Gustave Zédé (1825–1891) was a French naval engineer and pioneering designer of

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

Early life

He was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in February 1825. After studying at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

in November 1843 he qualified in 1845 as a marine engineer and went to work at the Brest Naval Dockyard.

Career

By 1863 he was chief engineer in charge of shipbuilding under the direction of Henri Dupuy de Lôme, and under his leadership Zédé helped design and build , the first practicable

, which was launched in 1880. In 1877 Zédé had become Director of Naval Construction, but in 1880 he left to be a director of the

Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée The ''Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée'' (FCM) was a French shipbuilding company. The ''Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée'' was founded in 1853 by Philip Taylor (civil engineer), Philip Taylor and ...

, a shipyard at

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

. In 1880 he started planning the construction of , a larger version of ''Gymnote'' and France's (and one of the world's) earliest commissioned naval submarines. ''Sirène'' was ordered by the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

in 1890, and launched in 1893. After Zédé's death the submarine was renamed in his honour. Gustave Zédé died on 26 April 1891, from an explosion that occurred while he was testing the propulsion system for a new

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

Recognition

*In 1866 Zédé was made an Officier ("Officer") of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

*The French Navy has named for four ships after Zédé; two submarines and two surface ships *There are streets named for Zédé in Paris, Brest and

Lanester Lanester (; ) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany, in north-western France. It is the largest suburb of the city of Lorient, across the river Scorff to the east. Demographics Inhabitants of Lanester are called ''Lanestérien ...

, in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

Notes

References

Gustave Zédé at netmarine
(French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Zede, Gustave 1825 births 1891 deaths École Polytechnique alumni French naval architects Submarine pioneers

Early life

Career

Recognition

See also

Notes

References