Kléber (ship, 1902)
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 The Kléber on their visit to the USA in 1907 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Order | December 28, 1897 |
| Launch | September 20, 1902 |
| delivery | 4th July 1904 |
| Namesake | Jean-Baptiste Kléber |
| Whereabouts | sank on June 27, 1917 after being hit by a mine |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
7730 t |
| length |
130 m waterline, |
| width |
17.9 m |
| Draft |
7.6 m |
| crew |
531 men |
| drive |
24 Belleville boilers , |
| speed |
21 kn |
| Armament |
• 8 × 164 mm L / 45 cannon |
| Armor | |
| Armored deck |
90-100 mm |
| Towers |
120-160 mm |
| Command tower |
70 mm |
| Side armor |
80-102 mm |
| Sister ships | |
The Kléber was an armored cruiser of the French Navy , launched in 1902 and belonging to the Dupleix class. During World War I she sank on June 27, 1917 off Brest after being hit by a mine ; 42 seamen were killed.
Building history
Launched on September 20, 1902 at the Forges & Chantiers de la Gironde shipyard in Bordeaux , the Kléber was the third ship in the Dupleix class of three armored cruisers of the French Navy that entered service from 1902 to 1904. It was named after the French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber (1753–1800), most recently commander in chief in Egypt.
The main armament of the cruisers of the Dupleix class was four twin turrets with 164 mm L / 45 cannons of the model 1893, which were placed at the bow and stern and at the same height to the right and left behind the front pair of chimneys on the sides of the ship. Four 100 mm L / 45 rapid fire guns were installed in casemates to the side of the bridge and the rear command post, primarily to reinforce the bow and stern fire.
Mission history
The Kléber , which was commissioned on July 4, 1904 , was transferred to the Mediterranean Squadron on July 16, 1904.
Foreign service
From November 9, 1906, she was assigned to the French Central American station "division navale des Antilles". On March 7, 1907, she rammed the American steamer Hugomak in Vera Cruz , which sank as a result. On May 1, 1907, she visited New York on the occasion of the Jamestown exhibition .
On February 1, 1908, the Kléber began service off Morocco , where the sister ship Desaix had already arrived.
On April 1, 1911, the cruiser marched from Brest via Saigon to Vladivostok and then back via Japan to Shanghai , where it arrived on May 17. Because of the unrest in China, he stayed there longer than originally planned before moving to Saigon in what was then the French colony of Indochina. The sister ship Dupleix had been in service on the East Asian station since 1910 and remained there until the outbreak of the First World War . On May 13, 1912, the Kléber left Saigon again for a trip to Chinese waters, where she visited Shanghai and ports on the Yellow Sea , among other things . On July 22, 1912, she ran aground off Japan and had to be repaired in Kobe . After the repair, it was returned to France, where it was initially decommissioned on March 6, 1913 in Lorient .
War effort
In 1915 the Kléber moved to the Mediterranean, where it was used off the Dardanelles . She ran aground off the coast of Gallipolis on May 29th and could not be removed until May 31st in the event of strong Turkish fire. On July 7th it collided with the Australian transporter Boorara (the former Palatinate of the NDL ), but came back to the East Aegean after a repair and took part in the bombardment of the Bulgarian Aegean coast from October 31, 1915.
In August 1916, Kléber moved to Dakar for the “6. division légère ”to the South Atlantic, where the sister ship Desaix was already serving in commercial defense.
Downfall
On June 27, 1917, the Kléber was on its march back from Dakar to Brest. As she headed for the entrance to Brest, she discovered floating mines shortly before the port , which she wanted to destroy. In doing so, she herself was hit by a mine. It sank within 50 minutes. During this time, the accompanying torpedo boats managed to almost completely recover the crew . The Kléber had run into a mine barrier that had been laid by the German mine-laying submarine UC 61 under Oberleutnant zur See Georg Gerth. It sank south of the island of Ouessant at position 48 ° 17 ′ N , 4 ° 51 ′ W ; 42 sailors were killed. The captain, who did not want to leave his sinking ship, was swept overboard and rescued.
The wreck lying at a depth of 48 m can be viewed by divers.
Fate of the sister ships
| Fate of the sister ships | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Shipyard | start of building | Launch | In service | Another fate |
| Dupleix | Arsenal Rochefort | 1897 | April 28, 1900 | 1903 | from 1910 East Asia, 1915 in the Mediterranean, 1917 Atlantic, 1919 deleted. |
| Desaix | Ateliers & Chantiers de la Loire, St. Nazaire |
1897 | March 21, 1901 | August 6, 1902 | Canal, 1915 Mediterranean, 1916 Atlantic, 1919 East Asia, deleted in 1921. |
literature
- Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Mayflower Books, New York 1979.
- John Evelyn Moore: Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. Military Press, New York 1990.
Web links
- Kléber Croiseur cuirassé - site pages14–18 (French, accessed 19 May 2011)
- Report on the wreck (accessed May 19, 2011)
- Dupleix class with a number of pictures (accessed May 19, 2011)
- Dupleix class (French, accessed May 19, 2011)
Individual evidence
- ↑ information on the 164-mm gun (Engl.)
- ^ NYT report, July 1, 1917
- ^ War order H to AG Weser , 422/504 t, 2 BTR, 1 HTR, 6 mine shafts (18 mines), in service since December 13, 1916, lost on July 26, 1917 after being stranded near Ouessant ; see Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines
- ↑ sole commander of the boat, see Herzog, p. 75 u. 98
- ↑ Report on the wreck ( Memento from October 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ DUPLEIX Croiseur cuirassé type Dupleix (1903-1919) (French. Accessed 19 May 2011)
- ↑ DESAIX Croiseur cuirassé type Dupleix (1902–1921) (French, accessed May 19, 2011)