Construction – 1909 was
laid down at the
La Seyne shipyard on 1 April 1902,
launched on 17 December 1903, and completed on 1 July 1907, several months after the revolutionary British battleship entered service, which rendered the
pre-dreadnoughts like outdated. While was still
fitting-out, the nearby battleship suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion that destroyed the vessel. Her commanding officer attempted to flood the dock holding to put out the inferno by firing one of s secondary guns at the dock gate, but the shell bounced off and did not penetrate it. The dock was finally flooded when Ensign de Vaisseau Jean-Antoine Roux (who was killed shortly afterward by fragments from the ship) managed to open the sluice gates. In May, the ship conducted
sea trials, and on 29 May, a condenser pipe in one of her boilers burst. Several stokers were scalded, and the ship had to return to
Toulon to have the condenser pipe replaced. After entering service, she was assigned to the 1st Division of the
Mediterranean Squadron, along with her sister and , the
flagship of both the division and the squadron. The fleet thereafter embarked on its annual summer maneuvers, which lasted until 31 July. The Mediterranean Squadron joined the Northern Squadron for exercises in the western Mediterranean. On 5 November, replaced as the squadron flagship, hoisting the flag of (
VA—Vice Admiral) Germinet. On 13 January 1908, and the battleships , , , , , and steamed to
Golfe-Juan and then to
Villefranche-sur-Mer, where they remained for more than a month. During this period of training, on 17 March, , , , and conducted shooting training, using the old
ironclad as a
target. In June and July, the Mediterranean and Northern Squadrons conducted their annual maneuvers, this time off
Bizerte. In October, the 1st Division ships, which by then consisted of and steamed to
Barcelona, Spain. The ships were inspected by
King Alfonso XIII, who boarded during the visit. By 5 January 1909, Germinet had been replaced by
VA Fauque de Jonquières, following the publication of a letter in which Germinet criticized the fleet's ammunition supply. While in Villefranche, hosted
Albert I, Prince of Monaco during his visit to the port from 18 to 24 February. After his departure, the Mediterranean Squadron conducted training exercises off
Corsica, followed by a
naval review in Villefranche for President
Armand Fallières on 26 April. , , , and the armored cruiser steamed into the Atlantic for training exercises on 2 June; while at sea ten days later, they rendezvoused with , , and the
protected cruiser at
Cádiz, Spain. Training included serving as targets for the fleet's
submarines in the
Pertuis d'Antioche strait. The ships then steamed north to
La Pallice, where they conducted tests with their
wireless telegraphy sets and shooting training in
Quiberon Bay. From 8 to 15 July, the ships lay at
Brest and the next day, they steamed to
Le Havre. There, they met the Northern Squadron for another fleet review for Fallières on 17 July. Ten days later, the combined fleet steamed to
Cherbourg, where they held another fleet review, this time during the visit of Czar
Nicholas II of Russia. , , and departed for Toulon on 17 August and arrived on 6 September.
1910–1914 joined , , , , and for a simulated attack on the port of
Nice on 18 February. During the maneuvers, launched a
torpedo that accidentally hit , damaging her hull and forcing her to put into Toulon for repairs. She then steamed to
Monaco for the opening of the
Oceanographic Museum of Monaco in company with the
destroyers and on 29 March. She then returned for maneuvers off
Sardinia and Algeria from 21 May to 4 June in company with and . Exercises with the rest of the Mediterranean Squadron followed from 7 to 18 June. An outbreak of
typhoid among the crews of the battleships in early December forced the navy to confine them to Golfe-Juan to contain the fever. By 15 December, the outbreak had subsided.
