Eritrea (ship)

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Eritrea
Side view of the Eritrea
Side view of the Eritrea
Ship data
flag ItalyItaly (naval war flag) Italy France
FranceFrance (national flag of the sea) 
other ship names

Francis Garnier (1948–1966)

Ship type Colonial cruiser
Shipyard Castellammare di Stabia
Launch September 20, 1936
Whereabouts Sunk as a target ship on October 29, 1966
Ship dimensions and crew
length
96.9 m ( Lüa )
width 13.3 m
Draft Max. 4.7 m
displacement 3,117 t
 
crew 234 men
Machine system
machine 2 diesel
Machine
performance 		7,800 hp (5,737 kW)
Top
speed 		20 kn (37 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
  • 4 × Sk 12.0 cm L / 45
  • 2 × Sk 4.0 cm L / 39
  • 4 × Fla - MG 13.2 mm

The Eritrea was a colonial cruiser of the Italian , later under the name Francis Garnier of the French Navy .

Colonial cruiser Eritrea (Italy) 1936–1948

The Eritrea entering Colombo in 1943

The Eritrea was a colonial cruiser (Italian Nave colononiale ) of the Italian Navy . The ship was specially designed for use in the Italian East African colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland . Due to the constant use in areas with high temperatures ( Red Sea and northwest Indian Ocean ), the ship had a freezer for food. Only one ship of this type was built.

The ship was stationed in Eritrea from 1937. After the collapse of the Italian colonies in East Africa , the ship was supposed to be moved to China in 1943 to support Japan . However, due to the war situation and the own supply situation, the commander decided to call at the then British port of Colombo on Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In September 1943, the ship and crew faced the British in Colombo.

After the Second World War , the ship was delivered to France as a reparation payment . The French Navy turned the ship later than Aviso back into service, and named it after a French explorer in Francis Garnier to.

Aviso Francis Garnier (France) 1948–1966

Italy had to deliver Eritrea to France in 1948 as a reparation payment. The ship was taken over on February 12, 1948 as Aviso with the name Francis Garnier and the registration F730 by the French Navy as the fourth ship with this name.

After the renovation from 1949 to 1950, the Francis Garnier was put into service on January 12, 1950 and moved from Toulon via Madagascar , Réunion , Australia and New Zealand to San Francisco ( United States ). Here the ship took over the escort for a convoy to Indochina . From 1951 to 1953 it was repaired and modernized. Then the Aviso was relocated to French Indochina again and took part in the fighting there in the following years. The ship was also involved in the evacuation of Tonkin . With the end of French colonial rule in Indochina, Francis Garnier left Saigon in 1955 . From 1956 to 1957, the ship was initially overhauled at a shipyard in Japan before it reached its new area of ​​operation in the French Pacific colonies . From 1959 to 1960 he stayed at the shipyard in Diego Garcia .

On January 1, 1966, the Aviso Francis Garnier was finally decommissioned in Papeete , Tahiti in French Polynesia , but remained in reserve . The deletion from the French fleet list took place on October 5, 1966. The ship was finally used up as a test ship in the first French nuclear weapons test series on the Pacific atoll Mururoa . As a result of the weapons effect, the Francis Garnier sank on October 29, 1966 at 4:15 p.m. off Mururoa. The wreck lies at a depth of 1,300 m.

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