Zélée (gunboat)
|
|
|---|---|
| Surprise class | |
 Zélée |
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Gunboat |
| Shipyard |
Arsenal de Rochefort |
| Keel laying | April 21, 1898 |
| Launch | October 18, 1899 |
| delivery | 1900 |
| period of service |
1900-1914 |
| home port | from 1901 Papeete |
| Whereabouts | Sunk by German armored cruisers in Papeete on September 22, 1914 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
646 t |
| length |
56 m |
| width |
7.9 m |
| Draft |
3.1 m |
| crew |
99 men |
| drive |
2 Niclausse steam boiler |
| speed |
13 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Bunker quantity |
74 tons of coal |
| Sister ships |
two |
| Surprise |
1896-1916 |
| Décidée |
1899-1922 |
The French gunboat Zélée ( French. : Eager ) was a French gunboat the Surprise class for the colonial service. It was sunk in the port of Papeete on September 22, 1914 by the German armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau .
Use in peace
The gunboat Zélée came into service in 1900 as the third boat of the Surprise class and was rigged as a barquentine . She moved to Indochina and in 1901 to Tahiti , where she remained as a station cruiser. It was used to carry out surveying work and to transport French officials to the South Sea holdings. The long journeys were often made under sail.
The ship had no military value when the war broke out. Perhaps the old armored cruiser Montcalm , which was also stationed in Tahiti and joined the British Pacific Squadron off Samoa at the beginning of the war, had that .
War mission in the South Seas
At the beginning of the First World War, the Zélée was stationed in Papeete and probably carried out the first military act of the French Navy. The German freighter Walküre loaded phosphate on Makatea Island, 50 miles from Tahiti . The Zélée ran to the freighter on August 12 and requested it to be handed over. The German captain didn't know anything about the state of war between the German Reich and France and initially thought the situation was a joke. The Zélée finally accompanied the seized ship to Tahiti.
Defense of Papeete
The commandant of the Zélée , Lieutenant Maurice Destremau, decided to disarm his ship after the announcement that the German East Asia Squadron would appear in front of Apia on September 14th , as an operation against the squadron did not seem sensible. The weapons seemed to be able to strengthen a defense of the island. Except for the 10 cm bow gun, he removed all weapons from the Zélée , which with a reduced crew remained in service as a guard ship under Ensign Barber with ten men. The other 10 cm and 6.5 cm guns formed a land battery, the previous guns of which were completely out of date and unusable. He mounted the 3.7 cm guns on trucks. From the greater part of his crew, reservists, volunteers and police officers, he formed a protection force in the event of a German attack.
Bombardment by the armored cruiser
The chief of the cruiser squadron, Maximilian von Spee , decided after his appearance in front of Apia to run to Papeete with the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and to get supplies from the French coal depot there.
On September 22, 1914 at 7:00 a.m., the French sighted two cruisers approaching Papeete. The land battery immediately fired three warning shots, whereupon the armored cruisers returned fire from 6000 m. The shore battery and the Zélée lying in the harbor shot back without getting hit. Since the Germans could not clearly identify the location of the battery, they concentrated on the ships lying in the port and sank the Zélée and the Walküre . The attempt of the French to sink the Zélée as a block ship directly in the port entrance failed.
The French commander, Destremau, had the coal dumps ignited at the beginning of the battle. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau still shot at Papeete and parts of the city caught fire. Von Spee saw no sense in a landing and ran around 11:00 am with its cruisers again to at Nukuhiva with the SMS Nuremberg , the Titania meet and utilities.
Fate of the commander
After defending Papeete and losing the Zélée , Lieutenant Destremau was arrested and sent to Toulon for a court martial. He became seriously ill and died before the trial in 1915. In 1918 Destremau's conduct and defense was recognized by Papeete and posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor Cross.
Sister ships
- Surprise
built by Chantiers Augustin Normand, Le Havre, in service in 1896, 680 t, 1896 to Tonkin and China, 1906 to 1910 in the Indian Ocean,
1914/15 off West Africa, then Morocco,
on December 3, 1916 in the roadstead of Funchal by SM U 38 sunk under Kapitänleutnant Max Valentiner .
- Décidée
built at Arsenal Lorient, in service in 1899, 680 t, 1900 to 1913 in Saïgon, China (including on the Yangtze) and Japan,
1914–1917 in Indochina, 1917 in Lebanon, 1919 defense of Mersin , 1920 to Oran; 1922 out of service
Web links
- Postage stamp with the Zélée
- English page about the Surprise class
- French page on the war in Tahiti
- New Zealand Evening Post of October 15, 1914 on the attack on Papeete
- Newspaper article about the first arrival of the Valkyrie in New Zealand
- New Zealand Evening Post of December 8, 1916 on the attack on Funchal and the sinking of the Surprise
Remarks
- ^ Armored cruiser Montcalm , in service since 1902, 9516 t, 21 kn, two 19.4 cm, eight 16.3 cm, four 10 cm, 16 4.7 cm guns
- ^ Walküre , 3836 GRT, built in 1908 at Doxford & Co., Sunderland, belonged to the Rhedeerei AG Oceana (HH Schmidt) in Hamburg, raised in December 1914 and sold to the USA, as REPUBLIC and NORMANNA under the US and Norwegian flag until In service in 1925, broken up after a fire off Tenerife