''Montcalm'' was a

armoured cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...

built for the

French Navy The French Navy (, , ), informally (, ), is the Navy, maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the four military service branches of History of France, France. It is among the largest and most powerful List of navies, naval forces i ...

in the 1890s. The ship saw service during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in the Pacific. Following the war, ''Montcalm'' was used as an

accommodation ship A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...

. In 1934, the vessel was renamed ''Trémintin'' and was sunk during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by British aircraft.

Design and description

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

Emile Bertin, the ''Gueydon''-class ships were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the Jeune École. They measured long overall with a beam of and had a draught of . ''Montcalm'' displaced . The ship had a crew of 566 officers and enlisted men.Campbell, p. 305 The ''Gueydon'' class had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. Steam for ''Montcalm''s engines was provided by 20 Normand Sigaudy 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 .Silverstone, p. 79 The ships of the ''Gueydon'' class had a main armament that consisted of two 40-

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...

guns that were mounted in single

gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...

s, one each fore and aft of the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. Their secondary armament comprised eight 45-caliber quick-firing (QF) guns in

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" ...

s. For anti-

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

defense, they carried four 45-caliber QF guns on the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...

deck, as well as ten QF and four QF Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with two submerged

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s. The Harvey armor belt of the ''Gueydon''-class cruisers covered most of the ships' hull. The lower

strake On a vessel's Hull (watercraft), hull, a strake is a longitudinal course of Plank (wood), planking or Plate (metal), plating which runs from the boat's stem (ship), stempost (at the Bow (ship), bows) to the stern, sternpost or transom (nautica ...

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 51 to 56 millimetres. In addition there was a light armor deck thick at the top of the lower armor strake. A watertight internal

cofferdam A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out or drained. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for constru ...

, filled with

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of glycosidic bond, β(1→4) linked glucose, D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important s ...

, stretched between these two decks. The gun turrets were protected by armor and had roofs thick. The 100-millimetre guns were protected by gun shields and the sides of the

conning tower A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armoured, from which an officer in charge can conn (nautical), conn (conduct or control) the vessel, controlling movements of the ship by giving orders to those responsible for t ...

were 160 millimetres thick.

Construction and career

Laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at their La Seyne-sur-Mer shipyard on 27 September 1898, she was launched on 27 March 1900 and was commissioned on 24 March 1902, before completing her trials, to ferry the President of the Republic,

Émile Loubet Émile François Loubet (; 30 December 183820 December 1929) was the 45th Prime Minister of France from February to December 1892 and later President of France from 1899 to 1906. Trained in law, he became Mayor (France), mayor of Montélimar, w ...

, to Russia. Later that year she was commissioned for service in China. After the outbreak of World War I, ''Montcalm'' supported in the Australian capture of

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province ...

in September 1914.Details in the Australian Official History of the 1914-18 War, Volume Ten. There was some comment on the profile of the ship, bows and stern sections effectively identical, it being thought that this was an attempt to confuse enemy range-finders. She was decommissioned and hulked as an

on 28 October 1926. The ship was renamed ''Trémintin'' on 26 September 1934. She was at Brest in 1940 and was there sunk by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

on 16 August 1944.Silverstone, p. 105

Notes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montcalm (1900) Gueydon-class cruisers 1900 ships Ships built in France World War I cruisers of France Naval ships of France captured by Germany during World War II Ships sunk by British aircraft Maritime incidents in August 1944