French_destroyer_Baliste
French destroyer Baliste
Arquebuse-class destroyer built for the French Navy
Baliste was a Arquebuse-class destroyer contre-torpilleur d'escadre built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed in 1904, the ship was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord).
A postcard of Baliste underway in harbor | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Baliste |
| Namesake | Ballista |
| Ordered | 1901 |
| Builder | Ateliers et Chantiers de Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire |
| Laid down | 1901 |
| Launched | 22 October 1903 |
| Stricken | 30 October 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Arquebuse-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 357 t (351 long tons) (deep load) |
| Length | 56.58 m (185 ft 8 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 6.38 m (20 ft 11 in) |
| Draft | 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in) (deep load) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
| Range | 2,300 nmi (4,300 km; 2,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 4 officers and 58 enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
The Arquebuse class was designed as a faster version of the preceding Durandal class. The ships had an overall length of 56.58 meters (185 ft 8 in),[1] a beam of 6.3 meters (20 ft 8 in), and a maximum draft of 3.2 meters (10 ft 6 in).[2] They normally displaced 307 metric tons (302 long tons) and 357 t (351 long tons) at deep load. The two vertical triple-expansion steam engines each drove one propeller shaft using steam provided by two du Temple Guyot or Normand boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of 6,300 indicated horsepower (4,700 kW)[1] for a designed speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph),[3] all the ships exceeded their contracted speed during their sea trials[1] with Baliste reaching a speed of 29.9 knots (55.4 km/h; 34.4 mph). They carried enough coal to give them a range of 2,300 nautical miles (4,300 km; 2,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[4] Their crew consisted of four officers and fifty-eight enlisted men.[1]
The main armament of the Arquebuse-class ships consisted of a single 65-millimeter (2.6 in) gun forward of the bridge and six 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns in single mounts, three on each broadside. They were fitted with two single rotating mounts for 381-millimeter (15 in) torpedo tubes on the centerline, one between the funnels and the other on the stern.[1]
Baliste (Ballista) was ordered from Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët on 29 May 1901 and the ship was laid down on 20 November 1902 at its shipyard in Rouen-Grand Quévilly. She was launched on 22 October 1903 and conducted her sea trials from December to June 1904. The ship was commissioned (armement définitif) after their completion and was assigned to the Northern Squadron.[5]
By 1908, Baliste was serving in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Northern Squadron.[6]
In October 1914, Baliste was employed on patrols off the western end of the English Channel.[7] Later in the war she was based at Bizerte and then Salonika. She was stricken and sold for scrap on 30 October 1919.[8]
- Roberts 2021, p. 377
- Couhat 1974, p. 86
- Stanglini & Cosentino 2022, p. 227
- Couhat 1974, pp. 86–87
- Roberts 2021, p. 379.
- Garbett 1908, p. 862.
- Couhat 1974, p. 89
- Couhat, Jean Labayle (1974). French Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0445-5.
- Garbett, H., ed. (June 1908). "Naval Notes: France". Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. LII (364). London: J. J. Keliher & Co.: 861–864. OCLC 1077860366.
- Monograph No. 24: Home Waters: Part II.: September and October 1914 (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. XI. Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1924.
- Prévoteaux, Gérard (2017). La marine française dans la Grande guerre: les combattants oubliés: Tome I 1914–1915 [The French Navy during the Great War: The Forgotten Combatants, Book I 1914–1915]. Collection Navires & Histoire des Marines du Mond. Vol. 23. Le Vigen, France: Éditions Lela presse. ISBN 978-2-37468-000-2.
- Prévoteaux, Gérard (2017). La marine française dans la Grande guerre: les combattants oubliés: Tome II 1916–1918 [The French Navy during the Great War: The Forgotten Combatants, Book II 1916–1918]. Collection Navires & Histoire des Marines du Mond. Vol. 27. Le Vigen, France: Éditions Lela presse. ISBN 978-2-37468-001-9.
- Roberts, Stephen S. (2021). French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-4533-0.
- Stanglini, Ruggero & Cosentino, Michelle (2022). The French Fleet: Ships, Strategy and Operations, 1870-1918. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5267-0131-2.