Bouvines-class coast defense ship
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The ''Bouvines'' class consisted of a pair of
ironclad An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...
coastal-defense ships built for the French Navy () in the 1890s, and . Thoroughly obsolete by World War I, the ships only played a minor role during the war. They were sold for
scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...
in 1920.


Design and description

In 1887 preliminary design work began on an armored coast-defence ship intended to serve as the centerpiece of a group of torpedo boats under the auspices of
Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
Théophile Aube,
Minister of the Navy and Colonies One of France's Secretaries of State under the Ancien Régime was entrusted with control of the French Navy ( Secretary of State of the Navy (France).) In 1791, this title was changed to Minister of the Navy. Before January 1893, this position a ...
, and an ardent exponent of the (Young School) of naval strategy that believed in the primacy of coastal defences and commerce raiding. The torpedo warfare role was eventually dropped and four coast-defence ironclads, the and the ''Bouvines'' classes, were ordered in 1889. The ''Bouvines''-class ships were
half-sisters A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...
to the ''Jemmapes'' class laid down at the same time. They were virtually identical except that the ''Bouvine''s were given a forecastle deck to improve seaworthiness and the main armament was lightened to compensate for the additional weight, as guns were installed rather than the 340 mm (13.4 in) guns of the ''Jemmapes'' class.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 301 ''Bouvines'' and ''Amiral Tréhouart'' were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a
beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a draft of forward and aft. They were only slightly heavier than the ''Jemmapes'' class and displaced , only more than the other ships. ''Bouvines'' had a metacentric height of . Once in service they proved to roll badly so
bilge keels A bilge keel is a nautical device used to reduce a ship's tendency to roll. Bilge keels are employed in pairs (one for each side of the ship). A ship may have more than one bilge keel per side, but this is rare. Bilge keels increase hydrodynamic re ...
were later fitted. Their crew numbered 15 officers and 318 ratings; service as a flagship added 5 more officers and 33 more ratings.Sturton, p. 177 The ''Bouvines''-class ships used two inclined horizontal triple-expansion steam engines built by Menpenti of
Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
, one engine per shaft. ''Bouvines''s engines were powered by 16 d'Allest-Lagrafel water-tube boilers and had two funnels, but ''Amiral Tréhouart'' used the same number of
Belleville boiler There have been a vast number of designs of steam boiler, particularly towards the end of the 19th century when the technology was evolving rapidly. A great many of these took the names of their originators or primary manufacturers, rather than a m ...
s instead and had only one funnel. The engines produced a total of and gave a top speed of on trials. The ships carried a maximum of of coal which allowed them to steam for at a speed of .


Armament and armor

Like the ''Jemmapes'' class, the ''Bouvines''-class ships carried their main armament of two 45-
caliber In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge (firearms) , bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the f ...
Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1887 The Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1887 was a heavy naval gun used as the main armament of a number of French pre-dreadnoughts and coastal defense ships during World War I. Eight were converted to railway artillery in World War I and four were used dur ...
guns in two single- gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the
superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...
. The guns fired projectiles at the rate of one round per minute at a
muzzle velocity Muzzle velocity is the speed of a projectile (bullet, pellet, slug, ball/shots or shell) with respect to the muzzle at the moment it leaves the end of a gun's barrel (i.e. the muzzle). Firearm muzzle velocities range from approximately to i ...
of approximately . The guns could be depressed to −4° and elevation to +10°. The ships'
secondary armament Secondary armament is a term used to refer to smaller, faster-firing weapons that were typically effective at a shorter range than the main (heavy) weapons on military systems, including battleship- and cruiser-type warships, tanks/armored ...
consisted of eight 53-caliber Canon de Modèle 1892 guns, four of which were mounted in individual
casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...
s. The other four were carried on
pivot mount A pivot gun was a type of cannon mounted on a fixed central emplacement which permitted it to be moved through a wide horizontal arc. They were a common weapon aboard ships and in land fortifications for several centuries but became obsolete aft ...
s with
gun shield A U.S. Marine manning an M240 machine gun equipped with a gun shield A gun shield is a flat (or sometimes curved) piece of armor designed to be mounted on a crew-served weapon such as a machine gun, automatic grenade launcher, or artillery piece ...
s on the shelter deck directly above the four casemated guns on the corners of the superstructure.de la Loge d'Ausson, p. 21 The guns fired shells at a muzzle velocity of . Initially four 40-caliber Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns were carried for defence from torpedo boats in the
fighting top The top on a traditional square rigged ship, is the platform at the upper end of each (lower) mast. This is not the masthead "crow's nest" of the popular imagination – above the mainmast (for example) is the main-topmast, main-topgallant-mast a ...
in the
military mast __NOTOC__ M ...
, but this was later increased to eight, with the new guns on the superstructure. They fired a projectile at to a maximum range of . Initially ten
Hotchkiss revolving cannon The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different products of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun; there were also a navy (47 mm) and a 3-inch (76&nbs ...
were positioned on the superstructure, but this was reduced to three when the additional 47 mm guns were added. Two torpedo tubes were mounted above the waterline, but they were removed in 1906. The armor of the ''Bouvines''-class ships weighted . They had a complete waterline
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 to t ...
of steel that tapered from the maximum thickness of amidships to at the ship's ends. The belt's height was an average of , but increased to at the bow and to at the stern. The ships were intended to have of the belt showing above the waterline, but they were overweight as completed and only of the belt was above the waterline. The hull above the belt was completely unarmored. The maximum thickness of the armored deck was and it was joined to the top of the armor belt. The main
turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...
armor was thick although the barbettes were only thick. The plates protecting the
conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer in charge can conn the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for the ship's engine, rudder, lines, and gro ...
measured in thickness.Sturton, pp. 177–178


Ships

''Bouvines'' was authorized in the Supplementary Estimates of 1889 although ''Amiral Tréhouart'' had been authorized in the 1889 Ordinary Naval Estimates with the name of ''Tréhouart'', although she was renamed on 25 March 1895. ''Bouvines'' was ordered on 18 December 1889.


History

''Bouvines'' served as a
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
for the entirety of her active service where she served both in the ''Northern Squadron'' and ''Channel Flotilla'' in the
Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...
and the English Channel as well as in the ''Mediterranean Squadron''. She was stricken on 1 July 1913 and was used by the Inspection Service at
Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...
between 1914 and 1917. She was condemned in 1918 and sold for scrapping in 1920. Little is known of ''Amiral Tréhouart''s career other than she served as a submarine tender during World War I.


Notes


Citations


References

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External links


nice picture gallery of the ships once you scroll about 2/3 down
{{French ironclads Ships built in France Coastal defense ships of the French Navy