French battleship Gaulois

''Gaulois'' was one of three ''Charlemagne''-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy () in the mid-1890s. Completed in 1899, she spent most of her career assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron (). The ship accidentally rammed two other French warships early in her career, although neither was seriously damaged, nor was ''Gaulois''.

Following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, ''Gaulois'' escorted troop convoys from French North Africa to France for a month and a half. She was ordered to the Dardanelles in November 1914 to guard against a sortie into the Mediterranean by the ex-German battlecruiser . In 1915, ''Gaulois'' joined British ships in bombarding Ottoman fortifications. She was badly damaged during one such bombardment in March and had to beach herself to avoid sinking. She was refloated and sent to Toulon for permanent repairs. ''Gaulois'' returned to the Dardanelles and covered the Allied evacuation in January 1916. She was en route to the Dardanelles after a refit in France when she was torpedoed and sunk on 27 December by a German submarine; four crewmen were lost.

Design and description

The ''Charlemagne''-class ships were smaller versions of the preceding , albeit with an improved armament. They were long overall and had a beam of . At deep load, the ships had a draught of forward and aft. They displaced normally, and at deep load. When serving as flagships, their crew numbered 750 men, but had 32 officers and 660 ratings as private ships.Caresse, p. 117 The ships were powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam generated by 20 Belleville boilers. These boilers were coal-burning with auxiliary oil sprayers and were designed to produce to give the ''Charlemagne'' class a speed of .Jordan & Caresse, p. 46 During her sea trials, ''Gaulois'' reached a top speed of from . The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of .

The ''Charlemagne''s carried their main battery of four Canon de Modèle 1893 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament consisted of ten Canon de Modèle 1893 guns, eight of which were mounted in individual casemates and the remaining pair in shielded mounts on the forecastle deck amidships. They also carried eight Canon de Modèle 1893 guns in open mounts on the superstructure. The ships' anti-torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty Canon de Modèle 1885 and two Maxim guns, fitted in platforms on both masts, on the superstructure, and in casemates in the hull. The ships mounted four torpedo tubes, two on each broadside, one submerged and the other above water. As was common with ships of their generation, they were built with a plough-shaped ram.

The ''Charlemagne''-class ships had a complete waterline belt of nickel-steel armour that ranged in thickness from and was thickest amidships. The armour plates were high with the upper above the design waterline and they tapered to a maximum thickness of at their bottom edges. The thicknesses of the bottom edges of the plates gradually reduced to at the bow and at the stern. The gun turrets were protected by of Harvey armour and their barbettes had plates of the same type of armour. The main armoured deck was thick and there was a splinter deck below it. The conning tower had a face and sides.

Construction and career

''Gaulois'', named after the tribes that inhabited France during Roman times, was ordered on 22 January 1895 from the Arsenal de Brest. Her sister ship was being built in the slipway intended for ''Gaulois'' so the latter ship's construction was delayed until the former was launched. ''Gaulois'' was laid down on 6 January 1896 and launched on 6 October of the same year. She was commissioned () on 15 January 1899. The ship was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (), but was then assigned to the 1st Battleship Division of the Mediterranean Squadron on 30 September, together with ''Charlemagne''.

The sisters remained based in Brest until they departed for Toulon on 18 January 1900. The following month, while exercising in the harbour at Hyères, ''Gaulois'' accidentally rammed the destroyer , gouging a hole in the smaller ship. ''Hallebarde'' reached Toulon where she was repaired, while the battleship was barely damaged. On 18 July, after combined manoeuvres with the Northern Squadron, the ship participated in a naval review conducted by the President of France, Émile Loubet, at Cherbourg. The following year, ''Gaulois'' and the Mediterranean Squadron participated in an international naval review by Loubet in Toulon with ships from Spain, Italy and Russia.

In October 1901, the 1st Battleship Division, under the command of Rear-Admiral () Leonce Caillard, was ordered to proceed to the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, then owned by the Ottoman Empire. After landing two companies of marines that occupied the major ports of the island on 7 November, Sultan Abdul Hamid II agreed to enforce contracts made with French companies and to repay loans made by French banks. The 1st Division departed Lesbos in early December and returned to Toulon. In May 1902, the ship became the flagship of Vice-Admiral () François Fournier who led a small delegation to celebrate the unveiling of the statue of Comte de Rochambeau in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. On 23 May President Theodore Roosevelt was received aboard and the ship visited New York City and Boston before heading back to France. She made another port visit to Lisbon, Portugal, before arriving back at Toulon on 14 June.

During exercises off Golfe-Juan on 31 January 1903, ''Gaulois'' accidentally rammed ''Bouvet''. The latter was barely damaged, but ''Gaulois'' lost two armour plates from her bow; both captains were relieved of their commands. Captain () Pierre Le Bris assumed command of ''Gaulois'' on 20 March. In April 1904, she was one of the ships that escorted Loubet during his state visit to Italy. Later that year, the ship made port visits in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece, with the rest of the Mediterranean Squadron. A wireless telegraph was installed aboard ''Gaulois'' in December 1905. Together with the battleships and ''Bouvet'', the ship aided survivors of the April 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. On 16 September she participated in an international naval review in Marseille, together with British, Spanish and Italian ships.

