 1896, and completed in 1900 as the third battleship of her class, the Charlemagne class. The ship saw service in the First World War, and was scrapped in 1933.

Design

The St Louis displaced 11,300 tonnes (11,100 long tons), was 118 metres (387 ft) long, had a beam of 20.5 metres (67 ft) and a draught of 8.4 metres (28 ft). She was manned by 694 men.[1] Equipped with a set of two steam engines rated at 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,800 kW), the St Louis could move at a maximum speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).[1] She was one of the first French ships to be armed with twin mounted main guns, although the armament was eventually deemed too heavy for the ship's displacement.[1] Those were four 305 mm Mle 1893/96 guns.[2] The main battery was augmented by a secondary battery of ten single 138 millimetres (5.4 in) guns and a tertiary battery of eight 100 millimetres (3.9 in). The ship was also armed with four 450 millimetres (18 in) torpedo tubes.[1][2]

Service history

After commissioning, the St. Louis was sent off on several cruises with the Third Battleship Squadron. On one of these, she accidentally rammed the French submarine Vendémiaire, killing 23,[3] although other sources state that 25 men drowned.[4] In the First World War, she was sent off to participate in the Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, where she was held in reserve while her sisterships, the Charlemagne and Gaulois, bombarded Ottoman ports.[5] After the First World War, the ship returned to a normal peacetime naval atmosphere involving naval exercises and cruising in the Mediterranean sea. She was scrapped in 1933, one of the longest-surviving pre-dreadnoughts to remain in service.[1][5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "St Louis French Battleship". www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk. http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/st_louis.htm. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Jackson 2000, p. 153.
  3. United States Naval Institute 1912, p. 1114.
  4. Chisholm 1913, p. ?
  5. 5.0 5.1 "French Navy in World War I in Outline". Naval History Homepage. http://www.naval-history.net/WW1NavyFrench.htm. Retrieved 4 June 2010. 

Bibliography

External links