Edgar Quinet-class cruiser
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The ''Edgar Quinet'' class was the last type of
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 ...
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 ...
. The two ships of this class— and —were built between 1905 and 1911. They were based on the previous cruiser, , the primary improvement being a more powerful uniform main battery of guns. The ''Edgar Quinet'' class was the most powerful type of armored cruiser built in France, but they entered service more than two years after the British battlecruiser , which, with its all-big-gun armament, had rendered armored cruisers obsolescent. Both ships operated together in the Mediterranean Fleet after entering service, and they remained in the fleet throughout
World War I 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 ...
. They participated in the blockade of the Adriatic to keep the Austro-Hungarian Navy contained early in the war. During this period, ''Edgar Quinet'' took part in the
Battle of Antivari The Battle of Antivari or Action off Antivari was a naval engagement between a large fleet of French and British warships and two ships of the Austro-Hungarian navy at the start of the First World War. The old Austrian protected cruiser and the ...
in August 1914, and ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' was unsuccessfully attacked twice by Austro-Hungarian
U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
s. ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' participated in the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War or Allied Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions which began in 1918. The Allies first had the goal of helping the Czechoslovak Leg ...
in the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
in 1919–22, while ''Edgar Quinet'' remained in the Mediterranean during the contemporaneous Greco-Turkish War. ''Edgar Quinet'' was converted into a
training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...
in the mid-1920s before running aground off the Algerian coast in January 1930. She could not be pulled free and sank five days later. ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' served as the flagship of the Far East fleet from 1929 to 1932 and was decommissioned after returning to France. She was hulked in 1936 and scrapped in 1941–44.


Development

In the 1890s, naval theorists 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 ...
'' (Young School) in France, particularly Admiral Ernest François Fournier, advocated building a fleet of armored cruisers based on the first French ship of that type, . The ships were to be capable of long-range commerce raiding, action in the
line of battle The line of battle is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for dates ranging from 1502 to 1652. Line-of-battle tacti ...
against older battleships, and reconnaissance for the main fleet. The French Navy subsequently built a series of twenty-four armored cruisers after ''Dupuy de Lôme'', culminating in the two ''Edgar-Quinet''-class ships that were ordered under the 1904 and 1905 construction programs. The design for these last two ships was based heavily on their predecessor, , though they incorporated several improvements. The most significant was the adoption of a uniform primary gun battery; ''Ernest Renan'' carried a mix of two and twelve guns, but the ''Edgar Quinet'' dispensed with the smaller guns in favor of fourteen 194 mm weapons. Their armor layout was also modified and the adopted the same vertical stem that characterized the latest French
pre-dreadnought battleship Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, protec ...
s. Like ''Ernest Renan'', the design for the ''Edgar Quinet'' class was repeatedly reworked during construction, which produced very lengthy construction times. The ''Edgar Quinet''s were the most powerful armored cruisers built by France, but they entered service two years after the British s, and the British ships' all-big-gun armament and steam turbine propulsion rendered all armored cruisers obsolescent. Compared to the British vessels, the ''Edgar Quinet''s retained less effective
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up ...
s, though they were the last major warship to use them.


Description


General characteristics and machinery

The ships of the ''Edgar Quinet'' class were long at the waterline and
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 ...
. They had a beam of and a
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 . ''Edgar Quinet'' displaced , while ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' was slightly heavier, at . The hulls were constructed with mild steel and were fitted with
bilge keel 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 r ...
s to improve stability. The ships had a military foremast with a fighting top and a pole
mainmast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...
. 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 extended for most of the ship, as far as the main mast. They had a crew of 23 officers and 818 enlisted men, and while serving as a divisional flagship, the ships' crew increased by 9 officers and 72 enlisted men of the admiral's staff. Their power plant consisted of three 4-cylinder
triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up ...
s that each drove a
screw propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
. Steam was provided by forty coal-fired Belleville type
water-tube boiler A high pressure watertube boiler (also spelled water-tube and water tube) is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by the fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-gen ...
s in ''Edgar Quinet'' and forty-two
Niclausse boiler A Field-tube boiler (also known as a bayonet tube) is a form of water-tube boiler where the water tubes are single-ended. The tubes are closed at one end, and they contain a concentric inner tube. Flow is thus separated into the colder inner flow ...
s in ''Waldeck-Rousseau''. The boilers were trunked into six funnels in two groups of three. The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . The engines were divided into individual
watertight compartment A compartment is a portion of the space within a ship defined vertically between decks and horizontally between bulkheads. It is analogous to a room within a building, and may provide watertight subdivision of the ship's hull important in retaini ...
s, while the boilers were grouped in pairs in watertight compartments. Maximum coal capacity amounted to , which permitted a cruising range of at a speed of . Electrical power was supplied by six electric generators.