VA Bellue replaced Fauque de Jonquières on 5 January 1911. On 16 April, and the rest of the fleet escorted , which had aboard Fallières, the
Naval Minister Théophile Delcassé, and
Charles Dumont, the
Minister of Public Works, Posts and Telegraphs, to Bizerte. They arrived two days later and held a fleet review that included two British battleships, two Italian battleships, and a Spanish cruiser on 19 April. The fleet returned to Toulon on 29 April, where Fallières doubled the crews' rations and suspended any punishments to thank the men for their performance. and the rest of 1st Squadron and the armored cruisers and went on a cruise in the western Mediterranean in May and June, visiting a number of ports including
Cagliari, Bizerte,
Bône,
Philippeville,
Algiers, and
Bougie. By 1 August, the battleships of the had begun to enter service, and they were assigned to the 1st Squadron, displacing , , and the -class ships to the 2nd Squadron. The fleet held another fleet review outside Toulon on 4 September. Admiral Jauréguiberry took the fleet to sea on 11 September for maneuvers and visits to Golfe-Juan and
Marseille, returning to port five days later. On 25 September, exploded while in Toulon, another French battleship claimed by unstable
Poudre B propellant. Several ships in the harbor were damaged, though emerged unscathed. Despite the accident, the fleet continued with its normal routine of training exercises and cruises for the rest of the year. The 2nd Squadron conducted in maneuvers in April 1912, and on 25 April, and steamed to the
Hyères roadstead for gunnery training. The two ships, joined by , left Toulon on 21 May for a set of exercises held between Marseille and Villefranche; while at sea, the battleship joined them, which had Admiral
Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère and the British
Prince of Wales aboard. Boué de Lapeyrère inspected both battleship squadrons in Golfe-Juan from 2 to 12 July, after which the ships cruised first to Corsica and then to Algeria.
VA de Marolles took command of the 2nd Squadron, hoisting his flag aboard on 6 January 1913. The ships then took part in training exercises off
Le Lavandou. The French fleet, which by then included sixteen battleships, held large-scale maneuvers between Toulon and Sardinia beginning on 19 May. The exercises concluded with a fleet review for President
Raymond Poincaré. Gunnery practice followed from 1 to 4 July. The 2nd Squadron departed Toulon on 23 August with the armored cruisers and and two destroyer
flotillas to conduct training exercises in the Atlantic. While en route to Brest, the ships stopped in
Tangier,
Royan,
Le Verdon, La Pallice, Quiberon Bay, and Cherbourg. They reached Brest on 20 September, where they met a Russian squadron of four battleships and five cruisers. The ships then steamed back south, stopping in Cádiz, Tangier,
Mers El Kébir, Algiers, and Bizerte before ultimately arriving back in Toulon on 1 November. The 2nd Squadron ships conducted torpedo training on 19 January 1914, and later that month they steamed to Bizerte, returning to Toulon on 6 February. The squadron visited various ports in June, but following the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the ensuing
July Crisis prompted the fleet to remain close to port, making only short training sorties as international tensions rose.
World War I 1914–1915 Following the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, France announced general
mobilization on 1 August. The next day, Boué de Lapeyrère ordered the entire French fleet to begin raising steam at 22:15 so the ships could sortie early the next day. Faced with the prospect that the German
Mediterranean Division—centered on the
battlecruiser —might attack the
troopships carrying the French Army in North Africa to metropolitan France, the French fleet was tasked with providing heavy escort to the convoys. Accordingly, and the rest of the 2nd Squadron were sent to Algiers, where they joined a group of seven
passenger ships that had a contingent of 7,000 troops from
XIX Corps aboard. While at sea, the new
dreadnought battleships and and the -class battleships and , which took over as the convoy's escort. Instead of attacking the convoys, bombarded Bône and Philippeville and then fled east to the
Ottoman Empire. On 12 August, France and Britain declared war on the
Austro-Hungarian Empire as the war continued to widen. The 1st and 2nd Squadrons were therefore sent to the southern
Adriatic Sea to contain the
Austro-Hungarian Navy. On 15 August, the two squadrons arrived off the
Strait of Otranto, where they met the patrolling British cruisers and north of
Othonoi. Boué de Lapeyrère then took the fleet into the Adriatic in an attempt to force a battle with the Austro-Hungarian fleet; the following morning, the British and French cruisers spotted vessels in the distance that, on closing with them, turned out to be the protected cruiser and the torpedo boat , which were trying to blockade the coast of Montenegro. In the ensuing
Battle of Antivari, Boué de Lapeyrère initially ordered his battleships to fire warning shots, but this caused confusion among the fleet's gunners that allowed to escape. The slower attempted to evade, but she quickly received several hits that disabled her engines and set her on fire. She sank shortly thereafter and the Anglo-French fleet withdrew. The French fleet patrolled the southern end of the Adriatic for the next three days with the expectation that the Austro-Hungarians would counterattack, but their opponent never arrived. On 20 August, the 1st Squadron was sent to replenish fuel at
Malta while and remained on station; , , and had had to withdraw as well, the first two ships having collided and having taken under tow. The French battleships then bombarded Austrian fortifications at
Cattaro on 1 September in an attempt to draw out the Austro-Hungarian fleet, which again refused to take the bait. By this time, and had returned. On 18–19 September, the fleet made another incursion into the Adriatic, steaming as far north as the island of
Lissa; on the return south, several French cruisers inadvertently came within range of the guns at Cattaro, so and opened fire at the guns to suppress them while the cruisers withdrew. The patrols continued through December, when an Austro-Hungarian
U-boat torpedoed , leading to the decision by the French naval command to withdraw the main battle fleet from direct operations in the Adriatic. During this period, the French made Corfu their primary naval base in the area, with Malta serving as a support base where maintenance could be effected. On 21 January 1915, went to
Prováti to rescue the crew from a Greek
steamship that had run aground there. On 18 May,
VA Nicol came aboard , making her his flagship; she then left 2nd Squadron for service with the Dardanelles Division as part of the
Gallipoli Campaign. She steamed to the eastern Mediterranean with the armored cruiser and joined what became the 3rd Battle Division, which also included the battleships , , , , and . On 12 July, supported an assault on the Ottoman forts at
Achi Baba, firing several salvos with her secondary battery before returning to
Mudros for the night. On 2 August, she steamed south to shell
Seferihisar. During this action, a shell detonated in one of her secondary guns, wounding seven men.
