French battleship Jauréguiberry

Jauréguiberry was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy (Marine Nationale), launched in 1893. She was one of the class of five roughly similar battleships built in the 1890s, including Masséna, Bouvet, Carnot, and Charles Martel; Jauréguiberry and the latter two are sometimes erroneously referenced as a single class. She was named after Admiral Bernard Jauréguiberry.

Jauréguiberry was in the Mediterranean when World War I began and she spent most of 1914 escorting troop convoys from North Africa and India to France. She supported French troops during the Gallipolli Campaign in 1915 before she became guardship at Port Said from 1916 for the rest of the war. Upon her return to France in 1919 she became an accommodation hulk until 1932. She was sold for scrapping in 1934.

Design and description
The Charles Martel group of battleships all shared the same layout for their main and secondary armament—a design that minimised the cramped upper decks produced by the pronounced tumblehome favoured by French designers, and capitalised on the bulging sides of the vessels. The bow and stern turrets had only a single gun and were placed uncomfortably close to the extremities of the ship in Jauréguiberry because she was some 7 m shorter than the other ships in the group. The single turrets of the secondary armament were mounted on the ship's beam, while the 138 mm guns were mounted in four twin turrets sited symmetrically behind and outboard of the main gun turrets.

General characteristics
Jauréguiberry was 111.9 m long overall. She had a maximum beam of 23 m and a draught of 8.45 m. She displaced 11818 t at normal load and 12229 t at full load. In 1905 her captain described her as an excellent sea-boat and a good fighting ship, although her secondary armament was too light. He also said that she was stable and well laid-out with good living conditions.

Propulsion
Jauréguiberry had two vertical triple expansion steam engines, also built by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée. On trials they developed 14441 ihp and drove the ship to a maximum speed of 17.71 kn. Each engine drove a 5.7 m propeller. Twenty-four Lagraffel d'Allest water-tube boilers provided steam for the engines at a pressure of 15 kg/cm2. She normally carried 750 t of coal, but could carry a maximum of 1080 t. This gave her a radius of action of 3920 nmi at 10 kn.

Armament
Jauréguiberry's main armament consisted of two 305 mm 45-calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1887 guns in two single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. Each turret had an arc of fire of 250°. The guns could probably be depressed to −5° and elevated to 15°. They fired 340 kg projectiles at the rate of 1 round per minute at a muzzle velocity of 780 m/s which gave a range of 12000 m at maximum elevation.

Her secondary armament consisted of two 274 mm Canon de 274 mm Modèle 1887 guns in two single-gun turrets, one amidships on each side, sponsoned out over the tumblehome of the ship's sides. Eight 45-calibre 138 mm Canon de 138.6 mm Modèle 1891 guns were mounted in manually operated twin turrets at the corners of the superstructure with 160° arcs of fire. The guns could depress to -10° and elevate to +25°. They fired 36.5 kg armour-piercing shells at a muzzle velocity of 725 m/s which gave a range of 15000 m at maximum elevation. Their rate of fire was about 4 rounds per minute. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by a variety of light-caliber weapons. Sources disagree on the number and types, possibly indicating changes over the ship's lifetime. All sources agree on four 50-calibre 65 mm (9-pounder) guns. These fired a 4.1 kg shell at a muzzle velocity of 715 m/s. Gibbons and Gardiner agree on twelve, later eighteen, although d'Ausson lists fourteen, 47 mm 40-calibre Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns that were mounted in the fighting tops and on the superstructure. They fired a 1.49 kg projectile at 610 m/s to a maximum range of 4000 m. Their theoretical maximum rate of fire was fifteen rounds per minute, but only seven rounds per minute sustained. Gibbons and Gardiner agree that eight 37 mm Hotchkiss 5-barrel revolving guns were mounted on the fore and aft superstructures, although none are listed by d'Ausson. They fired a shell weighing about 1.1 lb at a muzzle velocity of about 2000 ft/s at a rate of 30 rounds per minute to a range about 3500 yd.