For the rest of the decade, she participated in exercises with the Mediterranean Squadron and made several port visits in France and its dependencies. In January 1907, the ships was transferred to the 2nd Battleship Division and then to the 4th Battleship Division in July 1908 with her sisters. By 5 January 1909, the 4th Division had been reassigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron (). ''Gaulois'' sank the target ship on 18 March after she had been fired upon by four other battleships. By 5 January 1910 the divisions of the battle squadrons had been renumbered and the 4th Division was now the 1st Division of the 2nd Battle Squadron. The squadron was transferred to Brest where it replaced the former Northern Squadron on 27 February. Shortly afterwards, one of ''Gaulois''s torpedoes moderately damaged the bow of the destroyer while training. On 1 August 1911 the 2nd Battle Squadron was renumbered as the 3rd Battle Squadron and ''Gaulois'' participated in a large naval review by President Armand Fallières off Toulon on 4 September. The ship was reassigned to the Mediterranean Squadron on 16 October 1912 and she participated in a naval review by President Raymond Poincaré on 10 June 1913. The 3rd Battle Squadron was dissolved on 11 November 1913 and the ship was assigned to the Complementary Division () together with ''Bouvet'' and her sister . In June 1914, the Navy planned to assign ''Gaulois'' to the Training Division of the Squadron as of October, but this was cancelled upon the outbreak of war in August.

World War I

Together with the older French pre-dreadnoughts, the ship's first mission in the war was to escort troop convoys from North Africa to France. Later in September, her main turrets required repairs in Bizerte, French Tunisia, as the forward turret was having difficulty traversing. ''Gaulois'' was ordered to Tenedos Island, not far from the Ottoman Gallipoli Peninsula, in November to guard against a sortie by the ex-German battlecruiser ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'', relieving the battleship which needed a refit in Toulon. ''Gaulois'' became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Émile Guépratte upon her arrival on 15 November. He transferred his flag back to ''Suffren'' when she returned on 10 January 1915.

On 19 February, ''Gaulois'' supported ''Suffren'' as the latter ship bombarded Ottoman forts covering the mouth of the Dardanelles. Late in the day, ''Gaulois'' bombarded the fort at Orhaniye Tepe on the Asian side of the strait. During the subsequent bombardment on 25 February, the ship anchored some from the Asiatic shore and engaged the forts at Kum Kale and Cape Helles. Their return fire was heavy enough to force ''Gaulois'' to up anchor before she could suppress their guns. Later in the day, she closed to within of the forts and engaged them with her secondary armament. During the day's action, the ship was hit twice, but these did little damage.

On 2 March, the French squadron bombarded targets in the Gulf of Saros, at the base of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Five days later, the French squadron attempted to suppress the Ottoman guns defending the Dardanelles while British battleships bombarded the fortifications. ''Gaulois'' was hit by a shell during this attack that caused little damage as it failed to detonate. Guépratte and his squadron returned to the Gulf of Saros on 11 March where they again bombarded Ottoman fortifications.

They returned to the Dardanelles to assist in the major attack on the fortifications planned for 18 March. British ships made the initial entry into the strait, but the French ships passed through them to engage the forts at closer range. ''Gaulois'' was hit twice during this bombardment; the first shell struck the quarterdeck, but caused little damage other than deforming the deck. The second shell hit just above the waterline on the starboard bow and appeared to do little damage, but it had pushed in the armour plates below the waterline and opened up a hole by through which water flooded. Little could be done to staunch the inflow and Captain André-Casimir Biard decided to head for the Rabbit Islands, north of Tenedos, where he could beach his ship for temporary repairs. He ordered the non-essential crewmen off the ship in case she foundered en route, but managed to reach the islands, escorted by ''Charlemagne''.

''Gaulois'' was refloated on 22 March and departed for Toulon via Malta three days later, escorted by ''Suffren''. They encountered a storm on 27 March off Cape Matapan and the ship began taking on water as the repairs began to leak under the pressure of the storm. She radioed for assistance later that night and the armoured cruiser and three destroyers arrived several hours later. The ship arrived in the Bay of Navarin the following morning and more repairs were made with the assistance of the crew of the hulked old battleship . ''Gaulois'' arrived without further incident at Toulon on 16 April and entered drydock the following day. The Navy took the opportunity to increase her stability by lightening her masts, removing some armour from the superstructure and conning tower as well as dismounting two 100 mm and six 47 mm guns. The ship was also fitted with anti-torpedo bulges () amidships to increase her beam and thus her stability.

Her repairs were completed by early June and ''Gaulois'' departed for the Dardanelles on 8 June. She reached Lemnos on 17 June and relieved ''Saint Louis'' on 27 July. The ship anchored off the shore on 11 August to bombard an Ottoman artillery battery at Achi Baba. Splinters from return fire detonated a 100 mm shell and started a small fire, but it was put out without much trouble. On her voyage home, ''Gaulois'' ran aground at the harbour entrance and had to unload most of her ammunition before she could be refloated on 21 August. Together with the pre-dreadnought , the ship covered the Allied evacuation from Gallipoli in January 1916. Badly in need of a refit, she sailed for Brest on 20 July where her captain argued that the range of her main armament needed to be increased by if she was to be considered fit for the battleline. Some thought was given to disarming her and converting her into a barracks ship, but nothing was done before the ship was ordered back to the Eastern Mediterranean on 25 November.

Fate

By 27 December, ''Gaulois'' had reached the Sea of Crete and was off the southern coast of Greece when she was torpedoed by the at 08:03 despite being escorted by the destroyer and two armed trawlers. The single torpedo hit slightly abaft the mainmast and started uncontrollable flooding below the waterline. It killed two crewmen and another pair drowned as they attempted to abandon ship; the rest of the crew was successfully rescued. The ship capsized at 09:03 and sank eight minutes later off Cape Maleas at in of water.Caresse, pp. 133–134; Jordan & Caresse, pp. 271–272

References

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaulois (1896)
Charlemagne-class battleships
Maritime incidents in 1915
Maritime incidents in 1916
Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I
World War I battleships of France
1896 ships
World War I shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea
Ships with Belleville boilers