Gueydon-class cruiser
Introduction The '''''Gueydon''-class cruiser''' was a three-ship class of armored cruisers built in the first decade of the twentieth century for the French Navy ().
Design and description Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1906Designed by the naval architect Emile Bertin, the ''Gueydon''-class ships were intended to be smaller and cheaper than the preceding armored cruiser design, . Like the older ship, they were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the ''Jeune École''. The ships measured  long overall with a beam of  and had a maximum draft of . They displaced . They had a crew of 566 officers and enlisted men.The ''Gueydon'' class had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. Steam for the engines was provided by 20 or 28 boilers and they were rated at a total of  that gave them a speed of . The ships carried up to  of coal and could steam for  at a speed of .The ships of the ''Gueydon'' class had a main armament that consisted of two 40-caliber  guns that were mounted in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised eight 45-caliber quick-firing (QF)  guns in casemates. For anti-torpedo boat defense, they carried four 45-caliber QF  guns on the forecastle deck, ten QF  and four QF  Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with two submerged  torpedo tubes.The Harvey armor belt of the ''Gueydon''-class cruisers extended from  below the waterline to the main deck. It reached the upper deck for a length of  from the bow and covered the entire length of the ship except for  of the stern where it ended in a transverse bulkhead  thick. The lower strake of armor was generally  thick, although it reduced to  forward,  aft, and thinned to  at its lower edge. The upper strake of armor had thicknesses of  and  between the main and upper decks.The curved lower protective deck ranged in thickness from 2 to 2.2 inches. In addition there was a light armor deck  thick at the top of the lower armor strake. A watertight internal cofferdam, filled with cellulose, stretched between these two decks. The gun turrets were protected by  armor and had roofs  thick. Their ammunition hoists had 2 inches of armor and the 100-millimeter guns were protected by gun shields. The sides of the conning tower were 160 millimeters thick. The forward end of the casemate compartment was closed off by a  bulkhead and a  bulkhead extended down to the lower deck at the rear end of the compartment.
Ships + Construction dataNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissionedFateArsenal de Lorient 13 August 1898 20 September 1899 1 September 1903 Sunk by aircraft, 27 August 1944Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer27 September 189827 March 1900 20 March 1902 Sunk by aircraft, 16 August 1944Arsenal de Toulon 17 April 1899 5 July 190128 August 1905 Torpedoed and sunk by , 8 August 1918
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