Durandal class
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|---|---|
| Durandal- class | |
 Hallebarde type Durandal |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Torpedo boat destroyer |
| units | 4th |
| Shipyard |
Chantier Augustin Normand , Le Havre |
| Order | 1896 |
| Launch | 1899 |
| delivery | 1900 to 1901 |
| Decommissioning | 1919 to 1921 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
296 t |
| length |
57.6 m over everything |
| width |
6.3 m |
| Draft |
3.2 m |
| crew |
60 men |
| drive |
2 Normand boilers, |
| speed |
26 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
38.2 tons of coal |
| Sister ships |
Durandal, Hallebard, |
| similar |
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| Exports |
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The four Durandal-class boats were delivered to the French Navy as the first torpedo boat destroyers in 1900 and 1901 . In total, the French Navy received 55 similar boats, which were designated as 300-ton trucks . Of the four Durandal class boats , the espingole was lost on February 4, 1903 in the roadstead of Hyères after running aground on a rock near Cape Lardier . The other three survived World War I on different fronts and left the fleet between 1919 and 1921.
Building history
The four Durandal- class boats built for the French Navy at the Chantier Augustin Normand shipyard in Le Havre between 1896 and 1901 are considered the first French destroyers. They were about 1/3 larger than the torpedo boats of the fleet that had been ordered until then. They displaced 296 t, were 57.61 m long, 6.33 m wide and had a 3.2 m draft. Two Normand-type coal-fired steam boilers powered two triple expansion engines that generated 4800 horsepower and gave the boats a speed of 26 knots. The machines stood one behind the other and had the associated boiler room in front of or behind them, which led to the wide distance between the chimneys. The machine in front acted on the right screw, the rear on the left. They were armed with a relatively high 65 mm L / 50 cannon, which was little affected by the sea water, but was lighter than the guns of up to 76 mm used by other navies. There were also six semi-automatic 47 mm Hotchkiss L / 50 rapid-fire cannons and two 380 mm torpedo tubes on turntables between the chimneys and behind the rear chimney. The target area of both pipes was therefore quite limited. Before the World War, the torpedo tubes were replaced by 450 mm tubes. The crew consisted of 52 men.
The boats were similar to the two British Havock-class destroyers built at Yarrow in 1893 . The hull and especially the bow was strongly rounded like a turtle's back, a typical French warship design at the time. They had been ordered in two pairs: first in August 1896 the Durandal and Hallebard , then in 1897 Espingole and Fauconneau . The names came from historical infantry weapons: "Durandal" ( Durendal , the legendary sword of Roland ), "Hallebarde" ( halberd ), "Fauconneau" ( falconet ) and "Espingole" ( blunderbuss ).
Mission history
Durandal
The type ship Durandal was launched on February 11, 1899, on March 11 the first test voyages began off Havre and then from April off Cherbourg . In the acceptance tests she reached 27.42 kn. In July 1899 she was the first boat of the class to join the escadre du Nord's fleet and was part of the Atlantic fleet until February 1903. In 1904 she became a rescue boat in Dunkirk for submarines. In 1913 she was assigned to the 2nd flotilla of torpedo and submarines in Calais , which was subordinate to the 2nd Light Squadron.
After mobilization, the Durandal division boat of the aforementioned 2nd Flotilla in Calais within the 2nd Light Squadron with headquarters in Cherbourg. She was used to hunt submarines and remained in the Flotilla responsible for Normandy during the war in the Canal . On October 12, 1914, she discovered a periscope three miles north of Cap Gris-Nez , the submarine (probably U 20) was searched in vain with three boats until evening. From 1915 to 1916 Dunkirk was the base of the Durandal , which collided with a British freighter on June 10, 1915. On April 7, 1919, the Durandal was deleted from the fleet and sold to Cherbourg on February 22, 1921 for demolition.
Hallebard
The Hallebard was launched on June 8, 1899, was tested off Cherbourg, where it reached 27.20 knots, and entered service with the fleet in August 1899. In October 1899 she moved to the Mediterranean Fleet in Toulon . On February 4, 1903, she rescued the crew of the sister boat Espingole , which sank after it had rammed a rock at Cape Lardier. From 1904 to 1912 the Hallebard was mostly in the reserve in Toulon. In 1913 she became a division ship of the 1st Submarine Escadrille.
During the World War she accompanied submarines between the Adriatic Sea, Malta and Bizerta. In 1918 she came to the 8th destroyer escadrille off Provence. On March 4, 1920, the Hallebard was canceled and sold to Rochefort for demolition on April 20, 1921.
Fauconneau
The Fauconneau was launched on April 2, 1900. During the tests off Cherbourg, she reached 27.14 knots and was taken into fleet service by the escadre du Nord in July . From July 1903 she was stationed in Brest , where her boilers were also replaced in 1911 and 1912. In November 1912, she became the division ship of the 1st Submarine Escadrille in Cherbourg.
