French cruiser Descartes

Plan and profile drawing of the Descartes class

In response to a war scare with Italy in the late 1880s, the French Navy embarked on a major construction program in 1890 to counter the threat of the Italian fleet and that of Italy's ally Germany. The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire. The Descartes class—Descartes and Pascal—was ordered to as part of the program.[1][2]

Descartes was 96.32 m (316 ft) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 12.98 m (42 ft 7 in) and a draft of 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in). She displaced 3,960 long tons (4,020 t). Her crew varied over the course of her career, and consisted of 383–401 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by sixteen coal-burning Belleville-type water-tube boilers that were ducted into two funnels. Her machinery was rated to produce 8,500 indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) for a top speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph).[3] She had a cruising radius of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 19.5 knots.[4]

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 164 mm (6.5 in) guns. They were placed in individual sponsons clustered amidships, two guns per broadside. These were supported by a secondary battery of ten 100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons, casemates, and individual pivot mounts. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and four 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder guns. She was also armed with two 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes in her hull above the waterline. Armor protection consisted of a curved armor deck that was 30 to 60 mm (1.2 to 2.4 in) thick, along with 70 mm (2.8 in) plating on the conning tower.[3]

Descartes was built by the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire shipyard in Nantes;[3] she was ordered on 29 August 1892 and her keel was laid down in late January 1893.[5] She was launched on 27 September 1894,[6] began sea trials in May 1896,[7] and was completed that July. During her initial trials, Descartes reportedly reached a top speed of 21.8 knots (40.4 km/h; 25.1 mph). The ship was found to suffer from stability problems and had to receive additional ballast to correct the problem.[3] She was commissioned in 1896, and in January 1897 was deployed to the colony of French Indochina in Southeast Asia, where she joined the old ironclad Bayard, the protected cruiser Isly, and the unprotected cruiser Eclaireur.[8][9] With the beginning of the unrest in 1898 that led to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China, many European colonial powers began to reinforce their naval forces in East Asia. The French squadron was accordingly strengthened by Descartes's sister ship Pascal, Jean Bart, and the unprotected cruiser Duguay-Trouin; the latter two replaced Isly and Eclaireur.[10]

Descartes remained in East Asian waters in 1899, along with Pascal and Duguay-Trouin, though Jean Bart was recalled home.[11] On 25 October 1900, an accidental propellant fire occurred aboard Descartes, part of a series of fires that resulted from unstable Poudre B charges.[12] Descartes and Pascal had been deployed to East Asia by January 1901 as part of the response to the Boxer Uprising; at that time, seven other cruisers were assigned to the station in addition to the two Descartes-class ships.[13] In 1902, she was assigned to the North Atlantic station, serving with the cruisers D'Estrées, Suchet, and Tage.[14] By 1905, Descartes had returned for another tour in the Far East.[15] She remained there through 1907, by which time the unit consisted of the large protected cruiser D'Entrecasteaux, the armored cruisers Bruix and Chanzy, and the smaller protected cruisers Alger and Catinat. During the year, Descartes was detached from the main squadron to patrol the East Indies,[16] based in Madagascar. She returned to France later that year for service with the Mediterranean Squadron,[17] but upon being recommissioned at Toulon on 5 December, she was assigned to the newly created 3rd Division of the Northern Squadron, along with the cruiser Chasseloup-Laubat and the armored cruiser Kléber.[18]

In 1914, Descartes was assigned to the Division de l'Atlantique (Division of the Atlantic), along with the armored cruiser Condé and the protected cruiser Friant. Descartes and Condé had been at Veracruz, Mexico, on 30 July when they were recalled home as World War I broke out in Europe. The declaration of war between France and Germany on 4 August interrupted these plans, and the next day, the French ships were assigned to the British 4th Cruiser Squadron to join the unsuccessful hunt for the German light cruiser SMS Karlsruhe, which was known to be in the area.[19] She patrolled the West Indies from 1914 to 1917; during this period she was involved in two collisions with merchant vessels. The first was with the Spanish freighter Telesfora and the second was with the British steamer SS Strathmore. After returning home in 1917, she was placed in reserve in Lorient and was disarmed. Her 164 mm guns were converted for use by the French Army, while the 100 mm guns were used to arm anti-submarine patrol vessels. Descartes was eventually stricken from the naval register on 10 May 1920. Her ultimate fate is unknown.[6]

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• Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
• Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2019). French Armoured Cruisers 1887–1932. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4118-9.
• Ropp, Theodore (1987). Roberts, Stephen S. (ed.). The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy, 1871–1904. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6.
• "Service Performed by French Vessels Fitted with Belleville Boilers". Notes on Naval Progress. Washington, D.C.: United States Office of Naval Intelligence. 20: 299. July 1901. OCLC 699264868.