Six 450 mm torpedo tubes were initially fitted. Two each were above water in the bow and stern and one was on each broadside underwater. The above-water tubes were removed during a refit in 1906.

Armour
Jauréguiberry had a total of 3960 t of nickel steel armour; equal to 33.5% of her normal displacement. Her waterline belt ranged from 160 - 400 mm in thickness. Above it was the upper belt that was 120 - 170 mm thick; the thicker portions protecting the above-water torpedo tubes. The 90 mm armoured deck rested on the top of the waterline belt. Her main gun turrets were protected by 280 - 370 mm of armour while her secondary turrets had 100 mm of armour. Her conning tower walls were 250 mm thick.

Service
Jauréguiberry was ordered on 8 April 1891 and laid down that November at Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée in La Seyne-sur-Mer. She was launched on 27 October 1893 and was complete enough to begin her trials on 30 January 1896. A tube in one of her boilers burst on 10 June during a 24-hour engine trial, killing six and wounding three. Two months later she suffered an accident during firing trials of her main armament. She was finally commissioned on 16 February 1897, although the explosion of a torpedo's air chamber on 30 March delayed her assignment to the Mediterranean Fleet until 17 May.

On 20 January 1902 the air chamber of another torpedo exploded, killing one sailor and wounding three. In September she transported the Minister of the Navy to Bizerte. Jauréguiberry was transferred to the Northern Squadron in 1904 and arrived at Brest on 25 March. She was lightly damaged when she touched a rock while entering Brest in fog on 18 July and in another incident her steering compartment was flooded when a torpedo air flask burst between her screws during a torpedo-launching exercise on 18 May 1905. While visiting Portsmouth on 14 August Jauréguiberry ran aground for a short time in the outer harbour. She returned to the Mediterranean Fleet in February 1907 where she was assigned to the Reserve Division, and the following year was reassigned to the Third Division. In 1909 the 3rd and 4th Divisions were reformed into the 2nd Independent Squadron and transferred to the Atlantic in 1910. Beginning on 29 September 1910 her boiler tubes were renewed at Cherbourg. In October 1912 the Squadron was reassigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and a year later, in October 1913, Jauréguiberry was transferred to the Training Division of which she became the flagship in April 1914.

After the start of World War I Jauréguiberry was assigned to escort troop convoys between North Africa and France. She also escorted a convoy of Indian troops in September 1914. She was stationed at Bizerte from December 1914 to February 1915 when she sailed to Port Said to become flagship of the Syrian Division. Jauréguiberry departed Port Said on 25 March for the Dardanelles to replace the pre-dreadnoughts FRENCH BATTLESHIP Suffren and FRENCH BATTLESHIP Bouvet and upon her arrival became the flagship of Admiral Guépratte during the subsequent operations. She provided gunfire support to the troops during the initial landings on 25 April and subsequently until 26 May. She was lightly damaged by Turkish artillery on 30 April and 5 May, but continued to fire her guns as needed.

Jauréguiberry was recalled to Port Said on 19 July and bombarded Turkish-owned Haifa on 13 August. She resumed her role as flagship of the Syrian Division on 19 August. She participated in the occupation of Ile Rouad on 1 September and other missions off the Syrian coast until she was transferred to Ismailia in January 1916 to assist in the defense of the Suez Canal, although she returned to Port Said shortly afterward. Jauréguiberry was refitted at Malta between 25 November and 26 December 1916, returning to Port Said. She landed some of her guns to help defend the Canal in 1917 and was reduced to reserve in 1918.

She arrived at Toulon on 6 March 1919 where she was decommissioned and transferred to the Engineer's Training School on 30 March for use as an accommodation hulk. She was stricken from the Navy List on 20 June 1920, but remained assigned to the Engineer's School until 1932. Jauréguiberry was sold for scrapping on 23 June 1934 for the price of 1,147,000 F.