After the outbreak of war she moved to Portsmouth in September 1914 to help unify the Allied defense in the Canal, where she remained until June 1915. Then she moved to the Mediterranean. The first deployment took place off the Syrian coast. In 1916 she was moved to Brindisi. In June she accompanied the submarines Cugnot, Archimède, Papin and Gay-Lussac to Argostoli , after which she took up service with the 10th destroyer Escadre in Saloniki and also advanced from there to the Syrian coast. After the war ended, the Fauconneau moved to Rochefort. On January 15, 1921, it was canceled and sold to Rochefort for demolition on June 1.
Espingole
The Espingole was launched on June 28, 1900, reached 27.25 knots in tests and was relocated to the Mediterranean after the tests off Cherbourg in December 1900. The Espingole ran aground on February 4, 1903 in the roadstead of Hyères on a rock near Cape Lardier . The crew was picked up by the sister boat Hallebard . For two weeks they tried unsuccessfully to get the boat free. On September 16, 1903, the boat was finally abandoned and canceled.
The remaining French 300-ton destroyers
After the Durandal class, the French Navy received another 51 similar destroyers.
The first follow- up series were four destroyers of the Framée class built from 1897 to 1901 at Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Nantes and Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in Graville near Le Havre. Outwardly, they differed from their predecessors in that they had four chimneys, which in these boats stood in pairs far apart. The Framée sank in the night of August 11, 1900 after colliding with the liner Brennus near Cap St. Vincent , 45 seamen could not be rescued. The Yatagan was lost on the night of November 3, 1916 off Dieppe after a collision with the British freighter Teviot . Pique and Epée moved to the Mediterranean in 1901. The Epée was used again in the canal as a guide boat for submarines from April 1914 to October 1915, before moving again to the Mediterranean. Pique and Epée carried out various tasks in the Mediterranean until the end of the war and in 1921 they were sold for demolition in Toulon
The following four boats, the Pertuisane , Escopette , Flamberge and Rapière , were named Rochefortais class after the shipyard . They were built from 1899 to 1902 at the State Shipyard ( Arsenal ) in Rochefort as two-chimney ships. Pertuisane served from October 1902 to February 1914, Rapière from March 1903 to September 1905 and from January 1913 to the end of the war, Flamberge from 1915 in the Mediterranean. Rapière was also used in Indochina from October 1905 to mid-1907. The Escopette , which was always used on the canal, suffered a torpedo explosion in the tail boom on January 16, 1915, and a collision in October 1916, the massive damage of which was no longer repaired. Between 1920 and 1923 the boats were painted and sold for demolition until 1928.
The next series were the twenty Arquebuse class destroyers built between 1900 and 1904 by the Rochefort shipyards (4: Carabine , Sarbacane , Francisque , Saber ), Normand (2: Arquebuse , Arbalète ), Nantes (4: Mousquet , Javeline , Pistolet , Bélier ), FCM Le Havre (4: Sagaie , Epieu , Catapulte , Bombarde ), Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde , Bordeaux (2: Harpon , Fronde ), Ateliers et Chantiers de Penhoët , Rouen (2: Dard , Baliste ), Etablissements Schneider , Chalon-sur-Saône (2: Mousqueton , Arc ).
The following Claymore class consisted of the thirteen destroyers Stylet , Tromblon , Pierrier , Obusier , Mortier , Claymore , Carquois , Trident , Fleuret , Coutelas , Cognée , Hache and Massue , which the French Navy received between June 1906 and November 1909, for the first time with Equipped 45 cm torpedo tubes and used them in World War I. Nine boats were built by the Rochefort Arsenal, only the Claymore at Normand and the last three boats in the Toulon Arsenal . All boats survived the World War and were canceled from 1920 to November 1931. The five boats that remained after 1921 were mostly used at schools.
The following Branlebas class concluded with ten other destroyers ( Glaive , Poignard , Sabretache , Oriflamme , Étendard , Fanion , Sape , Gabion , Branlebas and Fanfare ), which were completed in pairs at five shipyards between July 1908 and November 1910, the construction of the so-called 300 ton truck. Branle-bas and Étendard were lost during the war. From 1921 the boats were painted and sold for demolition. The last boat in service was the Glaive , the penultimate boat that had been in service since 1918 at the mechanics school in Brest and was only canceled in February 1932 and then sold before the end of the year.
In addition, destroyers of the 300 t type were built for export to the French shipyards. Five boats with two pairs of chimneys were built for the Imperial Russian Navy as Forel class from 1898 to 1902 for use in the Far East. Four more were delivered to the Turkish Navy as the Samsun class in 1907 .
literature
- Roger Chesneau, Eugene Kolesnik (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5 .
Web links
- The Durandal- type destroyers (French)
- Espingole wreck (French, diving opportunities)
- French destroyer in World War I (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ The destroyers of the Framee class (French, with references)
- ↑ The destroyers of the Rochefortais class (French, with references)
- ↑ The Destroyers of the Claymore- class (French, with references)
- ↑ The destroyers of the Branlebas class (French, with references)