The Charlemagne class was a class of pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought

Pre-dreadnought battleship is the general term for all of the types of sea-going battleships built between the mid-1890s and 1905. Pre-dreadnoughts replaced the ironclad warships of the 1870s and 1880s...

 battleships of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

. It consisted of three ships, the Charlemagne, the St Louis and the Gaulois. Several other single ship classes were based on the Charlemagne class. The class participated in World War I.

Design

The ships had a displacement of 11,300 tonnes, were 117.5 metres (385.5 ft) long, had a beam of 20.5 metres (67.3 ft), and a draught of 8.4 metres (27.6 ft). Propulsion machinery consisted of two steam engines which supplied 14500 hp to the three propeller shafts. Maximum speed was 18 knots (9.8 m/s). The ship's company was 725 strong.

Each ship's main armament consisted of four 305 mm Mle 1893/96 guns in two twin turrets. The Charlemagne design was the first French ship to use twin turrets instead of the French trademark of a single-gun turret at each end of the upper deck. The main guns were supplemented by ten 138mm/45 Modèle 1893 guns in single mountings, plus eight 100 mm/10 guns in single mounts. Four 450mm torpedo tubes were also fitted.

The ships' main belt armour varied from 250 to 400 mm (9.8 to 15.7 ) in thickness, and ran the entire length of the hull. Deck armour was either 90 or. The barbette

Barbette

A barbette is a protective circular armour feature around a cannon or heavy artillery gun. The name comes from the French phrase en barbette referring to the practice of firing a field gun over a parapet rather than through an opening . The former gives better angles of fire but less protection...

s were 400 millimetres (15.7 in) thick, while the bunker was protected by 75 millimetres (3 in) of armour.

Opertional history

At the outbreak of the First World War, these ships were considered to be second-rate battleships, fit for areas of low danger. On 18 March 1915 the Charlemagne

French battleship Charlemagne (1895)

The Charlemagne was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy. In 1915, along with her sister-ship Gaulois, she took part in the Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, under admiral Émile Paul Amable Guépratte. She was named after Charlemagne, a famous Frankish king.-Design:The...

 and Gaulois

French battleship Gaulois (1896)

The Gaulois was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy.In 1915, along with her sister-ship Charlemagne, she took part in the Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign, under admiral Guépratte. The French squadron was leading the assault, and the Gaulois suffered hits from the Turkish...

, along with the Bouvet

French battleship Bouvet

The Bouvet was a French pre-dreadnought battleship, launched in 1896 and sunk by a mine in 1915 during World War I.Bouvet, named for the maritime family of Bouvet de Lozier, the most famous being French Admiral François Joseph Bouvet, belonged to the Jauréguiberry quasi-class which comprised...

 and Suffren

French battleship Suffren

Suffren was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy, launched in July 1899. She was named after French Vice Admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez. The ship was originally intended to be a modified version of the design with more firepower and better armour...

, took part in the Battle of Gallipoli

Battle of Gallipoli

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...

, under Admiral Guépratte

Émile Paul Amable Guépratte

Émile Paul Aimable Guépratte was a French admiral.Guépratte was born in Granville to a family of naval officers. He studied at the Lycée impérial in Brest from 1868, and joined the École Navale on 1 October 1871....

. The Gaulois was damaged in a minefield but survived the battle.

Gaulois was sunk on 27 December 1916 by the German U-boat UB-47 was to Cergio in the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

, despite the battleship being protected by an escort screen of light cruisers and naval trawler

Naval trawler

A naval trawler is a vessel built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes. Naval trawlers were widely used during the First and Second world wars. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust boats designed to work...

s. Two of Gaulois crew members were killed in the initial torpedo explosion, while another two died during the battleship's sinking. UB-47 was able to escape the scene unharmed and continued her patrol.

External links

• CUIRASSE Charlemagne