French destroyer Surcouf (D621)

Surcouf was a T 47-class destroyer of the French Navy. She was the fourth French ship named in honour of Robert Surcouf.

Design and construction
Laid down in February 1951 at Lorient and launched in October 1953, Surcouf was commissioned into the French Navy in 1955. She was the first of 12 T 47-class destroyers. With a standard displacement of 2,750 tons and a length of 128.6 metres, the ship had a beam of 12.7 metres and a draught of 5.4 metres. Her armament consisted of six 127-mm guns which were mounted in three twin turrets, six 57-mm guns in twin mounts and four single-mounted 20-mm guns. There were four banks of three 550-mm torpedo tubes, capable of launching both anti-submarine homing and anti-ship torpedoes. Surcouf had two shafts, geared turbines, and four boilers, which were capable of producing 63,000 horsepower and a top speed of 34 knots. At 18 knots, Surcouf had a range of 5,000 nautical miles. The ship had a complement of 347 personnel.

Operational service
Following her commissioning in 1955, Surcouf homeport was Brest, however, this was changed in 1961 to Toulon. In 1956, Surcouf took part in Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis. On 26 March 1960, Surcouf was accidentally rammed by the cargo ship Léognan off Groix. In March 1962, during the Algerian War, Surcouf was ordered to shell the Bab el-Oued quarter of Algiers. The ship's captain, Capitaine de frégate Picard-Destelan, refused to obey the order.

Surcouf was converted to a command ship in the early 1960s, with the forward 57mm mount being removed to allow the bridge to be extended forward.

On 6 June 1971, in the Mediterranean 60 mi south of Cartagena, Spain, as she sailed with the group of the Arromanches, Surcouf was again rammed accidentally when she cut across the bow of the Soviet tanker General Busharov before sunrise. The tanker, six times heavier than the destroyer, could not avoid the collision and rammed Surcouf at 16 knots. Nine men from Surcouf were lost at sea and one was severely burned (he later died of his wounds). When the French destroyer Tartu attempted to tow the badly damaged ship, Surcouf snapped in two, the bow sinking quickly. The aft part was taken in tow to Toulon via Cartagena.

She was eventually sunk as a target by an Exocet anti-ship missile after being decommissioned on 5 May 1972.

The lieutenant de vaisseau who was on watch at the time of the accident was sentenced to six months of prison on parole and discharged from the Navy without retirement. But he was kept in reserve cadres of the Navy, where he graduated with the rank of Capitaine de frégate (reserve).