French battleship Iéna
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''Iéna'' was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy (). Completed in 1902 and named for one of Napoleon's victories, the ship was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and remained there for the duration of her career, frequently serving 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 ...
. She participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres and made many visits to French ports in the Mediterranean. In 1907, while ''Iéna'' was docked for a refit, there was a
magazine 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 combinatio ...
explosion that was probably caused by the decomposition of old '' Poudre B''
propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
. It killed 120 people and badly damaged the ship. Investigations were launched afterwards, and the ensuing scandal forced the Navy Minister to resign. While the damage could have been repaired, the obsolete ship was considered neither worth the time nor the expense; her salvaged
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was used as a gunnery target in 1909, then 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 1912.


Design and description

On 11 February 1897 Navy Minister ()
Armand Besnard Gustave Besnard (11 October 1833, Rambouillet – 15 July 1903, Château du Rohu near Lorient) was a French admiral and ''Ministre de la Marine''. Biography From the time he joined the French Navy as a cadet at the ''École Navale'' in 1849, u ...
, after consultations with the Supreme Naval Council (), requested a design for an enlarged with a maximum
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 , an armour scheme capable of preserving stability and buoyancy after several penetrations of the hull and the resulting flooding, an armament equal to those of foreign battleships, a speed of and a minimum range of . The Director of Naval Construction (), Jules Thibaudier, had already prepared a preliminary design two months earlier with improved Harvey armour, but it was modified to increase the height of the belt armour above the waterline and to replace the guns of the ''Charlemagne''s with guns. Thibaudier submitted his revised design on 9 February and it was approved by the Board of Construction () on 4 March with minor revisions. ''Iéna'' had an overall length of , 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, at deep load, a draught of forward and aft. She displaced at normal and at deep load.Caresse, p. 121 As a flagship, ''Iéna'' had a crew of 48 officers and 731 ratings; as a
private ship Private ship is a term used in the Royal Navy to describe that status of a commissioned warship in active service that is not currently serving as the flagship of a flag officer (i.e., an admiral or commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * C ...
, her crew numbered 33 officers and 668 ratings. The ship was fitted with large bilge keels, but, according to naval historian N.J.M. Campbell, was reported to roll considerably and pitch heavily,Campbell, p. 296 although this is contradicted by Captain () Bouxin's report of November 1905: "From the sea-keeping point of view the ''Iéna'' is an excellent ship. Pitching and rolling movements are gentle and the ship rides the waves well." Naval historians John Jordan and Philippe Caresse believe the ship was a good gun platform because she had a long, slow roll and she manoeuvred well. ''Iéna'' was powered by a trio of four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a three-bladed
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 ...
that was in diameter on the outer shafts and on the centre shaft. The engines were powered by 20
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 at a working pressure of and were rated at a total of to give the ship a speed of . During her sea trials on 16 July 1901, the ship barely exceeded her designed speed, reaching from . ''Iéna'' carried a maximum of of coal; this allowed her to steam for at a speed of . The ship's 80- volt electrical power was provided by four dynamos, a pair each of 600- and 1,200-
ampere The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to elect ...
capacity.Jordan & Caresse, p. 71


