French submarine Charles Brun
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''Charles Brun'' was one of four experimental
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s ordered for the French Navy in 1906. Each boat was built to a different design and ''Charles Brun'' was intended to test a novel powerplant. Although the shore-based
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
installation was successful, it was a failure when evaluated aboard the submarine, and the boat was never commissioned for active service. Her
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
was stripped of its equipment and was used to test a
floating drydock 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, ...
in 1914. During the First World War, the hull was ordered to be converted into a water tank in 1916, but it is not certain if this was actually done before it was 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.


Background

The
naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture occupations Design occupations Architecture, Occupations ...
and engineer Just Lucien Maurice had submitted multiple submarine designs to the Navy's Board of Construction () using a unique
closed-cycle A closed system is a natural physical system that does not allow transfer of matter in or out of the system, although — in contexts such as physics, chemistry or engineering — the transfer of energy (''e.g.'' as work or heat) is allowed. In ...
powerplant of his own design. The board rejected the four proposals that he submitted in 1902, believing them to be too high risk and that their submerged range was inadequate. The Navy Minister (), Jean de Lanessan, was intrigued by his concept and ordered that a prototype of his powerplant be built at the Cherbourg Naval Base () for testing.Roberts, p. 444 Maurice had designed a steam
fire-tube boiler A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler in which hot gases pass from a fire through one or more tubes running through a sealed container of water. The heat of the gases is transferred through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating t ...
that utilized the boiler's combustion gases to heat a mixture of sodium acetate and potassium in the space between the two concentric fire tubes. Once the mixture melted at a temperature of , it would then heat the water in the boiler and the resulting steam would be fed to a conventional triple-expansion steam engine. When the submarine submerged the mixture would retain heat, continuing to generate steam, until it solidified. The prototype at Cherbourg was successful enough that Navy Minister
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 ...
opened a competition for submarines that were faster on the surface and with longer range than the preceding on 6 February 1906. Surfaced requirements were for a maximum speed of , a range of without using an auxiliary fuel tank, and a range of with the extra fuel. Submerged, the boats had to have a maximum speed of and a range of at . Four designs were submitted, including Maurice's for ''Charles Brun'', all of which were authorized by the board.


Description

''Charles Brun'' was significantly smaller than the other designs submitted for the competition with 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 a submerged displacement of . The boat 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 a draft of . Her crew numbered 25 officers and sailors.Roberts, p. 445 She had a
test depth Depth ratings are primary design parameters and measures of a submarine's ability to operate underwater. The depths to which submarines can dive are limited by the strengths of their hulls. Ratings The hull of a submarine must be able to withs ...
of and a metacentric height of when surfaced. Like most French submarines of this period, ''Charles Brun'' was fitted with a prominent "walking deck" above her single hull to facilitate operations on the surface. The submarine's hull was divided into seven watertight compartments plus 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 ...
. The boat had three rudders, two below the waterline and the third above the "walking deck" to improve her submerged maneuverability. She had three sets of
diving plane Diving planes, also known as hydroplanes, are control surfaces found on a submarine which allow the vessel to pitch its bow and stern up or down to assist in the process of submerging or surfacing the boat, as well as controlling depth when subm ...
s, fore, aft, and amidships, to control her depth below the water. The hull was fitted with a dozen external
ballast tank A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water, which is used as ballast to provide hydrostatic stability for a vessel, to reduce or control buoyancy, as in a submarine, to correct trim or list, ...
s and three internal tanks, one of which could be used as an auxiliary tank for
fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
. Normally, ''Charles Brun'' had a capacity of of oil, plus another that could be stored in the ballast tank. On the surface, the boat was powered by a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by two pairs of Maurice boilers that had a working pressure of . The engines were designed to develop a total of and a maximum speed of . Submerged, the steam engines could be supplemented by a pair of electric motors using electricity from 120 Tudor batteries.Garier, p. 211 Internally, ''Charles Brun'' was armed with two superimposed torpedo tubes in the bow. Externally, the boat was equipped with two rotating
Drzewiecki drop collar The Drzewiecki drop collar was an external torpedo launching system most commonly used by the French and Imperial Russian Navies in the first two decades of the 20th century. It was designed by Stefan Drzewiecki, a Polish engineer and inventor ...
s below the "walking deck" and two fixed launching frames at the
stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
aimed to the rear.


Construction, trials and subsequent history

''Charles Brun'', named for the naval architect and politician Charles Brun who had worked on the first ,Garier, p. 219 was ordered on 31 December 1906 from the Toulon Naval Base (). She was laid down on 4 April 1908 and was launched on 14 September 1910 and began her trials the following month. Initial testing of her powerplant was plagued by combustion problems that sent a lot of smoke and flames out the
funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...
, but these were resolved before the submarine began her sea trials on 1 June 1911. These were initially limited to performance on the surface and quickly revealed that the boilers produced only of steam compared to the prototype's because Maurice had altered the design of the boilers, reducing the amount of the sodium acetate/potassium mixture by over 20 percent and had changed the spacing of the boiler tubes which concentrated their heat in the center of the mixture rather than distributing it evenly throughout. Despite these issues, ''Charles Brun'' reached a speed of from on 21 May 1913 and had a range of at .Garier, pp. 213–215 Submerged maneuverability of the boat was evaluated on 12 January 1912 and her turning radius ranged from compared to the of the ''Pluviôse'' class. The submarine made her deepest dive () on 10 October and operation of the powerplant and her habitability underwater was judged acceptable. Her speed and range while submerged was found to be totally inadequate: she reached a speed of , but could only sustain it for 10 minutes, and had a range of at versus the requirement for 100 nautical miles. Even using the electric motors, her underwater endurance could not be extended beyond about three hours because the Maurice boilers worked best when used at a high rate in a relatively short period. The Navy's Test Commission () assessed ''Charles Brun'' as unsuitable for active service with the fleet after her trials were concluded in August 1913 and began condemnation proceedings on 20 October after rejecting a proposal to replace the forward boiler with batteries taken from a decommissioned . Beginning in January 1914, her hull was stripped of most of her equipment, her engines were reused in the gunboat , and then ballast was added so it could be used in testing floating drydocks. When the First World War began in August, her conversion into a water tank for the naval base in
Bizerte Bizerte or Bizerta ( ar, بنزرت, translit=Binzart , it, Biserta, french: link=no, Bizérte) the classical Hippo, is a city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia. It is the northernmost city in Africa, located 65 km (40mil) north of the cap ...
, French Tunisia, was proposed, but could not be performed because of stability issues from the earlier work. A contract was issued to Chantiers et Ateliers de Provence on 1 July 1916 to convert the hull into a water tank at their
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
in
Port de Bouc Port-de-Bouc (; oc, Lo Pòrt de Boc) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Population See also *Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône department The following is a list of the 119 communes of the Bouches-du-Rhà ...
. The hull was there in September, but the conversion was probably not performed because she was listed as a submarine hull when she was finally struck from the navy list on 7 June 1920. The boat was listed for auction on 13 November, but did not sell. It was sold to M. Saglia for 11,000 francs on 30 December and subsequently scrapped.


See also

* List of submarines of France


References


Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Charles Brun 1910 ships Submarine classes