1916–1918 Following the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the French transferred the ships of the erstwhile Dardanelles Division to
Salonika, Greece. There, on 5 May 1916, and shot down a German
zeppelin conducting reconnaissance in the area. By June, the French and British had grown weary over the refusal of the Greek King
Constantine I to enter the war on the side of the
Allies, so the French formed the 3rd Squadron, comprising the five - and -class battleships and sent them to Salonika to put pressure on the Greek government. Over the course of June and July, the ships alternated between Salonika and Mudros, and on 9 July, was detached for an overhaul at Toulon. While she was away, the bulk of the French fleet was transferred to
Cephalonia. Having arrived there after completing repairs by 1 September, the ship joined the 3rd Squadron on a patrol to
Keratsini. From there, , , and steamed to the
roadstead off
Eleusis just outside
Athens on 7 October. There, the ships were to take part in an attack on the Greek fleet, with slated to engage the battleship . But the plan was shelved and the French ultimately seized the Greek ships on 19 October. In the meantime, in August, a pro-Allied group launched a coup against the monarchy in the , which the Allies sought to support. contributed men to a landing party that went ashore in
Athens on 1 December support the coup. The British and French troops were defeated by the Greek Army and armed civilians and were forced to withdraw to their ships, after which the British and French fleet imposed a blockade of the royalist-controlled parts of the country. By June 1917, Constantine had been forced to abdicate and the 3rd Squadron was disbanded; and became the Eastern Naval Division and were sent to the eastern Mediterranean. In December, both ships had their center and aft casemate guns removed. The ships spent 1917 largely idle as men were withdrawn from the fleet's battleships for use in anti-submarine warships. On 20 January 1918, the French received word that the battlecruiser (now under the Ottoman flag as ) would sortie, so and prepared for action. The battlecruiser struck several
naval mines, however, and broke off the attack so the French ships remained in port. On 4 July, went to Malta for periodic maintenance, which was completed four days later. She then returned to Mudros, by which time an
influenza outbreak had killed eleven men and made another 475 seriously ill, 150 of whom had to be sent home to recover. was thereafter assigned to the Salonika Division, which was based in Mudros. The ship saw no further action for the remainder of the war, which concluded with the armistices signed with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire in November.
Postwar career Immediately after the end of the war, the French fleet began deploying to the
Black Sea as part of the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. was sent to
Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire, itself wracked with internal collapse and the
Greco-Turkish War. Due to personnel shortages, was reduced to a
barracks ship there. On 5 June 1919, she departed Constantinople and arrived in Toulon by way of Bizerte ten days later. She was assigned to the Training Division on 1 August as a replacement for the armored cruiser . She was transferred to the school for torpedomen and electricians on 19 February 1921. During a gunnery drill on 20 May 1924, a shell exploded in her starboard forward secondary turret, killing eight and wounding five men. Another accident occurred on 3 June when one of the training torpedoes malfunctioned and circled back, striking and punching a hole in the hull. She was decommissioned on 20 June and repairs lasted from 15 August to 15 September. then became a stationary
training ship at
Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, serving in that role until 1936. She was ultimately sold to
ship breakers on 25 September 1937 and
scrapped. == Footnotes ==