Armament and armour

Like the ''Charlemagne''-class ships, ''Iéna'' carried her main armament of four 40- calibre Canon de Modèle 1893–1896 guns in two twin- 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 ...
. Each turret had a dedicated 300-ampere dynamo to traverse it and to power the ammunition hoist. The guns, however, were manually elevated between their limits of −5° and +15°, and they were normally loaded at an angle of −5°. The guns fired
armour-piercing, capped Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
(APC) 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 .Jordan & Caresse, p. 68 This gave a range of at the maximum elevation of +15°. The magazines stored 45 shells per gun, and an additional 14 projectiles were stowed in each turret. The ship's secondary armament consisted of eight 45-calibre Canon de 164.7 mm Modèle 1893 guns, which were mounted in the central battery on the upper deck, and fired APC shells. At their maximum elevation of +15°, their muzzle velocity of gave them a maximum range of . Each gun was provided with 200 rounds, enough for 80 minutes at their sustained
rate of fire Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. This can be influenced by several factors, including operator training level, mechanical limitations, ammunition availability, and weapon condition. In m ...
of 2–3 rounds per minute. She also carried eight 45-calibre Canon de Modèle 1893 guns in single, unprotected, mounts on the shelter deck. These guns fired a projectile at , which could be trained up to 20° for a maximum range of . Their theoretical maximum rate of fire was six rounds per minute, but only three rounds per minute could be sustained. Each gun was provided with 240 shells in the ship's magazine. ''Iéna''s anti- torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty 40-calibre Canon de Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns, fitted in platforms on both
military mast __NOTOC__ M ...
s, embrasures in the hull, and in the superstructure. They fired a projectile at to a maximum range of . Their theoretical maximum rate of fire was fifteen rounds per minute, but only seven rounds per minute sustained. The ship's magazines held 15,000 shells for these guns.Caresse, pp. 121–122 Rear-Admiral () René Marquis criticised the arrangements for the 47 mm guns in a 1903 report: "The number of ready-use rounds is insufficient and the hoists are desperately slow. The 47 mm guns, much more so than the large and medium-calibre guns, will have to fight at night; yet these are the only guns without a fire-control system designed for night operations. This is a deficiency which needs to be corrected as soon as possible." ''Iéna'' also mounted four torpedo tubes, two on each
broadside Broadside or broadsides may refer to: Naval * Broadside (naval), terminology for the side of a ship, the battery of cannon on one side of a warship, or their near simultaneous fire on naval warfare Printing and literature * Broadside (comic ...
, one submerged and the other above water. The submerged tubes were fixed at a 60° angle from the centreline and the above-water mounts could traverse 80°. Twelve Modèle 1889 torpedoes were carried, of which four were training models in peacetime. The ship had a complete waterline belt of Harvey armour that was high. The armour plates were thick amidships; they thinned to a thickness of at the bow and at the stern. Below the waterline, the plates tapered to a thickness of at their bottom edge for most of the ship's length although the plates at the stern were 100 mm thick. The upper armour belt was in two strakes, the lower 120 mm thick and the upper . Their combined height was amidships. The lower strake was backed by a highly subdivided cofferdam intended to reduce flooding from any penetrating hits as its compartments were filled by 14,858 water-resistant "bricks" of dried and compressed
Zostera ''Zostera'' is a small genus of widely distributed seagrasses, commonly called marine eelgrass, or simply seagrass or eelgrass, and also known as seaweed by some fishermen and recreational boaters including yachtsmen. The genus ''Zostera'' con ...
seaweed (). The seaweed was intended to expand upon contact with water and plug any holes. The armoured deck consisted of a
mild steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...
plate laid over two plates. The splinter deck beneath it comprised two layers of plates. The Harvey armour plates protecting the sides of the turrets were in thickness and the mild steel of the turret roofs was thick. The barbettes were protected by of Harvey armour. The sides and rear of the central battery were thick. The forward transverse bulkhead ranged in thickness from , the thicker plates protecting the central battery, and reduced in thickness the further down it went until it met the armoured deck. The 164 mm guns were protected by
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. The armour 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 ...
ranged in thickness from on its face and rear, respectively. Its communications tube was protected by of armour.


Construction and career

Ordered on 3 April 1897, and named after the French victory at the
Battle of Jena A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, ''Iéna'' was laid down at the Arsenal de Brest on 15 January 1898. She was launched on 1 September and completed () on 14 April 1902 at a cost of F25.58 million. Five days later the ship departed for Toulon, losing one man overboard and having some problems with her rudder en route, before arriving on 25 April. ''Iéna'' became Marquis' flagship as commander of the Second Division of the Mediterranean Squadron on 1 May and was docked for repairs during 14–31 May. After the completion of the repairs the ship began a series of port visits in France and French North Africa which would be repeated for most of her career. She spent most of January 1903 refitting and was inspected by King
Alfonso XIII of Spain Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 â€“ 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alf ...
during a visit to Cartagena in June. After another refit from 20 August to 10 September, ''Iéna'', together with the rest of the Mediterranean Squadron, visited the
Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
in October. During the return voyage, two crewmen died while training with the manual steering gear in heavy seas. Marquis was relieved by Rear-Admiral Léon Barnaud on 3 November. ''Iéna'' conducted training exercises off the coast of Provence from 19 November to 17 December. ''Iéna'' participated in the fleet review off Naples in April–May 1904 when Émile Loubet, President of France, had a state visit with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Afterwards, the Mediterranean Squadron cruised the Levant, visiting Beirut, Suda Bay, Smyrna, Mytilene, Salonika and Piraeus. In 1905 the ship was refitted during 15–25 April and then participated in the summer cruise of the Mediterranean Squadron, during which she visited ports in France and French North Africa between 10 May and 24 June. She took part in the annual fleet manoeuvres over the period 3 July–1 August. Rear-Admiral Henri-Louis Manceron relieved Barnaud on 16 November. During 12–17 April 1906, ''Iéna'' was dispatched to provide assistance to Naples after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Beginning on 3 July, the ship participated in the combined fleet manoeuvres, which included the Northern Squadron that year. After the conclusion of the exercise on 4 August, she spent most of the next several months refitting, aside from participating in an international naval review in
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 ...
on 16 September with British, Spanish and Italian ships. While exercising off Toulon shortly afterwards, the ship accidentally collided with and sank ''Torpedo Boat No. 96''.