Armament and armor

The ''Edgar Quinet''-class ships were armed with a main battery of fourteen 50- caliber M1902 guns; four were in twin
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 forward and aft, with three single gun turrets on either broadside. The turret mountings allowed for loading at any angle of elevation, and were electrically operated. The forward turrets had a range of train of about 280 degrees. The last four guns were mounted in casemates abreast the main and aft conning towers, on the upper and main decks, respectively. The 194 mm gun had a rate of fire of up to four rounds per minute. The ships' ammunition
magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...
were equipped with refrigeration, which was standardized in French warships following the accidental destruction of the battleship by an overheated propellant magazine in 1907. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twenty 9- pounder guns in casemates in the ship's hull. In 1918, twelve of the ships' 65 mm guns were removed and a pair of 65 mm anti-aircraft guns (AA) and a pair of AA guns were installed. ''Edgar Quinet'' and ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' were also equipped with two
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 submerged in the hull. The ships were protected with an armored belt that was thick
amidships This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water (mostly though not necessarily on the sea). Some remain current, while many date from the 17th ...
and reduced to forward and aft. They had two armored decks; the lower, main deck was 65 mm thick and the upper deck was . The gun turrets had thick plating, with 200 mm thick
barbette Barbettes are several types of gun emplacement in terrestrial fortifications or on naval ships. In recent naval usage, a barbette is a protective circular armour support for a heavy gun turret. This evolved from earlier forms of gun protectio ...
s, while the casemates had marginally thinner protection, at 194 mm. The two pairs of casemates were linked by transverse armored bulkheads; the outer bulkhead was 194 mm thick while the inner bulkhead was thick. The main conning tower had 200 mm thick sides. Underwater protection consisted of a
cofferdam A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for construction or re ...
built into the lower hull with a longitudinal watertight bulkhead behind it.


Ships


Service history

After entering service in early and mid-1911, respectively, ''Edgar Quinet'' and ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' were assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1913, ''Edgar Quinet'' participated in an international naval demonstration that also included British, German, and Austro-Hungarian vessels off Albania. The demonstration was a protest of the siege of Scutari during the
First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
; it succeeded in forcing the Serbian army to withdraw and allowing an international force to occupy the city. Both ''Edgar Quinet'' and ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' saw service in the Mediterranean during
World War I 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 ...
. ''Edgar Quinet'' joined the hunt for the German battlecruiser in August 1914, and both ships participated in the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic. Later in August, ''Edgar Quinet'' was present at the
Battle of Antivari The Battle of Antivari or Action off Antivari was a naval engagement between a large fleet of French and British warships and two ships of the Austro-Hungarian navy at the start of the First World War. The old Austrian protected cruiser and the ...
, which saw the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian cruiser . While on patrol at the mouth of the Adriatic, ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' was attacked twice by Austro-Hungarian
U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
s, though neither submarine was able to hit the cruiser. During the first action in October, several Austro-Hungarian destroyers briefly skirmished with ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' after the U-boat attacked her. Both cruisers were involved in the seizure of Corfu in January 1916. After the end of the war, both ships continued service in the eastern Mediterranean and
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
s. ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' joined the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War or Allied Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions which began in 1918. The Allies first had the goal of helping the Czechoslovak Leg ...
and operated in support of the White Russians against the Red
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s; shortly after arriving, her crew mutinied over poor conditions but quickly resumed their duties. ''Edgar Quinet'' meanwhile remained in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Turkish War, and during the
Great Fire of Smyrna The burning of Smyrna ( el, Καταστροφή της Σμύρνης, "Smyrna Catastrophe"; tr, 1922 İzmir Yangını, "1922 Izmir Fire"; hy, Զմիւռնիոյ Մեծ Հրդեհ, ''Zmyuṙno Mets Hrdeh'') destroyed much of the port city of ...
, at the climax of the conflict, she rescued 1,200 people from the city. ''Edgar Quinet'' was converted into a training ship in the mid-1920s, a role she filled for the remainder of the decade. On 4 January 1930, she ran aground off the Algerian coast and could not be freed. She sank five days later. ''Waldeck-Rousseau'' had meanwhile been assigned as the flagship of the Far East fleet in 1929, where she remained until 1932, when she returned to France. She was decommissioned upon arrival, hulked in 1936, and broken up for scrap in 1941–1944.


Footnotes


Notes


Citations


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgar Quinet class cruiser Ships built in France Ship classes of the French Navy