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Career (France)
Name: Namesake: Builder: Laid down: Launched: Commissioned: Homeport: Fate: Bouvet Franois Joseph Bouvet Lorient, France, Charles Ernest Huin 16 January 1893 27 April 1896 June 1898 Toulon Sunk during operations off the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915
General characteristics
Type: Displacement: Length: Beam: Draft: Propulsion: Pre-dreadnought battleship 12,007t (11,817 long tons; 13,235 short tons) 117.81m (386.5ft) 21.39m (70.2ft) 8.38m (27.5ft) 3 triple-expension steam engines 32 Belleville boilers 15,000ihp (11,000kW) 18kn (33km/h; 21mph) Peacetime: 666 Wartime: 710 2 305 mm/45 Modle 1893 guns 2 274mm/45 Modle 1893 guns 8 138mm/45 Modle 1888 guns 8 100mm (3.9in) guns 12 1.5kg guns 2 450mm (18in) torpedo tubes Belt: 460mm (18in) Turrets: 380mm (15in) Conning tower: 305mm (12.0in)
Armor:
Bouvet was an pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy. She was laid down in January 1891, launched in April 1896, and completed in June 1898. She was a member of a group of five broadly similar battleships, along with Charles Martel, Jaurguiberry, Carnot, and Massna, which were ordered in response to the British Royal Sovereignclass. Like her half-sisters, she was armed with a main battery of two 305mm (12.0in) guns and two 274mm (10.8in) guns in individual turrets. She had a top speed of 17.8kn (33.0km/h; 20.5mph). Bouvet spent the majority of her career alternating between the Northern and Mediterranean Squadrons. At the outbreak of World War I, she escorted troop convoys from North Africa to France. She then joined the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a major attack on the Turkish fortresses in the straits on 18 March 1915. During the attack, she was hit approximately eight times by shellfire, though did not suffer fatal damage. She struck a mine at around 3:15, and sank within two minutes; only some 50 men were rescued from a complement of 710. Two British battleships were also sunk by mines that day, and the disaster convinced the Allies to abandon the naval campaign in favor of an amphibious assault on Gallipoli.
Design
Bouvet was the last member of a group of five battleships built to a broadly similar design, but different enough to be considered unique vessels. The first ship was Charles Martel, which formed the basis for Bouvet and three other ships.[1] Design specifications were identical for each of the ships, but different engineers designed each vessel. The ships were based on the previous battleship Brennus, but instead of mounting the main battery all on the centerline, the ships used the lozenge arrangement of the earlier vessel Magenta, which moved two of the main battery guns to single turrets on the wings. The five ships were built in response to the British Royal Sovereign-class battleships.[2]
Service history
Bouvet was laid down in Lorient on 16 January 1893, and launched on 27 April 1896. After completing fitting-out work, she was commissioned into the French Navy in June 1898.[1] In 1903, Bouvet was replaced in the Mediterranean Squadron by the new battleship Suffren; she in turn replaced the old ironclad battleship Dvastation in the Northern Squadron. The Squadron remained in commission for only six months of the year.[3] During the annual fleet maneuvers in JulyAugust 1903, Bouvet served as the flagship of Admiral Gervais, the neutral observer for the simulated battles.[4] During the maneuvers off Golfe-Juan, the battleship Gaulois accidentally rammed Bouvet on 31 January 1903, though both vessels emerged largely undamaged.[5] By 1906, Bouvet had returned to the Mediterranean Squadron, which was under the command of Vice Admiral Touchard.[6] Following the Bouvet in the Dardanelles eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Naples in April 1906, Bouvet and the battleships Ina and Gaulois aided survivors of the disaster.[5] The annual summer fleet exercises were conducted in July and August; during the maneuvers, Bouvet nearly collided with the battleship Gaulois again.[6] She was assigned to the Second Squadron of the Mediterranean Squadron by 1908; she was retained on active service for the year, but with a reduced crew.[7]
Bouvet capsized and sank in about two minutes. The ship was in poor condition at the time due to her age, which likely contributed to her rapid sinking, though there was some speculation that her ammunition magazine exploded.[1] The destruction of the ship caught the Allies by surprise; her loss came during the height of the bombardment. Torpedo boats and other smaller vessels rushed to pick up survivors, but they rescued only a handful of men.[13] From her complement of 710 men, some 660 were killed in the sinking.[1]
Despite the sinking of the Bouvet, the first such loss of the day, the British remained unaware of the minefield, thinking the explosion had been caused by a shell or torpedo. Subsequently two British pre-dreadnoughts, Ocean and Irresistible, were sunk and the battlecruiser Inflexible were damaged by the same minefield. Suffren and Gaulois were both badly damaged by coastal artillery during the engagement.[11][14] The loss of Bouvet and two other British battleships during the 18 March attack was a major factor in the decision to abandon a naval strategy to take Constantinople, and instead opt for the Gallipoli land campaign.[10]
Footnotes
[1] Gardiner, p. 294 [2] Ropp, p. 223 [3] Brassey (1903), pp. 57, 60 [4] Brassey (1903), p. 148 [5] Caresse (2012), pp. 12228 [6] Brassey (1907), p. 103 [7] Palmer, p. 171 [8] Corbett, pp. 160, 214, 218 [9] Caresse (2010), pp. 2122 [10] Tucker, p. 524 [11] Griffiths, p. 84 [12] Tucker, p. 463 [13] The European War, p. 219 [14] Gardiner, p. 295
References
Brassey, Thomas A., ed. (1903). Brassey's Naval Annual (Portsmouth, UK: J. Griffin & Co.). Brassey, Thomas A., ed. (1907). Brassey's Naval Annual (Portsmouth, UK: J. Griffin & Co.). Caresse, Philippe (2010). "The Drama of the Battleship Suffren". In Jordan, John. Warship 2010. London: Conway. pp.926. ISBN978-1-84486-110-1. Caresse, Phillippe (2012). "The Battleship Gaulois". In Jordan, John. Warship 2012. London, UK: Conway. ISBN978-1-84486-156-9. Corbett, Julian (1997). Naval Operations. History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents II (reprint of the 1929 second ed.). London, UK: Imperial War Museum in association with the Battery Press. ISBN1-870423-74-7. Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 18601905. Greenwhich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN978-0-8317-0302-8. Griffiths, William R. (2003). The Great War. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers. ISBN0757001580. Palmer, W., ed. (1908). Hazell's Annual (London, UK: Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ltd.). Ropp, Theodore (1987). Roberts, Stephen S., ed. The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy, 18711904. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN978-0-87021-141-6. The European War: AprilJune 1915 (New York, NY: The New York Times Company) III. 1917.
French battleship Bouvet Tucker, Spencer, ed. (2005). World War I: A - D., Volume 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN1851094202. Coordinates: 400115N 261630E (http:/ / tools. wmflabs. org/ geohack/ geohack. php?pagename=French_battleship_Bouvet¶ms=40_01_15_N_26_16_30_E_region:TR_source:frwiki)
License
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