Arago (ship, 1913)

**Arago**
	A Brumaire- class boat in Cherbourg
Ship data
flag	France
Ship type	Submarine
class	Brumaire class
Shipyard	Naval Arsenal of Toulon
Keel laying	January 18, 1909
Launch	June 29, 1912
Commissioning	June 28, 1913
Whereabouts	Retired October 27, 1920, ; scrapped in 1931
Ship dimensions and crew
length	52.15 m ( Lüa )
width	5.42 m
Draft	Max. 3.19 m
displacement	surfaced: 398 t ; submerged: 551 t
crew	29 men
Machine system
machine	Diesel engine ; electric motor
Machine ; performance	840 ; 660
propeller	2
Mission data submarine
Radius of action	surfaced at 10 kn: 1700 ; submerged at 5 kn: 84 nm
Diving depth, normal	40 m
Top ; speed ; submerged	8.8 kn (16 km / h)
Top ; speed ; surfaced	13.5 kn (25 km / h)
Armament
	1 × cannon 4.7 cm; 8 × torpedo tube ⌀ 45.0 cm;

The Arago (Q 86) was a Brumaire class submarine of the French Navy ; she was launched as the twelfth of 16 boats in the class . It was named after the astronomer and physicist François Arago (1786-1853).

Construction and technical data

The keel of the boat was laid on January 18, 1909 in the Naval Arsenal in Toulon , the launch on June 29, 1912. The boat was 52.15 m long and 5.42 m wide and had a draft of 3.19 m when sailing above the water . The water displacement was 398 t above water and 551 t under water. Two six-cylinder four-stroke marine diesel engines from MAN (manufactured under license from the Société des Moteurs Sabathé in Saint-Étienne ) with a total output of 840 hp (618 kW ) enabled a top speed over water of 13.5 kn with two screws ; two electric motors from the Compagnie Générale Électrique in Nancy with a total of 660 hp (485 kW) allowed up to 8.8 kn underwater. The surface range was 1700 nm at a cruising speed of 10 kn, under water 84 nm at a cruising speed of 5 kn. The tested diving depth was 40 m.

Torpedo suspension type Drzewiecki

The boat was armed with eight 45 cm torpedoes of the 1904 type; they were in a torpedo tube in the bow (with a replacement torpedo in the boat), two in individual suspensions on both sides of the tower and four in individual suspensions of the Drzewiecki type on the side of the hull . In 1916, a 4.7 cm gun was added on the quarterdeck. The crew consisted of two officers and 27 men.

Mission history

The Arago entered service on June 28, 1913. At the beginning of the First World War , the boat was moved from Toulon to Bizerte , from where it carried out several patrols, initially and until Italy entered the war , mostly in the Tyrrhenian Sea , then in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas to the Bay of Kotor , in order to block the k. u. k. Support the navy in the Adriatic.

After the end of the war, which the boat had spent exclusively in the Mediterranean , it was retired on October 27, 1920, but its career was not over. From October 1921 it was disarmed and partially cannibalized as a floating gate to the “darse des pétroliers” ( tanker dock ), then from January 1930 as a floating barrier to close the “darse du parc à mazout” (dock at the tank farm). It was not until June 25, 1931 that the hull of the former Arago was sold to the Société de Matériel Naval du Midi in Toulon for demolition.

Web links

Les bâtiments ayant porté le nom d'Arago (French), with a photo of the boat

literature

Gérard Garier: L'odyssée technique et humaine du sous-marin en France. Tome 2: Des Emeraudes (1905-1906) au Charles Brun (1908-1913). Marines Editions, Nantes, 1998, ISBN 978-2-9096-7534-3 , pp. 117-120.