Algérie was the last treaty cruiser constructed for the French Navy. Designed and built in response to the Italian's of 8-inch gun cruisers, she was a totally new design and not based on the previous ships. The armoured caisson system used in and was abandoned in favour of a full armoured belt enclosing both the magazines and machinery spaces. She abandoned the unit propulsion system used previously and grouped her boilers forward leading to the reduction to a single funnel. She was one of the first vessels to utilize super heating boilers. Welding was used primarily in place of the normal rivetting in previous vessels. She maintained the same main armament but her secondary guns were increased to 100 mm guns. She served in the Mediterranean Sea after entering service then searched for German surface raiders at the beginning of the war. She was at Toulon, France, at the time of the Armistice and remained there until scuttled in November 1942. Normally major ships of the Marine Nationale were named after famous people or statesmen but instead she was named to honour the 100 years of French colonial rule of Algeria. Design and description Hull and protection Ordered on 15 May 1930, she was laid down on 19 March 1931 as Project C4 with her hull designated as hull no 141 at the Arsenal de Brest. Algérie was launched on 21 May 1932. Her hull was between the perpendiculars with an overall length of and a beam of . At her normal displacement of she had a draught of . Her full load displacement was . Her hull was flush decked with no raised forecastle. Her bridge structure was a tower and no tripod of the earlier ships would be installed. Her protection would be an armoured belt thick made of high tensile 80 kilogram (kg) steel. This belt varied in height from to from the forward main magazines to just aft of the machinery spaces. From the machinery spaces to the end of the after main magazines it was a uniform height of . It extended below the waterline at normal displacement. Each end of the belt was joined by transverse armoured bulkheads of . The deck of the vessel had of the 80 kg steel. The conning tower had sides with a roof. She was the first treaty cruiser to have an extensive underwater protection system against a