The ''Naïade''-class submarines, sometimes referred to as the ''Perle'' classJane, p. 135. were a group of submarines built 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 ...

at the beginning of the 20th century. There were twenty vessels in this class, which was designed by Gaston Romazotti. The class introduced internal combustion engines into French submarine design. They remained in service until just prior to the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Design and description

The ''Naïade''s were designed by Gaston Romazotti, an early French submarine engineer and director of the

Arsenal de Cherbourg Cherbourg Naval Base is a naval base in Cherbourg Harbour, Cherbourg, Manche department, Normandy. The town has been a base of the French Navy since the opening of the military port in 1813. History Early works Cherbourg had been a stronghold si ...

. They were of a single-hull design, following most previous French submarine designs, but with dual propulsion.Gardiner & Gray p. 207. The hull was constructed of Roma-bronze, a

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

alloy devised by Romazotti to resist corrosion and reduce interference with the boat's

magnetic compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

; it was also believed to offer more flexibility at depth. The ''Naïade'' design was based on the first French submarine, . The submarines had a heavy lead

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

for stability when submerged. The submarines had a surfaced

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of and submerged. They were long with a beam of and draught of . The underwater power for the single shaft was provided by a Société Éclairage Électrique electric motor rated at , while on the surface a

Panhard et Levassor Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles. It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed b ...

petrol engine rated at was used, giving an improved performance on the surface. The submarines had a maximum speed of submerged and on the surface and a range of at submerged and at on the surface. The ''Naïade'' class were armed with two single

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es located externally in Drzewiecki drop collars.Fontenoy, p. 78. These were the first French submarines to incorporate an internal combustion engine into their design.

Assessment

The ''Naïade''s were smaller than Romazotti's previous and s, smaller in fact than any French submarine to that date except the pioneering ''Gymnote''. However the ''Naïade''s had an adequate armament (two torpedoes, carried externally) and a good performance, with a better range than Romazotti's previous designs or the contemporary , though not as good as and . They were considered good surface boats, with good maneuverability but erratic when submerged.

Ships in class

Service history

The ''Naïade''s were ordered as part of the French Navy's 1900 building programme, and were constructed over the next five years at the naval dockyards at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

Rochefort Rochefort () may refer to: Places France * Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department ** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard * Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department * Rochefort-du-Gard, in the Ga ...

and Cherbourg. The entire class was assigned for service in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

apart from the three submarines constructed at Cherbourg which served in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. By 1905, they had been reclassified as harbour defence boats. They remained in service until just prior to the outbreak of the First World War, but by then had been superseded by more modern designs and all were stricken by mid-1914. The wreck of ''Alose'' which was

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

during an aerial bombing exercise in 1918, was discovered and raised in May 1975. The vessel is preserved as a museum piece at the headquarters of COMEX (the ''

Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises COMEX (or Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises) is a French company specializing in engineering and deep diving operations, created in November 1961 by Henri-Germain Delauze and ran by him until his death in 2012. This company is known worldwide for ...

'') in Marseilles and was declared a French national historic site in 2008.Delgado, p. 226.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naïade-class submarine Submarine classes Ship classes of the French Navy