Amiral Charner (ship, 1893)
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 The Amiral Charner |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | June 1889 |
| Launch | March 18, 1893 |
| Namesake | Léonard Victor Charner |
| Commissioning | 1894 |
| Whereabouts | Sunk on February 8, 1916 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
4700 t |
| length |
110 m waterline |
| width |
14.0 m |
| Draft |
6.2 m |
| crew |
410 men |
| drive |
16 Belleville boilers , |
| speed |
17 kn |
| Armament |
• 2 × 194 mm cannons |
| Armor |
90 mm steel belt |
| Sister ships | |
The Amiral Charner was an armored cruiser of the French Navy , which was launched in 1893 and was the type ship of the ship class named after her . It was torpedoed by the German submarine U 21 off the Lebanese coast on February 8, 1916 during World War I and sank within two minutes. Only one seaman could be saved three days later. 374 sailors were killed when the ship went down.
Building history
The March 18, 1893 Arsenal of Rochefort from spilled stack Amiral Charner is viewed mostly as lead ship of her class designated by four cruisers of the French Navy, which ran from 1892 to 1894 batch. The four cruisers are mostly referred to as armored cruisers ("croiseur cuirassé"), sometimes as protected cruisers ("croiseur protégé"). They were scaled down versions of the first French armored cruiser Dupuy de Lôme .
The Amiral Charner was named after Léonard Victor Charner (1797–1869), Admiral of France and most recently Commander-in - Chief in French Indochina .
As the first cruiser of the Amiral Charner class, the Latouche-Tréville was launched on October 8, 1892 at the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in its branch in Graville near Le Havre . The Bruix and Chanzy, also built in Rochefort, followed in 1894 . All four cruisers were in service by the end of 1896.
The main armament of the cruisers was two 194 mm L / 40 cannons of the 1887 model in a single bow and stern tower. There were also six side-mounted 138 mm L / 45 rapid-fire guns of the 1888 model in individual turrets on the sides of the ship. Twelve light guns and four rigid torpedo tubes completed the armament. The ships of the Amiral Charner class had belt armor made of 90 mm thick steel plates.
Mission history
The Amiral Charner began her service in the French Navy in a test division. Then she was assigned to the cruiser division in the Mediterranean as a flagship. In 1896 she was with the ships of other protecting powers off Crete , where Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia finally enforced that Turkey gave up Crete, temporarily a committee of four admirals of the protecting powers exercised power until an almost independent Crete under Prince George of Greece emerged as Governor General. After the end of the conflict, the Amiral Charner was assigned to the reserve in Toulon in 1898 . In 1900 the Amiral Charner was sent to East Asia, where it remained in service until 1902. In May 1901 she drove up the Yangtze to Hankau , where she took part in the opening of the French branch. In February 1905 she was reassigned to the reserve in Toulon. Before the beginning of the First World War , they were activated again during the Balkan Wars from 1911 to 1912 to secure the situation around Crete, which ended in 1913 with its annexation to Greece.
War effort
When the war broke out, the Amiral Charner was assigned to the naval division in Morocco and secured transports from there to France. The sister ship Latouche-Tréville was also used here at times . In November 1914 she moved to the Mediterranean Sea to secure the Suez Canal , accompanying the old coastal armored ship Requin from Bizerta .
From 9 September 1915 the Amiral Charner was involved in the evacuation of 4048 Armenians from the vicinity of Antakya to Port Said under the command of the protected cruiser Guichen together with the armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc , the protected cruiser Guichen together with the cruiser D ' Estrees and the aircraft mother ship Foudre involved. The Armenians in some villages, under the leadership of the former Ottoman officer Kalousdian, had resisted attacks by the Turkish army on the Musa Dagh for almost two months. On December 28, the Amiral Charner, together with the armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, occupied the then independent island of Kastelorizo off the Turkish coast, which became an important base for the Allies until the end of the war.
Sinking
On February 8, 1916, Amiral Charner , who was traveling alone to Port Said, was torpedoed 44 nautical miles from Beirut and 16 nautical miles from Tire off the Lebanese coast by the German submarine U 21 under Lieutenant Otto Hersing . The cruiser sank in a few minutes at the position 33 ° 21 ' N , 34 ° 54' O . The tug Laborieux found wreckage three days later, several corpses and, as the only survivor, the sergeant ( maître ) Cariou, who had initially been on a raft with 13 men. 374 men lost their lives when the cruiser sank.
Sister ships
| Fate of the sister ships | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Shipyard | start of building | Launch | in service | further fate |
| Latouche-Tréville | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée , Graville | 1890 | October 8, 1892 | May 6, 1895 | 1897–1899 Mediterranean, 1914–1918 Mediterranean, deleted in 1919. |
| Chanzy | Société de Gironde | 1890 | January 24, 1894 | . December 1894 | Antilles, 1901 Mediterranean, until 1907 Far East, abandoned after being stranded in the Tschu-san Archipelago on May 30, 1907, had refused help from the German gunboat SMS Luchs on May 23 . |
| Bruix | Arsenal de Rochefort | 1890 | August 2, 1894 | December 5, 1896 | 1902 Antilles, 1908–1909 Far East, 1914 Cameroon, 1915 Red Sea, 1916 to 1918 Greece, 1921 deleted. |
literature
- Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
- Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968.
- John Evelyn Moore: Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. Military Press, New York 1990.
Web links
- Amiral Charner Croiseur cuirassé - site pages14–18 (French, accessed May 19, 2011)
- Amiral Charner (French, accessed May 23, 2011, many pictures, report on sinking; PDF; 513 kB)
- Amiral Charner class with several pictures (accessed May 23, 2011)
- Amiral Charner class (French, accessed May 23, 2011)
- Latouche Truville blueprint (accessed May 23, 2011)
Footnotes
- ↑ Information on the 194 mm cannon (accessed on May 23, 2011)
- ↑ Information on the 138 mm rapid fire gun (accessed on May 23, 2011)
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↑ Requin , built in 1885 / re-armed in 1901, 7,700 tons, 14.5 knots, 2 × 274 mm cannons Md. 1893, 6 × 100 mm rapid-fire guns Md. 1893, 10 × 47 mm automatic cannons,
the old coastal armored ship distinguished itself in the defense of the canal at the beginning of February 1915 in the section near Ismailia, in which it put some Turkish artillery positions out of action very quickly - ↑ Guichen , built in 1897, 8,200 tons, 23 knots, 2 × 164 mm guns, 6 × 138 mm guns
- ↑ Guichen , built in 1897, 8,200 tons, 23 knots, 2 × 164 mm guns, 6 × 138 mm guns
- ↑ D'Estrees , built in 1897, 2,500 t, 21 knots, 2 × 140 mm rapid-fire cannons, 4 × 100 mm guns
- ↑ Model for the novel " The forty days of Musa Dagh " by Franz Werfel
- ↑ Amiral Charner (French, accessed on May 19, 2011)
- ↑ LATOUCHE-TREVILLE Croiseur cuirassé type Chanzy (1895 - 1920) (French, accessed May 24, 2011)
- ↑ BRUIX Croiseur cuirassé type Chanzy (1896-1920) (French. Accessed 19 May 2011)