The ''Gueydon''-class cruiser was a three-ship

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...

s built in the first decade of the twentieth century for the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

().

Design and description

Gueydon class cruiser diagrams Brasseys 1906

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, the ''Gueydon''-class ships were intended to be smaller and cheaper than the preceding armored cruiser design, . Like the older ship, they were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the ''

Jeune École The ''Jeune École'' ("Young School") was a strategic naval concept developed during the 19th century. It advocated the use of small, heavily armed vessels to combat larger battleships, and the use of commerce raiders to cripple the trade of the ...

''. The ships measured

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

with a

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of and had a maximum

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

of . They displaced . They had a crew of 566 officers and enlisted men.Campbell, p. 305 The ''Gueydon'' class had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

. Steam for the engines was provided by 20 or 28

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

s and they were rated at a total of that gave them a speed of . The ships carried up to of coal and could steam for at a speed of .Silverstone, p. 79 The ships of the ''Gueydon'' class had a main armament that consisted of two 40- caliber guns that were mounted in single

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechani ...

s, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised eight 45-caliber quick-firing (QF) guns in casemates. For anti-

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

defense, they carried four 45-caliber QF guns on the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

deck, ten QF and four QF Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with two submerged

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s. The

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armor belt Belt armor is a layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hulls of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, and aircraft carriers. The belt armor is designed to prevent projectiles from penetrating ...

of the ''Gueydon''-class cruisers extended from below the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...

to the main deck. It reached the upper deck for a length of from the bow and covered the entire length of the ship except for of the stern where it ended in a transverse bulkhead thick. The lower

strake On a vessel's hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of planking or plating which runs from the boat's stempost (at the bows) to the sternpost or transom (at the rear). The garboard strakes are the two immediately adjacent to the keel on ea ...

of armor was generally thick, although it reduced to forward, aft, and thinned to at its lower edge. The upper strake of armor had thicknesses of and between the main and upper decks. The curved lower protective deck ranged in thickness from 2 to 2.2 inches. In addition there was a light armor deck thick at the top of the lower armor strake. A watertight internal

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, filled with

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, stretched between these two decks. The gun turrets were protected by armor and had roofs thick. Their ammunition hoists had 2 inches of armor and the 100-millimeter guns were protected by gun shields. The sides of the conning tower were 160 millimeters thick. The forward end of the casemate compartment was closed off by a bulkhead and a bulkhead extended down to the lower deck at the rear end of the compartment.

Ships

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{WWI French ships Ship classes of the French Navy