Foudre (ship, 1896)
 The foudre around 1914.
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The French Foudre (French for lightning ) was the world's first ship that was used for the use of aircraft. She is the ancestor of the modern aircraft carrier .
Ship history
The Foudre was completed in 1896 as a supply ship for torpedo boats . In terms of speed, armor and armament, the ship had the characteristics of a cruiser . Over the years the Foudre was used in various ways, for example as a workshop ship in 1907 and as a mine ship in 1910 .
In 1912 she became a depot ship for seaplanes and the first tests for the use of aircraft from ship with a Voisin Hydro Canard 1 were carried out by the Foudre . In 1913 the French Navy designated the ship as the “croiseur porte-avion” (aircraft transport cruiser). The Foudre thus became the world's first aircraft-carrying ship. As an aircraft mothership , she could carry up to eight seaplanes, but in fact she only carried two to four planes.
During the First World War , the foudre was used for various purposes. At the beginning of 1916 it served as an aircraft transporter in the Mediterranean to the Allied base Port Said in Egypt and was also used as a tender for submarines . On 12./13. September 1915 she was one of the five French warships that were involved in the rescue of the 4092 surviving Armenians from Musa Dağı and their evacuation to Port Said under the command of Rear Admiral Gabriel Darrieus .
In 1921 the Foudre was removed from the list of warships.
Technical specifications
Keel laid at Chantiers de la Gironde Bordeaux on June 9, 1892. Launched on October 20, 1895. Maximum displacement: 6186 tons. Overall length: 118.7 m, width: 15.6 m, greatest draft: 7.2 m. Propulsion: Triple expansion steam engine with 24 boilers, 11,500 HP, 2 propellers, 19 knots. Bunker capacity: 800 tons of coal. Range: 7500 nautical miles at 10 knots. Crew: 430 men. Armament: 8 × 3.9 inch guns, 4 × 65 mm guns.
photos
Flight attempt with a Canard Voisin in June 1912. On the right the Foudre .
Photo of a seaplane on the Foudre in June 1914
literature
- Roger Chesneau: Aircraft carriers of the world, 1914 to the present. Brockhampton Press, 1998, p. 61, ISBN 1860198759 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Besides the Foudre (1042 rescued Armenians), the armored cruisers Amiral Charner (347) and Desaix (303) and the protected cruisers D'Estrées (459) and Guichen (1941) were involved. ( Le Contre-Amiral Darrieus, Commandant la 2e Division et pi la 3e Escadre de la Méditerranée, à M. Victor Augagneur, Ministre de la Marine; Dépêche n ° 293. Secret. A bord du Jauréguiberry, en mer, le 22 septembre 1915 . )