Loss

On 4 March 1907 ''Iéna'' was moved into
Dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
No. 2 in the Missiessy Basin at Toulon to undergo maintenance of her hull as well as an inspection of her leaking rudder shaft. Eight days later, beginning at 13:35 and continuing until 14:45, a series of explosions began near the aft 100-millimetre magazines which devastated the ship and the surrounding area. The explosions blew the roofs off three nearby workshops and gutted the area between the aft funnel and the aft turret. Because the ship was in a dry dock with the water pumped out, it was initially impossible to flood the magazines, which had not been unloaded before docking. The commanding officer of the battleship , which was moored nearby, fired a shell into the dry dock gates in an attempt to flood it, but the shell ricocheted without holing the gate. They were manually opened shortly afterwards by one of the ship's officers. A total of 118 crewmen and dockyard workers were killed by the explosions, as were 2 civilians in the suburb of Pont-Las who were killed by fragments. On 17 March, the President of France, Armand Fallières, and Georges Clemenceau, who was both the President of the
Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
and
Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
attended the funeral of those lost during the explosion. A national day of mourning was declared and a monument was built in the cemetery of Lagoubran. Both houses of the French Parliament, the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and the
Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
, organised commissions to inquire into the cause of the explosion. The Senate appointed its commission on 20 March under the
chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
ship of Ernest Monis; the Chamber of Deputies followed eight days later with Henri Michel as chair. The origin of the first explosion was traced to a 100 mm magazine and was believed to have been caused by decomposing , a nitrocellulose-based propellant, which tended to become unstable with age and self-ignite, though a report published in April 1907 stated a torpedo exploded in the torpedo room directly below the magazine. When burnt, it gave off yellow-coloured smoke, which matched the colour seen by eye-witnesses. To test this theory,
Gaston Thomson Gaston Thomson was a French politician born 29 January 1848 in Oran, French Algeria; died 14 May 1932 at Bône (Algeria). He was a member of the French Chamber of Deputies for the Department of Constantine for fifty years and three months. He w ...
, the Navy Minister, ordered on 31 March that a replica magazine and the adjacent black-powder magazine be built, but when the tests were conducted on 6–7 August, they were deemed inconclusive because the propellant used in the test was not of the same age as that aboard ''Iéna''. Fallières appointed a technical commission on 6 August that included mathematician
Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 â€“ 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...
, chemist
Albin Haller Albin Haller (7 March 1849, Fellering – 1 May 1925) was a French chemist.W. J. Pope (1925) ''Nature'', Vol.115(2900), p.843 "Prof. Albin Haller, For. Mem. R.S" (obituary) Haller founded the École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chim ...
and the inventor of ,
Paul Vieille Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, that failed to come to a definite conclusion. The navy's Propellant Branch (Service des Poudres et Saltpêtres) objected to the criticisms of its product, claiming that it was tested to resist temperatures for 12 hours, although it never explained how that test was relevant to the long-term storage of in magazines limited to natural ventilation, as was used by every ship in the fleet. The Monis Commission published its report on 9 July, blaming the explosion on , and was debated on 21–26 November. The Michel Commission published its report on 7 November 1908, although its contents had been debated on 16–19 October, and was "a model of vagueness and imprecision". The reason for the explosion became a with accusations of gross negligence by the government such that Thomson was forced to resign on the last day of the debate.


Disposal

The multiple explosions ripped open the ship's side between Frames 74 and 84 down to the lower edge of the armour belt, and all the machinery in this area was destroyed. After it was estimated that it would take seven million francs and two years to fully repair ''Iéna'', which was already obsolete, the navy decided to decommission her and use her as a target ship. The ship was stricken from the navy list on 18 March and her crew was reassigned on 3 July. ''Iéna'' was disarmed, except for her 305 mm guns, and all useful equipment was removed in 1908. She was rendered seaworthy again at a cost of 700,000 francs and was towed to a mooring off the . A programme to evaluate the effectiveness of Melinite-filled
armour-piercing shell Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...
s began on 9 August 1909 with the
armoured 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 ...
firing projectiles from her 164.7 mm and guns at a range of . After every shot the results were photographed and the effects on the crew of wooden dummies and live animals evaluated. By 2 December ''Iéna'' was close to foundering and the navy decided to have her towed to deeper water. Shortly after the tow began, she
capsized Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...
and sank in shallow water. The rights to the wreck were sold on 21 December 1912 for 33,005 francs and it was slowly broken up and salvaged between 1912 and 1927. Another company was contracted to remove the remnants of the wreck in 1957.Caresse, pp. 129, 134, 137–138


Notes


References

* * * * * *


Further reading

* * * '' Le Petit Journal supplément illustré'' 31 March 1907, 21 April 1907 * ''L’Illustration'' n°3342 (16 March 1907) an
3343
(23 March 1907)


External links



{{DEFAULTSORT:Iena Ships built in France 1898 ships Maritime incidents in 1907 Battleships of the French Navy Ships sunk by non-combat internal explosions 1907 in France Shipwrecks of France Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea