French pre dreadnought battleship Voltaire 1907-1950

Danton-class

Courbet-class

Of the Danton-class consisting of the Condorcet, Danton, Diderot, Mirabeau, Vergniaud and Voltaire. Laid down at the F.C. de la Méditerraneée, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France on 8 June 1907, launched on 16 January 1909, completed on 1 August 1911, commissioned on 5 August 1911, survived the two hits from torpedoes fired by the German submarine UB-48 off the island of Milos on 10 October 1918, modernized 1922-1925, training ship since 1927, condemned on 17 March 1937, scuttled in the Quiberon Bay to be used as a target for a longer period of time on 27 May 1938, wreck sold in December 1948 and breaking up started in March 1950.

Preceded by the Liberté-class and succeeded by the Courbet-class. Due to the huge number of changes of the original design and lacking decisions of the French minister of navy Gaston Thomson (29 January 1848, Oran, French Algeria-14 May 1932 Bône, Algeria) in time caused a serious delay in realizing the class. General technical specifications of this class. Displacement 18.754 tons/18.458 long tons (normal)-19.763 tons/19.451 long tons (deep load) and as dimensions 145 (on waterline)-146,6cm (over all) x 25,8 x 8,44 metres or 475.9-481.0 x 84.8 x 27.8 feet. The 4 License built Parsons steam turbines and 26 coal-fired Belleville or Niclausse water tube-boilers supplied via 4 shafts 22.500 shp allowing a speed of 19,25 (design)-19,7/20,66 (trials) knots and with a speed of 12 knots and a maximum coal bunker capacity of 2.027 tons/1.995 tons varied the range between 3.120-4.866 nautical miles. The range was nearly the half of the preceded classes caused by the worse economical fuel consumption of the turbines at low speeds. The crew numbered 915 men if she served as flagship otherwise 852 men. The armour with a weight of 6.725 tons which was 36% of their displacement consisted of a 18-25cm/7.1-9.8” thick belt, a 4,5-7cm/1.8-2.8” thick deck and with the main gun turrets, secondary turrets and conning tower protected by respectively 26-34cm/10.2-13.4”, 18,8-22,5cm/7.4-8“ and 21,6-26,6cm/8,5-1’.5” thick deck. The armament consisted of 2x2-30,5cm/12”/45 Modèle 1906 guns, 6x2-24cm9.4”/50 Modèle 1902 guns, 16x1-7,5cm/3.0”/65 Modèle 1908 Schneider guns, 10x1-4,7cm/1.9“ Hotchkiss guns and 2-45cm/17.7” submerged torpedo tubes (each broadside 1).